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Found 2,460 results

  1. @Rafael Thundercat It's semantics and words that have similar meanings. What you call colonization, and what you described above, contrasting the 2 there, on that later half I refer to and others as a 'soft invasion'. By soft invasion, the other culture assimilates another culture, but through a decades long transformation, slowly changing the original culture in decades and in generations even, in the schooling system, to spreading of religion, to winning small favors here and there, maybe playing the victim to earn sympathy, changing the language, just slow changes over time...until the native majority becomes the minority in several decades. Same tactics were done in Russia and even in China. Of course I am not describing replacement theory, or how the the whites will go extinct as some global elite plans and blah blah. IMO ridiculous theory, it's actually Neoliberals destabilizing the foreign countries which makes immigration much more so, among other factors. In a different context, if you look at 2 crime events, one involves intimidation/threats and even some roughing up, but the 2nd crime is more softer, coercion and blackmail, just soft underhanded methods instead of the violent ones. This is the different between Andrew Tate and some actual serial killer and mass murderer, one's very extreme and the violence is obvious, whilst Andrew's is mostly subtle in how he pimps the girls, how he evades taxes. One's a clear psycho killer, the other a con artist grifter.
  2. @Leo Guracan you clarify in what happened when you tried to capture your transformation to a form of an alien? No one here could take a picture so far in an alternate state where stable hallucinations manifest. I was once close to capture one stable hallucination but I didn't for whatever reason. Up to today I regret about not doing it
  3. Amazon has failed to produce a camera which can record Leo's alien transformation. Such is the spite of the universe. Alternatively, the ever-present non-dualness of the universe is always presently available to be seen and experienced, by any and all cameras. There is no non-dual cockblocking from the universe. All cameras have non-duality built into them by default. Interestingly, I know of schizophrenics who use their phone camera to discern whether what they are hallucinating is physically real or not, and it actually helps them traverse their symptoms. Not a bad tip at all. Some on the forum might benefit.
  4. Let's say you are inside a prison, Psychedelics are like a trampoline, for some moments they let you jump so high you can see outside. Meditation or constant spiritual sadhana is not so exciting, you don´t see much, but slowly you are building a ladder so one day you will jump out of the fence. For most people in the western world where no spiritual tradition has being strong, both are important and complementary. The first is useful to let you see there is a world outside the prison. The second one is as important because is when the work of actually escaping starts. Without the first one there wouldn´t be a motivation to start building the ladder, yet the without the second one all the work would just end in having some experiences or realisations but nothing of real transformation. So jump as high as you can, and once you see all that you need to see, start building the ladder that will get you there for good.
  5. As far as methods to boost spiritual alignment and deepen your experience of psychedelics and life in general, I've found inner body awareness practices to be the most powerful. More specific than experiencing the feeling of your physical body, it's more so a continuous connection with the subtle feeling of your own vital energy. I've known about this practice for many years, but it wasn't until I had a bunch of 5meo experiences that I could suddenly feel the real thing even when sober, which was quite a revelation. The mere act of feeling it is itself transformative, and the deeper the sensation is perceived, the more powerful the transformation. The strength of this practice is in its simplicity. It's non-conceptual, experiential, and in the moment. You make the initial intention to feel it, and then from there you simply just continuously feel it by way of awareness rather than by mind. When done correctly, it's seemingly effortless, and it's more of an uncovering of what's been there all along than an attainment of something new. Consistency in practice at all times is the key to meaningful transformation and growth with the method. The sensation of energy is like a guiding light that can instantly point a chaotic and wayward trip in the proper direction towards a state of being and presence. And of course, it has the same effect when sober. Like anything else though, it gets more familiar and easy the more you do it. If you get too lax in your attention, the full sensation can be difficult to find again for a time. Here's some lines from Eckhart Tolle's book, "Practicing the Power of Now": "To stay present in everyday life, it helps to be deeply rooted within yourself; otherwise, the mind, which has incredible momentum, will drag you along like a wild river. It means to inhabit your body fully. To always have some of your attention in the inner energy field of your body. To feel the body from within, so to speak. Body awareness keeps you present. It anchors you in the Now. The body that you can see and touch cannot take you into Being. But that visible and tangible body is only an outer shell, or rather a limited and distorted perception of a deeper reality. In your natural state of connectedness with Being, this deeper reality can be felt every moment as the invisible inner body, the ani­mating presence within you. So to "inhabit the body" is to feel the body from within, to feel the life inside the body and thereby come to know that you are beyond the outer form. You are cut off from Being as long as your mind takes up all your attention. When this happens - and it happens continuously for most people - you are not in your body. The mind absorbs all your consciousness and transforms it into mind stuff. You cannot stop thinking. To become conscious of Being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind. This is one of the most essential tasks on your spiritual journey. It will free vast amounts of consciousness that previously had been trapped in useless and compulsive thinking. A very effective way of doing this is simply to take the focus of your attention away from thinking and direct it into the body, where Being can be felt in the first instance as the invisible energy field that gives life to what you perceive as the physical body."
  6. While your perspective on the nature of desires and feelings has some merit, it appears to lack a deeper understanding of the fundamental distinctions between material pursuits and spiritual practice. Allow me to gently enlighten you. You assert that both materialistic and spiritual desires are merely tools used to achieve a better feeling, implying that they are fundamentally the same. However, this view oversimplifies the profound differences in intent, process, and ultimate outcomes of these pursuits. The quest for material goods is often rooted in the ego, driven by societal conditioning and external validation. People seek cars, houses, or relationships to bolster their self-image or gain social status. These desires are inherently transient and superficial, tied to the impermanent and often illusory nature of worldly satisfaction. In contrast, genuine spiritual practice aims to transcend the ego and uncover the deeper truths of existence. It's not merely about feeling better but about achieving a state of inner peace, clarity, and liberation from the cycles of desire and aversion. Spiritual seekers aim to understand the nature of the mind and reality itself, moving beyond the fleeting pleasure of sensory experiences. Material pursuits are typically linear and finite. You set a goal, work towards it, and either achieve it or move on to the next desire. The satisfaction derived from these accomplishments is usually short-lived, as you've aptly noted. Spiritual practice, on the other hand, is an ongoing journey of self-discovery and inner transformation. It's a process of shedding layers of ignorance and conditioning, which involves practices like meditation, mindfulness, and ethical living. These practices cultivate a stable, enduring sense of contentment and equanimity that is not dependent on external circumstances. The fulfillment of material desires often leads to a perpetual cycle of seeking, as each attainment leaves you wanting more, never truly satisfying the deeper yearning for lasting happiness. Spiritual practice, however, aims at breaking this cycle. The ultimate goal is not another transient feeling but a profound shift in consciousness. When one realizes the nature of the mind and attains enlightenment, the endless quest for external validation and pleasure ceases. One experiences a lasting sense of peace and fulfillment that is not contingent on external conditions. To compare the desire for a hot car with the desire for spiritual enlightenment is to misunderstand the essence of the spiritual path. True spiritual seekers do not engage in practice to achieve fleeting feelings of joy or peace but to uncover the very root of suffering and transcend it. The feeling of serenity you mention is not the end goal but a byproduct of a much deeper realization. Your argument hinges on the notion that both paths are fundamentally the same because they use thought to achieve a desired feeling. This overlooks the qualitative difference between the transient happiness from material gains and the enduring peace from spiritual realization. The mind's trickery, as you put it, is precisely what spiritual practice seeks to unravel, revealing the mind's true nature and freeing one from its deceptions. In summary, while it is true that both material and spiritual pursuits can involve seeking and the use of thought, their intents, processes, and ultimate outcomes are vastly different. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for appreciating the profound depth of the spiritual journey. Perhaps, with a bit more reflection and deeper inquiry, you too might come to see beyond the superficial similarities and grasp the true essence of spiritual practice.
  7. The Models are just the Intellect Dissecting and trying to Understand it, labels, models, theories, philosophies, writings, blogs, posts on forums, mean nothing is Your inner Experience is low and full of suffering, anxiety, depression etc... I can't tell You how many times I've read somethings on this forum, and from the ppl that post them, thinking oh this person may be on too something, they seem like their on their way to some transformation and perception of higher possibilities, then they post how they are addicted to this that or the other thing, they need advice on nerves, anxiousness, social situations, things of this nature that someone with high levels of Awareness and Experience would never have, boggles my mind...
  8. @Leo Gura does that mean your lifestyle has reduced? - Or you just simply found a way make the same Money every year to keep your desires lifestyle? Is there a place where we use money as a tool for transformation? Rather than growth for the sake of It. Like given that is available what It can offer, why not commit to making a lot without getting Lost in it
  9. Human history has brief times of great transformation that keep becoming more dense and we are just about to enter a whole next level singularity
  10. Acceleration is to speed up the reel of time towards the conclusions we're unconsciously gravitating towards irregardless. I have found much value and understanding in art, at this point art seems more fundamental than philosophy and science, it is the language of creation and its cause, to explore and become. It seems I don't want to forfeit my ego but to experience, transcend and incorporate it. All experience creates karma, without it there is no existence, God is expressing itself through Infinity and becomes its creation in the act of realizing balance between love and autonomy in its own self-exploration. Selflessness is a selfish desire. Everything is selfish since everything is Self. When you interact with another, you're interacting with a different version of yourself that you are unconsciously simultaneously experiencing, you are viewing them through your lenses and can seek to understand them, to enhance their experience is to enhance your own experienced later, but beyond that you become the transformation and energy that you express, when you express compassion you become compassion, find and channel it from within yourself and let it resonate through your being. When you create a story, you become its characters and their differences, you set the stage and consciousness may scale to be the same thing on our layer of actuality. Our own position is one of autonomy but our desires and individuality originate from the collective environment that formed them, in other words, we formed ourselves externally and now enter a feedback loop internally. Pure selflessness is death, it is to fulfill all desires within oneself and seek to do the same for others, but life itself is love, to have desires is to live, our life is chaotic but only because we're learning how to be as consciousness. We're learning to balance desire and autonomy with harmony and love, we're seeking individuality and unity simultaneously, to discover and create and to live, to make our own choices and have our own will, yet we all share the same reality and become it in the process of creating it, further subdividing ourselves into the others that we then experience the environment and difference through, that spawn different conflicting desires we have to learn to navigate. I thought to become whole was to become nothing, but nothing as I understood it is pretty boring, this is perfect.
  11. Yeah, I used to be like most people here, and I still think its a valid approach, just taking what I like from each religion without following the dogma, now I am thinking that each religion can be a vehicle for transformation if applied right, like there are many stages, you can do blue Islam, green Islam, Yellow Islam, etc. until you transcend the religion at some point. Of course, most people take their religion as inheritance, never thinking about it, and take it as absolute truth, they never bother about using it to grow. So here is the correct way to choose a religion: not as absolute truth, but rather, you find the principles and values of the religion right for you, so you can choose it, and follow it wisely as a tool of transformation. All religions have a mystical aspect (Sufism, Hesychasm, Vedanta, Buddhism in general, maybe especially Vajrayana) and they also have a dogmatic aspect This is an MMORPG, choose one of those classes, or choose none and take what you like from each. Since we are talking about Islam, Muhammed said: “Seek the verdict from your heart and follow it, even if thousands of muftis declare verdicts against it.” You are feeling a closeness to Islam (me too recently, as an Arab ex-Muslim), I would say go for it, just stay away from Salafism because they have become mainstream in last 100 years, and don't get attached to the religion or take it as absolute truth. Symbolic interpterion also applies for many things if you go by Ash'ari theology school. If you wanna get into Sufism, start with basics: 1. The Quran 2. Revival of Religious sciences (basics of Islam + Sufism) 3. The bezels of wisdom, Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya (Ibn Arabi, the man) Big books so take your time
  12. Oh my goodness… what a wonderful afternoon and evening in the mountains by a river and a small walk up to have a picnic while the sun was setting… this was very much needed for all of us… three of us are volunteers and getting time away from the property was very necessary for our wellbeing. But anyway…. Let’s see where we left off and continue the thoughts… ok… I see where I left off.. the nonprofit idea and also classes on learning… so yes this would be a possible way to earn some funds for the property, but honestly the value of having classes available and learning from whomever and whatever is around at the time would seem beneficial for anyone… but let’s try to make it more tangible. So already mentioned the cooking classes… but there is a large space that is being used for storage currently… again ideally in my opinion this would be an amazing space for more activity areas and doesn’t have to be on the quiet side of spiritual practices. Using this space for possibly obvious activities as asanas, but many spiritual practices have included dance, music, and singing… so I’d highly encourage this space to do this as well… but of course I’m not going to exclude physical activities where we can get into the flow state… any time we get into the flow state is a spiritual practice regardless of what that is… but I’d love to install a floating floor to help cushion our joints and everything… but we can add activities such as acro yoga, capoeira, the list can go on forever… but also we cannot exclude artistic activities… I get so many messages in this type of flow state.. so it might be in the activities pavilion or inside where the kitchen tables are.. but anyway there are going to be classes. And of course for beginners the flow state doesn’t automatically start when learning… but there are glimpses and if we find something we are enjoying we build up the desire to continue multiple experiences to eventually getting into the flow and truly seeing the value in this state. I’m not certain if there is going to be set classes all the time… of course I feel like some would be staples but I really like the idea of how many interesting people that have come by the temple that have unusual or cool hobbies and passions… so allowing pop up classes to occur just because there’s someone who specializes in an area and would be willing to share. I can really go on and on about classes and examples but haven’t I already done this when I was talking about my nonprofit before? I believe so… if not I feel we get the picture. And I just have to mention that of course there will be kids classes… and empowering children to teach classes as well… children teaching adults I know from experience was extremely beneficial for my growth and understanding. I started teaching adults around 9 to 10 years of age… and that’s been huge for my confidence and ability to understand that regardless of age… we can enhance in skills that adults might not have wanted to so… the multiple experiences in areas doesn’t depend on our age… it depends on our desire and time we’ve put into understanding a specific area. So this helped out definitely not to blindly follow supposed authority figures… even though this did not stop me from giving respect. I don’t think I”m going into this right now… again I feel like I’ve already touched on this in past journal entries. Spiritual practices are not a narrow set of practices that are labeled spiritual… these practices expand far greater than societies definition of what’s spiritual or not… everything is spiritual and so our practices will be diverse… because introducing up to a variety helps us grasp and create in a more expansive way. But also many people haven’t given themselves time to explore what really interests them… but also cost could definitely stop people from trying something out for the first time when we don’t even know if we’d enjoy it or not. So having classes available for people to at least give new activities a try would be beneficial for a community. Classes will also expand into the farm of the ashram too. There are so many people I’ve met here that is interested in permaculture and plants and herbs… on and on.. and why not have a facility to again allow people to explore their ideas and get the chance to get our hands dirty… it’s amazing to get our hands dirty people… haha… but not only for food purposes… but how to regrow plants for reforesting the land… so there’s a scrap yard right next to the property and I was asking a few guys interested in plants… and I asked them… you know… what would be the steps to take to remove any toxic waste that vehicles sitting in a location for years would inevitable leak fluids into the earth… how would we bring the land back to life? And I was happy to hear without hesitation what their ideas are… I don’t know the exact terms they used but there’s companies that can drop of wood chips and scrap branches and trees directly onto property… there’s bacteria or even mushroom species they would use on this location which works miracles in creating healthy soil… and they listed plants that also know how to pull toxins out of the soil… they were projecting a maximum of two years… but they would also suggest to go ahead and plant while this process is happening shortly after they start. They were talking about making forest quickly by consistently chopping off the tops of trees and plants to help them want to grow faster. I asked about different processes I’ve heard about one example about burning the land and using activated charcoal… they suggested that the land known around this areas doesn’t necessarily need more alkaline in it and they would suggest something different.. but they said honestly they don’t know since nature brings in fires around the surround landscape more often than not… so any way… they don’t have the space to do this for themselves… but what if this property could allow them to try these practices out? Again by sharing with the community and also open to have the community share their experience and ideas to implement. I’d assume there will be some areas where it doesn’t go as planned and not being afraid of these moments… because we can actually see what works and what doesn’t so we can continue down the list of alternative solutions… I’d encourage a green house that is functional… there is one but no one uses it through the fall and winter months… only in the spring to prepare for the planting season… I feel like I can go on and on in all these areas.. but I am trying to get to the idea that’s opening up a window to a global community… and there’s just so much I can say about the current location… I’ll just quickly try to finish up this temple so I can get to an insight that I would have never had thought to approach until a few weeks ago… so let’s go to the animals quickly. The main thing that I’d first change is the water quality and storage for the animals. I do not like the containers with standing water… it just too ripe for the wrong bacteria and whatever grows in standing water that we don’t want around our property or inside the animals. This would be a little trickier because ideally I’d like to have station setup to where not only we humans can have wash areas and bathrooms… but installing a pipe system to circulate the water so there’s not any standing water. I’m sure there are solutions already out there… I’m just not familiar with it… this goes more into if I was building a community from scratch and prioritizing how to filter, harvest, store water from rain and snow and integrating it to the system to help water plants, animals, and the entire landscape… but yes I’ve been putting smaller buckets around for them and I just change the water more often then these large vats holding water just because it looks like much cleaner and healthier water for the animals to drink specifically the llamas and cows… the birds have little dishes already for water… and the koi pond already has fountains and waterfalls to circulate the water and as we use gravity fed lines to water the gardens we can pump the well water into topping the water back up again… but specific to this location… there’s definitely opportunities to store water from rain and snow especiallly… I’d think we’d can find was to effectively use it to nurture the property in many ways. But animals themselves are amazing to care for and again if you’re an animal lover we already know all the benefits they afford to be around them. I’m still not certain about the whole separating the herd male to female… I understand regulating the population… but watching these poor guys suffering this spring… I’m like why can’t we allow them to have a little fun… hehe… I know one main reason is not having llamas being born during the winter… I’d suggest for a future project to redesign the barn to have a structure where it can be a shelter from the elements as well. Shelter from the winter and the sun here in Utah… suggesting some type of earthen structure to help regulate temperatures and the use of thermal mass… I’d like that for part of the green house too… but that’s details that I don’t want to get into. Now the birds… hehe.. this is the first time dealing with domesticated birds for me. I”m not certain how I feel about this…hehe… there’s an African Grey who is super sweet but the three Macaws seem grumpy and miserable. Now.. if I was put into their position I wouldn’t be happy either living indoors and cooped up in cages or even aviaries… they have been domesticated to the point that they are capable to fly but they don’t know how or they don’t remember or what’s the use when they don’t have much space. Also I hear having a bird extends their life span to around 80 years old… the oldest bird here is 20… so all of these birds potentially will be here for another 60 years plus… that’s a long time to not live in a more natural setting. Yes we are a sanctuary of sorts… but are we really give them a habitat that allows them to flourish… can domesticated birds be rehabilitated to return to the wild? Or can we train them to fly again? I don’t know but I feel this is a step towards the direction to give them more happiness in their lives. Also wow… I know everything uses the restroom… but it’s messy and it’s everywhere… so I don’t know how beneficial their feces is as a fertilizer… but I thought instead of aviaries in the cabin… what about the green house? Possibly? They are cool but I’d like to really see if the best steps would be a sanctuary or rehabilitation? I don’t know but I’ve been thinking what actually would be best for the animals. This is tricky for me… because I absolutely love them and want to treat them as pets in a way… but what is the more conscious approach? I’d love to brainstorm with people to see what solutions can be brought to the table. I did mention housing already correct? Again probably something not right away… but having more housing options to grow a community ashram would be recommended… obviously the sooner the better. But the community I’d encourage here isn’t so everyone permanently stays on property… I’d still encourage the temporary living still… generally housing available for people sho want to stay two days to two weeks to two months up to two years consecutively… once they hit the two year mark we’d encourage them to get out of the bubble and explore and see what opportunities to gain in this world. If there’s a case they want to return… I’d think they’d have to have a minimum of six months before returning. Details that aren’t official just in a random thoughts sort of way. I could go into the housing deigns as well, but again tonight it feels like I want to not dwell on the details of this property as much… as we can see there are ideas I’d like to introduce… only if the owners were open and willing to see a transformation to their baby… which I”m not certain they would be for or against. Haven’t brought it up so I don’t know. But what I’ve been trying to get to and I think I want to explore more… is this nonprofit idea…. It’s not new to think about a nonprofit, but I’m seeing a window of how I can use a nonprofit to open up to a global community. (Ok… where to begin… I’m going to take a quick break and smoke my pipe for a little bit before I tackle this idea) Ok… after taking the break I feel like I’m going to backtrack a little bit because there one detail I didn’t mention to what has happened when I took a break from journaling which seems to apply because it started to get me into this new idea… I did submit my storytelling application to National Geographic Society. It was by the hair of my teeth to submit it on time because factors played a part on submitting the information online that i didn’t know i was going to run into… anyway… i think I had 9 minutes to spare for the deadline. I still would absolutely love work within their network, but I”m also confident that it’s going to play out with or without their support. The results are supposed to be announced sometime in August… so what is the underlying goal that I was trying to get at in this proposal? I wanted to expand the definition of spirituality and how we define spiritual practices. I wanted to present my approach to show an approach that might not look like it has structure but ultimately it’s not a human way of structure but a structure trusting the universe’s mind beyond human thoughts. I guess I haven’t been able to find a good way of explaining this… but anyway… I was hoping to partner with an organization that has established itself in reputation and sharing diversity and future sustainability for this planet we find ourselves involved with. So again I see this as a spiritual organization even though society or governments wouldn’t label it a spiritual organization… because they value transparency and exploration… I thought this would be an ideal partnership to help show this universal approach to spirituality to expand our mindsets but also possible laws that are currently placed which seem to be limiting exploration into our spirituality. I think I’ve been trying to find a way to work with a system that has so many labels and rules to narrow our definition of what spirituality is and what religion means and what it has to look like in specific areas… as if our human desire isn’t to expand beyond human survival mode into a universal harmony and gratitude of what this reality really is. I feel like there are windows of opportunity to follow these rules but the content that can be shared actually helps assist in expanding these rules to not be so rigid. Geesh writing this out I can see so many people assuming that I’m promoting some type of anarchy… it’s not exactly this but by definition it might seem like that’s what I’m going for… but I’ll try to continue my explanation and we can see if anarchy is what I’m trying to encourage or not. So in a way… finding a way to stay in the parameters of the rules but to demonstrate or show example why the parameters can be expanded. So I’ve been thinking about this ashram.. and there’s so much that flies in and out of my mind… but I thought there’s no way I can be involved with this temple because first of all I’m not a Krishna devotee and this is a ISKON temple. I”m not willing to be a devotee just to help be a steward of this temple and land… but I’d really like to see this place flourish regardless of whatever the label people want to place on things. But since I’ve been here I’ve been noticing some benefits of having a religious organization… of course I’ve been observing for years now and so it’s been seeded way before I came to this location. I mean… when I look at visiting new countries and looking at the visa options… I wish I could come as religious visa but again I’d have to have an established relationship with a specific religion. Again which is something I wasn’t even entertaining before… another seed is having a friend who has been currently trying to create a new religion and listening to the steps he’s having to take to get this religion approved. I love the idea of a nonprofit but I hadn’t considered having a religious nonprofit… because in my conditioning religion had a bad taste in my mouth… because of the examples of religions I’ve been experiencing. But what if participating in a religious nonprofit can open opportunities to be an example of what I feel is more on the lines of spirituality growth and not necessarily through the structure of religions? Now I can wait for our collective to realize that spirituality is just as important as religions… and wait for policies to expand and update… or is there a way to go forward using their definitions to have the opportunity to show a new example? I saw there are many benefits religions seem to have over nonreligious organizations even in the nonprofit sector. In the States by law there is supposed to be a separation of church and state. Where there are still many rules to follow to qualify as a religion; however, there does seem to be room to play because there is somewhat a perceived idea of separation. There’s an extent to too many questions that’s appropriate to ask about religious practices… there’s somehow a line that shouldn’t be crossed…so is that wiggle room? Ok… I’ve briefly started looking into how to submit a 501c nonprofit religious organization and one example I saw this wiggle room is having a doctrine of the history… geesh… let me see if I can get actual wording instead of trying to recall everything accurately… where is that… one moment… So I was looking it up and I found that I was reading about exemption for a church on form 1023 a formal code of doctrine and discipline… for me ideally I’d not want that to be a requirement because literally from my own spiritual growth towards Awakening… i barely ever touched a scripture to be able to elevate spiritually… so I feel this could be a way but for me it was just tangling our minds in theory which is far different from direct spiritual experiences and ultimately spiritual embodiment. I read somewhere that the government couldn’t technically ask to read the doctrine since the separation law thing. But… honestly I was reading a bit and navigating through the IRS… and even noticing that 501c exemption is not the only way to proceed forward… there are religious organizations out here that aren’t exempt status I’m sure. But yes it feels like there’s more to explore. But maybe I can go into my idealistic view yes before I search for the tangible way of approaching this. So since this doctrine thing isn’t really my thing I was thinking about nondenominational and interdenominational. I tend to prefer the term nondenominational but interdenominational applies really well too… hehe… I want to include anyone and everyone… so if I steer towards interdenominational this implies inclusion of multiple religious beliefs… granted it seems that it implies multiple Christian denominations… but what if it includes every religion around the world down to shamanism… and the doctrines are already there and there’s no need to create one which I don’t want to do in the first place.. hehe… wait… how am I going to approach this? There is still research that I want to do to get more direction on how to guide this process… but what has been motivating me to explore further into this option? I find it valuable in my spiritual approach to learn from everyone. When I started to travel to countries outside of the States… I found a spiritual practice that completely amplified and exponentially expanded my consciousness into levels I thought would take decades to achieve. So… yes the ability to travel and get introduced to different spiritual practices around the world I would highly encourage. Even though I found spiritual practices that is highly effective… I’m still getting messages to continue my travels around the world and learn about spiritual practices because there’s always more to elevate into this existence… so variety is healthy. I know I’ve said this before but having the concept of biodiversity in our spiritual practices I feel is super healthy just like nature’s biodiversity nurtures a natural setting to thrive. So there are two examples of religions where I am currently that allows this opportunity to travel around the world specifically for spiritual reasons. In Utah we have the Mormons.. they’ve created this gigantic network of sending their members all over the world for spiritual practices. That’s what I would encourage as well… now the ones who are missionaries that travel are trained to preach and hopefully convert… which obviously isn’t what I would be promoting… hehe… I’m not much of a one way spiritual communicator… I’ve found the word preach hasn’t been giving me a good taste in my mouth as well… hehe. But they also have service missionaries which this approach isn’t necessarily to preach, but to serve in their local communities. I really love this idea. I find myself looking for opportunities to serve wherever I find myself. I’ve joked around with the service missionaries that come to the temple… that I’d love to have the resources that has been given to them… all of these locations that are open to having people volunteer at their locations. So combining the two concepts sounds more in alignment of what I could see as something beneficial to spiritual growth… service missionaries that travel the world and volunteer with the local communities. Not to go and change the new cultures beliefs systems but to be introduced to their practices to see if it can be beneficial or not to include in our personal practices. But again… yes we can use the typical definition of what spiritual practices are… but again through my personal journey I’ve been able to expand past the typical definitions so also encouraging opportunities to immerse ourselves into this new environment as a curious explorers… not with an agenda to accomplish but just allowing expansion opportunities to arise just through pure curious exploration of the culture and the land. Now ideally our intention is to expand into a global community… so going to diverse locations again not to change anyone to become what we are… but to be able to have the diversity exist and actually experience the benefits of community even when we have differences. Differences doesn’t automatically apply as negative or bad… at least it creates interest since its a different approach of viewing reality. At least I’d hope it creates interest… hehe… it would be great if we already had a community established which could be a base where we can get our feet wet… when their our challenges that arise again a community to where we can rest and regroup before giving it another go. But its pretty impressive how the Mormons have been able to build this system… I think I saw there is about 88,000 current missionaries at any given time serving missions in over 400 mission locations… an entire system that helps gets passports and visas… preparation through language education and culture… its pretty cool in my opinion. When looking at the types of visas I always thought it would be cool to have a visa for spiritual purposes because the amount of time that can be spent in this country is far greater than a regular visitors visa. I know the Mormons primarily focus these missions for people under the age of 25, and throughout their lifetime they may participate in possibly two missions. Well… this would be a practice I’d like to implement for all ages… and to do it as many times as we are called to personally. Hmmm… i was just thinking that it’s fairly easy for American Mormons to travel for their missions around the world…. But I don’t know if this applies to Mormons outside of America… is it just as easy for them to travel for missions? I have a Mormon buddy in Peru… I wonder if the access is similar or not? Hmmm… this could be technically be part of the discipline, correct? I know I read things about distinct from existing religions… it’s definitely similar but yet it’s different as well… that’s what I feel like I’m doing is taking traditional religious practices but putting a twist on them and collaborating them together… there’s a lot about global community ideas I was having… but I feel like I’m winding down for the night. It’s getting late again and so we’ll just continue this next time. Good night!
  13. Two approaches to facilitating others: Moving them into a new experience: This tends to be resisted, as it involves taking their current experience "away" in favor of a new one Pushing them into their experience as it is: This requires guiding them through the process of personal discovery, enabling them to generate an experience that more closely aligns with the one you'd like them to have, hopefully in the direction of honesty and transformation
  14. I would say Tolle and many others, are working on the level of Intellect, thoughts and thinking and understanding in that way, its basic stuff, and in this day and age more than likely is needed since ppl are addicted to thinking, thoughts, ideas and intellect, so its a starting point only, realizing You have this thing we call "Ego" and its mechanics and workings works on a basic level, then one can go further and work via the energy system and make real transformation... Tolle and others have no method for this, its mostly just talk and writing books and such, sooner or later is that is not working and one doesn't just have a realization (which can happen), then a method of sorts has to be incorporated...
  15. "Ken Wilber: The downside comes with people that only use psychedelics or drugs and I found that over the years they just become mean. It's somehow just kind of closes them down it's like you keep doing it and you keep doing it you keep doing it it doesn't quite cause the transformation. It can cause a peak experience but generally not a transformative experience and some people like David Deida will say that in order for altered changes of state to contribute to transformation a permanent transformation it has to be basically endogenous and not a exogenous it has to be has your own source People who do that (Psychedelics) the people that do use both (Meditation and Psychedelics) and use it as a sacrament i think an enormous bit out of it." From one year ago: How healthy/smart is disdain for humanity (instead of compassion) if ones holarchic being consists of mainly being human? Did God only create 2-legged-untruthful-bullshit with lacking potential on this planet or what? How about wisdom/awakening AND compassion&love? Integrating higher and lower elements of ones own holarchical being? Not blaming the acorn (humans) that they are not an oak (alien) yet? Leo, did you ever read Wilbers descriptions of healthy growth (transcend & include ones humanity) and unhealthy growth (disassociate & not integrate (aka hate) ones humanity)? A whole book written by Wilber on the unhealthy growth/choices at third tier: Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow. Most possible f***-ups of third tier in one book. Ever read it? Starting to notice that any audience/beings tend to respons to healthy messages? And not to Alien-escapism? Why is that? Some safety mechanism from God almighty? Selling basic healthy growth/transcendence mechanisms by the River
  16. I haven't seen many of your posts, so I don't want to be quick to assign views to you. Is it your opinion that something similar to this doesn't exist? Not the extra bit about peace and not needing anything, but just something called enlightenment itself. Not an end state necessarily, but a spiritual process of transformation. I'm just trying to get an idea of where you're coming from in the argument. It's not totally clear.
  17. Leo the Blackpiller. On a project called "Actualized". A drama in in five acts. Oh my. Act 1: Narrator: What in my view is genetics/Karma is being psychic, seeing Auras, subtle beings, OBEs, and all that stuff. That can't be trained by normies. One either has it or not. Buuuuut training to rest in nondual awakened states? No. Many had to train a lot to get there (called meditation). Sure, some woke up spontaneously. It is called True Being. Every being has it, or better IS it. There are proven ways to access and stabilize that. Meditation for example. Not for every Karma-variant "delivered", but for many achieveable if training in earnest. Yours truly for sure was not extraordinarily gifted and needed over 10 years to get anywhere near anything nondual. But was lucky using a meditation system that got pleasurable quite soon and enabled racking up the 1000s of hours of cutting off the "I/me/mine-bla-bla" sufficiently (many of that in daily life) to get anywhere near awakened nondual impersonal states. Act 2: Narrator: What can be heard in the last weeks from our respected host are frequent expression of suffering, and also being annoyed by being human. If that attitude is not a dissociation (sick form of non-growth/aborted transcendence) and not an differentiation & integration (healthy form of growth/transcendence in Wilber speech), I don't know what is. Wilber, The Religion of the Future. All ways how transcendence/growth can go wrong, and how one can get addicted to 7th haven realms, and how to avoid and correct these, laid on a platter. And now limiting believes and justifications why one can not practice letting go of the separate-self and shutting it off (aka meditation), because... rationalizations like genetics, prodigies, creativity and artistic and other stuff instead of boring meditation and annoying and what not. https://www.actualized.org/insights/profound-quotes-032 https://www.actualized.org/insights/werewolf-boy Leo Gura: "Exceptionally spiritually gifted people are born just like this werewolf boy. And no amount of spiritual practice will give you their abilities. But because all that happens on the inside, people do not see it. So they end up spending their lives trying to emulate someone who is a genetic freak, and of course they end up disappoint with their lack of results or unhappiness in life. Because a werewolf boy has to live differently than normies. And if you as a normie try to live like werewolf boy, you will not be happy because it is not the right fit. This is why above all else in this work you must be true to yourself, to your genetics. Your destiny is in your genetics. But you need to discover what that means, which is no trivial matter." Narrator: Got blackpilled? Got blackpilled! Act 3: Al Swearengen: "That's what life is one vile task after another. Don't get aggravated then the enemy has you by the short hairs." . WbtR: Sorry my friend. https://actualized.org/insights/profound-quotes-032 Narrator: Profound indeed. The Buddha not-en-vogue-long-dead-probably-never-historicaly-existing-gentleman called it dukha. Unsatisfying. A closet-Buddhist in the making? And so much happiness & compassion that there are even dreams of nondual crocodiles biting fellow expressions of his True Infinite Being. Ken Wilber: "Ken Wilber: The downside comes with people that only use psychedelics or drugs and I found that over the years they just become mean. It's somehow just kind of closes them down it's like you keep doing it and you keep doing it you keep doing it it doesn't quite cause the transformation. It can cause a peak experience but generally not a transformative experience and some people like David Deida will say that in order for altered changes of state to contribute to transformation a permanent transformation it has to be basically endogenous and not a exogenous it has to be has your own source People who do that (Psychedelics) the people that do use both (Meditation and Psychedelics) and use it as a sacrament i think an enormous bit out of it." Posted over a year ago: Act 4: Narrator: So, my proposal would be either to rebrand the thing as spiritual-blackpilled.org instead of actualized.org. Or, as alternative, at least not giving the poor folks consuming all of that uncritically limiting believes just because one highflyer got hung up in the seventh-heaventh-with-you-know-what-substances without a way of getting to that blissful estate sobre and in daily life. Leo, sorry for the rant. I wish you really the best, but that self-defeating blackpilling trend (probably generated by severly missing seaventh-heaventh-bliss - which I can understand), pushing it mostly on genetics and prodigy and what not (I would call that at least a bit "Karma" and not only genetics )... I have to testify against it, because for many that "could make it" that constitutes black-pilling & installing limitting believes. And even if a being does not reach Enlightenment in this life, the soul (relative manifestation, but still appearing/same "reality" as everthing else, lasting longer than one life) will carry the transcendence-propensity generated by simply witnessing the mindstream (aka meditation). Same with compassion. Act 5: WbtR: Actualized? Actualized! Selling the drama (5 acts) "Actualized! by the River & throwing the backpills back into the River where the came from" Music while lowering the curtain:
  18. The Psychology Of Being Wrong https://youtu.be/ClZ9B_V63Y4?si=W1b1LONye0srd0N8 "It takes a big man to admit when he is wrong. And I am not a big man." - Chevy Chase, as Fletch "There is no serious growth without admitting you were wrong." Central idea of personal growth: Growth requires the admission of being wrong, and "I was wrong" is a pivotal phrase for personal development. While the concept is simple, the great challenge lies in internalizing this idea deeply enough to effect change. Difficulty of introspection: It's easy to understand the concept of wrongness on a surface level, but the struggle arises in genuinely grasping its power and depth. Long discussions can assist in seeing various applications and avoiding the pitfall of empty theory that leads to no real change in one's mindset or behavior. Mindset transformation: Admission of wrongness isn't just about recognizing false beliefs; it involves realizing the entire approach or attitude toward different aspects of life may be flawed, like relationships, money, or spirituality. Transforming these basic orientations is crucial for growth. Recognizing deep-seated errors: Identifying profound, fundamental wrongs is essential, but difficult due to the ego's resistance and the significant life changes that typically follow such realizations. This includes reassessment of biases, judgments, core beliefs, and sense-making frameworks. Structural challenges of admission: Admitting one's wrongs can be heavily complicated by life's structures, such as professional settings, family dynamics, or personal relationships that prevent honest self-reflection due to potential consequences like loss of income, status, or personal relationships. Technique for confronting wrongness: To effectively confront and remedy wrongness, one must identify errors, face them, hold them in awareness, and explicitly admit to them. This often results in an emotional grieving process but ultimately leads to behavior change and growth. Self-deception and epistemic assumptions: Overcoming self-deception requires more than abstract understanding; it necessitates recognizing where you have deceived yourself and examining the underlying epistemic assumptions that enabled the fallacy, ensuring not to fall into similar traps in other forms. Private acknowledgement: While public admission of wrongs can be valuable, the key is to recognize and admit errors to oneself. This personal admission is what truly matters, as it allows for genuine change and development without the pressure of external validation or judgment. Admission of wrongness: Admitting to being wrong is crucial, but not always necessary to share publicly as it can create an additional burden. Scope of potential wrongness: Topics where one might be wrong include the nature of religion, scientism, political radicalism, diverse political views like abortion and climate change, romantic relationship dynamics, views on the opposite sex, and susceptibility to conspiracy theories. Dealing with past beliefs: Reflecting on past ideologies, such as radicalism or misogyny, often requires confronting deep embarrassment in later life stages. Acknowledging subtle wrongness: People often need to realize they've made incorrect judgments or rationalizations about a wide range of topics including success, victimhood, understanding of others’ motives, and their own capacities. Evolution of perspectives: Over time, as people grow and mature, their opinions and biases, like simplistic binary thinking, may shift dramatically. Personal growth through mistakes: Admitting mistakes in areas like making a bad investment or criticizing others can be painful, but is essential for personal development. Impact of low consciousness: Not recognizing mistakes due to low consciousness or societal norms can hinder growth; increasing self-awareness helps acknowledge faults. Complexity of self-deception: Overcoming self-deception involves understanding the multifaceted nature of being wrong, such as misinterpreting motives or rationalizing negative actions. Challenges in communication: Admitting wrongness extends to communication styles, like being overly critical or dismissive, and learning to appreciate different forms of intelligence. Importance of self-reflection: Gura highlights the benefits of observational learning and encourages shifting from confrontational attitudes to more compassionate engagement with diverse viewpoints. Realization about content creation: After a decade of making videos, it was understood that longer isn't always better; admitting this wrongness led to a shift towards more ruthless content editing, removing extraneous examples, excessive introductory material, and focusing on potent, clear, and concise presentations. Sophisticated vocabulary trap: The mistake of trying to impress people with complex academic jargon was identified and corrected early on, realizing that effective communication should be simple and accessible, a lesson from transitioning from academia to business where clear, straightforward language is valued. Stagnation of consciousness: Acknowledgment is made that without admitting wrongness, personal consciousness can become stuck, preventing access to higher dimensions of consciousness which require open-mindedness and a willingness to address and correct errors. Collective consequences of denial: Societal and political problems often stem from groups unwilling to admit they are wrong; e.g., conservatives are criticized for being in denial about issues such as climate change, fundamentalist religion, and the negative effects of capitalism, contributing to polarization and chaos. Blockades to admitting wrongness: The fear of painful consequences, such as trauma and loss of identity, can prevent individuals from recognizing their errors, with disaster or suffering usually being the catalyst for change. Individual and collective importance of admitting wrong: Emphasized is the essential role of admitting wrong in personal maturity and societal progress, enabling peace and justice by fostering humility, new perspectives, and higher levels of responsibility and consciousness. Misconceptions about suffering: Suffering is often viewed as something purely negative to be eradicated, but in reality, it's integral to growth and learning. The deepest lessons sometimes come from enduring significant hardship, which can catalyze change and increase compassion and understanding. The dual teachers – suffering and love: Two of the most potent avenues for profound learning are experiencing extreme suffering or extreme love. Suffering sharply awakens individuals to reality, while love, though positive, can be a trap due to its lulling sweetness. Role of psychedelics in personal growth: Psychedelics can serve as a catalyst for change, providing intense experiences of either suffering or love. They can offer insights into one's mistakes and broaden perspectives, but their effectiveness hinges on an individual's openness to self-improvement. Limitations of shared experiences with psychedelics: There's speculation about whether psychedelics like 5-MeO-DMT could dramatically change rigid perspectives, such as hypothetically with Donald Trump, but the outcome would depend on the person's ego and receptivity. Validation vs. Invalidation: Seeking validation feels good but can be counterproductive, similar to the short-term gratification of overeating. Conversely, invalidation feels uncomfortable but is critical for growth, akin to the benefits of fasting. Overcoming confirmation bias: To grow, one should proactively seek out opposing viewpoints and test beliefs with methodologies like the scientific method. Engaging with ideas outside one's comfort zone is necessary for development, though often avoided. Importance of feedback from others: Self-introspection isn't enough to uncover one's blind spots. Getting perspectives from others, through feedback or simply diverse points of view, is invaluable for personal growth. Exercise for gaining external perspective: A powerful exercise for self-assessment and growth involves asking a romantic partner or family member for an unvarnished evaluation of oneself, listening without defense, and then reflecting on that feedback alone to absorb and learn from it. Acknowledgment of past approach and commitment to change: Leo admits that his previous style wasn't serving the audience or aiding in enlightenment; he vows to change his approach to be more beneficial and sensitive to audience needs. Reevaluation of "weak people": Previously, Leo considered those with mental disorders, victim complexes, and suffering as weak. He now sees the error in this and expresses greater compassion after connecting through his own hardships. Intent to reduce harsh communication: Leo has recognized his mistakes in using profanity and insensitive examples, being harsh and judgmental, and acknowledges the need to adjust his tone to be more effective and less "performance-like." Future shift towards less violent communication: Leo is rethinking how he communicates, planning to avoid inflammatory language and tone, and to express himself with better intent and without subtle judgments. Change in perspective on human intelligence: After developing a contempt for human intelligence, Leo is now focusing on appreciating the specialized intelligence of others, valuing different perspectives, and finding the "signal in the noise." Traps of arrogance and content creation: Leo admits to falling into the trap of arrogance and overestimating his perspectives, as well as the need to be careful when speaking about levels of consciousness of others. Facilitating discovery instead of providing answers: Leo intends to guide his audience in discovering their own truths rather than simply supplying answers, though acknowledging the challenges of the video medium for this purpose. Underestimation of the audience's intelligence: Leo has shifted his view of his audience, realizing the dedication and potential in those who engage deeply with his content, and plans to better cater to and support their development. Appreciation for the audience's commitment and diversity: Reflecting on the diversity and commitment within his audience, Leo now recognizes the special nature of those interested in deep philosophical issues and resolves to foster greater support and encouragement. Error in not appreciating his own audience: Leo expresses remorse for not fully appreciating his audience's compassion and understanding, realizing his past lack of human connection and vowing to cultivate a more supportive relationship with viewers going forward. Prioritizing existential over human aspects: Leo admits to being less attuned to the human dimension due to his focus on existential matters, recognizing it as a shortcoming that limits his connection with everyday empathy and compassion. Consequences of devaluing human connections: He is working on this deficiency and acknowledges that a basic level of human love is essential to balance his existential priorities, having realized that overlooking this aspect can lead to problems. Reflection on audience perception: Leo realizes that he previously projected his own lack of basic human love onto his audience, mistakingly assuming they shared this viewpoint, which he now sees as a mistake. Spiritual ego development: He speaks candidly about how profound awakenings contributed to a rising arrogance and spiritual ego, an inevitable but now necessary aspect to undo as part of his journey of self-correction. Reactivity to criticism and confrontation of self-evilness: Leo is improving his reaction to criticism, confronting his inner "evilness," and focusing on his good qualities to achieve a balanced self-perception. Undoing spiritual fantasies and assumptions: He's revising his past spiritual beliefs, recognizing the pitfalls of adopting fantasies and incorrect assumptions from various spiritual teachings, which he urges others to be cautious of. Contrarian bias in intellectual work: Reflecting on his aversion to mainstream perspectives, Leo acknowledges his mistake in sometimes dismissing valid mainstream truths for the sake of originality and uniqueness. Use of superlatives and political awakenings: He aims to use more precise language, limiting superlatives, and shares insights into his evolving political views, moving away from blind faith in leftist ideologies to a more nuanced understanding. Acknowledging privilege and confronting life's hardships: Leo recognizes his privileged background and the importance of acknowledging the wide spectrum of human suffering, cautioning against becoming cynical while advocating for compassion and action. Valuing suffering as a teacher: He concludes by highlighting how suffering has been his greatest teacher, shaping his compassion and understanding. Leo encourages viewers not to dismiss suffering but to reframe it as a growth opportunity. Understanding self-deception through personal experience: Recognizing self-deception requires more than abstract learning; it involves falling into and crawling out of self-deceived states, which reveal the depths and sneakiness of such deceptions. Challenges of helping others escape self-deception: Knowing how difficult it is to escape self-deception oneself, it becomes apparent how challenging it is to assist others out of their own deep-seated self-deceptions. Framing wrongness positively for growth: Admitting wrong should be seen as an empowering and positive part of growth, not as a negative attribute. It is important to confront internal contradictions and hypocrisy, appreciating the role that feelings play in one's life and work. Impact of public work on perspective: Engaging in continuous public work, like philosophy or journalism, can bias one's understanding of reality. Taking breaks is essential to gain a higher perspective and improve future work. The importance of life purpose and meaning: Experiencing a lack of life purpose allows one to empathize with those who feel life is meaningless. Discovering or rediscovering a life purpose is key to overcoming feelings of misery and aimlessness. Dealing with regret and reframing past wrongs: Acknowledging past mistakes can lead to regret and self-hatred, but it is necessary to practice self-love, compassion, and forgiveness. Reframing errors as learning opportunities leads to acceptance and inner peace. Balancing the good with the bad: While admitting wrongness, it's important to also recognize the things one was right about. Lessons learned and positive aspects of previous beliefs or experiences should be accounted for alongside the acknowledgment of mistakes. Existential beauty of wrongness: Embracing wrongness as a part of the universe's complexity allows for self-forgiveness and growth. The universe is seen as a grand illusion, and our wrongness, as the unfolding of that cosmic deception, is ultimately beautiful and not personal. Commitment to better future work: Reflecting on one's past work encourages the commitment to producing cleaner, more authentic work that serves others better by focusing less on self and more on communal growth and understanding. Fidelius Charm
  19. It's an anime. Warning: it's a tear-jerker Search: Bakemono No Ko or The Boy and the Beast. In the beginning of the movie, you have the narrator implying that raising children is a big responsibility; this is expected of someone who wants to become a grandmaster in the fictional world of Jumangi. Watch how the two main characters––Red and Kumatetsu–– emotionally transform throughout the movie. And the grandmaster takes notice, wisely stating that they helped each other transform as interdependent parts. The movie is also a cool showcasing of the concepts of the hero's journey and psychological shadow as well. Enjoy!
  20. But non-duality awakening was only one example (I edited the post now to make it a little more clear). The general definition of awakening (or spiritual transformation) still fits I think.
  21. then, once you perceive your unlimited nature, which perceives itself as perfect and complete, a process of transformation begins in the psyche in which the form, the relative, is seen as an expression of the absolute, therefore absolute, complete and perfect. The dimension: a methamphetamine addict who rapes his grandmother is perceived as perfect and complete, the same as the dimension of the planet Uranus, or a rat, and the understanding of the cosmos and manifest reality begins to be deeper. until where? nobody knows
  22. There's only Now and Infinite-Term. Contentment, appreciation, love, meaning, purpose and whatever dualities separate oneself from happiness while expanding one's self-understanding through an externalized universe can only be experienced Now. There is no long term, grinding for 50 years to allow oneself to retire is foolish, that self won't be able to appreciate it even if it happens to live that long after so much built up karma and constant chasing, it'll just keep being miserable and point out more missed opportunities. There is the infinite term which is expanding one's experiences, skills and understanding in the Now in order to create more such interesting experiences and opportunities in the upcoming Now and create a healthy environment for oneself but that transformation is at every Now point inside the Infinite. The Infinite-Term axis is made of Now-Points, there are only now points. These now points contain actions, states of being, flowing directed energy morphing the present but there is no destination anywhere. All artificial future destinations are illusory and don't bring contentment in their fulfillment, as reality is an active process of living which each moment of awareness. By living in the present and fulfilling desires in the now, the future shifts very quickly and all those pointers and destinations will vanish and reset with every new understanding that recontextualizes the whole. Any skill learned is kept in the background of the mind and automatically transformed by the expanding understanding in all other areas being integrated into an emerging holistic framework of experience. A more healthy approach to goals is to focus on the process and simple steps in the present, simply taking action and expanding one's awareness will create massive changes in one's understanding of any skill, opening up new opportunities, ideas and greater goals in the process of past, present and future all simultaneously shifting. The future is an imagination of the informed present, the past is an echo materializing through imagination based on present karmic desires stored as energy in the body and mind. But there's only degrees of awareness, grinding often comes with massive repetition, resistance and dissociation, dialing back awareness and conditioning consciousness between various states to reduce the need to exist and experience certain situations, giving up life force, time and appreciation in the process. A good place to be is a state of contentment and acceptance and whatever actions will get one there and create the best continuous infinitely stretching Now. And let this whole framework evolve and be overridden in the process of learning to make the best of it as well
  23. As she was moving from ward to ward of a hospital, she remarked: "this also is a temple with God's images. It is God who manifests in the shape of disease as well. In every one of these temples the gods and goddesses are giving darshan. The sense of want, of emptiness and one's true being are in exactly the same place - in fact, they are That and That alone. What is this sense of want and what is "true being"? God and nothing but God. For the simple reason that there is one single seed (singularity), which is the tree as well as the seeds as well as all its various processes of transformation - truly the One Alone. You attempt to appease want with want; hence want does not disappear, nor does the sense of want. When man awakens to the acute Consciousness of this sense of want, only then does spiritual inquiry become genuine. You must bear in mind that only when the sense of want becomes the sense of the want of Self-knowledge, does the real Quest begin. Whether you call it the One, the Two, God or the Infinite, whatever anyone may say, all is well. ~ MA Anandamayi.
  24. Awakening is a radical and often sudden change in how you experience the world on a moment-to-moment level. The type of awakening which is probably most referenced is awakening to Oneness or non-duality, which coincides with the loss of self-referential thinking and experience of self in space and time, reflected in the deactivation of the Default Mode Network (DMN). Spiritual transformation is when the awakening creates a lasting but incomplete change where some parts of yourself will never be the same. Your first awakening tends to coincide with a spiritual transformation. For non-duality spiritual transformations, this coincides with a lasting relative deactivation of the DMN. Enlightenment is when the awakened state becomes your new baseline, i.e. what you operate from most of the time (~90% of the time). After many awakenings in different ways and contexts, the tower topples over and flips. And for non-duality enlightenment, this coincides with a lasting and more significant deactivation of the DMN. Your enlightened state might refine over time in subtle ways, maybe filling in the remaining 10% and for non-duality enlightenment maybe eliminating self-referential thinking altogether, or through more embodied manifestations (in the case of non-duality: purifying egoic responses/behavioral patterns, contractions, "defilements"). I used awakening to non-duality to illustrate each term, but you can substitute it with any type of awakening; awakening to God, Love, even intellectual awakenings; but of course, the terms are less commonly used in this way. An example of an intellectually focused (or moral) spiritual transformation I had was the transition from a hedonistic to a eudaimonic value system.
  25. @Yimpa Cringe lacks context, I cringe at the videos I recorded, but remembering the perspective and transformation, I understand, still can't bear to look at some of them, I released so much trauma, energy and emotion, that looking at it without context makes me look super crazy cringe. But when I do remember, I just smile.