Search the Community

I don't think anything in particular, in these improvisations I don't think of any form or transformation. I don't put myself in any stage but if you want to have a taste in piano instrument, that's how would It sound.

@ivankiss @Aakash what are the both of you going to do to trigger some peace in this world? I know Aakash, you want to build schools in the end. I'm also in the educational field. I'm a bilingual teacher. So, I have done some work already online but have a long way to go. It's part of my life purpose. If you ever get the deepest awakening in your life, I have to caution you to be careful. After becoming the nothingness (no-self) and transforming back into your ego, initially, you will think that it's absolutely beautiful!!! You will feel like you conquered the world!!! You know, grandiose. But, that's the danger of having such wisdom. It can be misinterpreted by the ego. Notice that when you are the no-self, all you will "feel" is peace--no suffering at all. Even when you are making a major (massive) transformation back into your ego, Truth (nothingness) will only view it as a transformation, and nothing else, nothing more. It thinks nothing special of it. It's detached. If you decide to incorporate this wisdom into your life purpose, be careful not to make it seem like it's superior / grandiose. If so, this is probably how cults get started because such wisdom is misinterpreted and misunderstood by the ego.

Daily meditation Yesterday I meditated for two hours together with two friends. It was really nice. Sat for 45 min again this morning. I'm noticing that my meditation practice is not as daily as I want it to be, and that I write about many things here that are not directly related to my efforts to keep up a daily meditation practice. Perhaps I'll need to put some kind of structure on this, but to begin with I'll just say that from now on I'll make an effort to at least meditate once per day, without putting any time-requirements on for how long quite yet. For me today, meditation represented the transformation from negative energy to positive energy. Also when I walked around outside afterwards I felt like I was living my deepest purpose just by being in a state of presence. That is a pretty cool feeling. I was enough just by the simple fact of being. Nothing extra needed. I will mediate for 45 more minutes now just to celebrate that feeling. And I will try to make this journal more specific about my attempts to master the craft of meditation. I'm still suffering from spreading myself too thin, and it is pretty clear that I should intensify my efforts at gathering and collecting my energy in a state of presence.

Some here are working with focus mostly on the body. Their center of gravity is manifesting in their jack of spades and clubs and queen spades and clubs. Some here are working more from a need to heal their suffering of emotions or lack of fulfillment. They are in their jack of hearts and Queen of hearts. If they are able to do this through all their moods they are beginning to access their Kings. The intellectual parts of all the centers. Some are passionate about addressing work on self and inquiry from intellectual analysis. They're in their Queen of Diamonds. The emotional part of the intellectual center. Those who can do this with steady intention and impartiality are accessing their Kings of Diamonds and Hearts. Emoting is sleep. When a topic in the forum becomes hot, people are feeding off that energy. It can be a worthy or a frivolous idea. It doesn't matter. I can name it and yet I still do it, so I'm not excluding myself. Most are completely asleep to this notion. But for those of you reading this who has just had 'the light come on'. ,,, "Welcome to the club". Your now going to fall asleep again and thousands of times more in the next few years. If you really try to point out the worthlessness of expressing negative emotions to people who are not ready, they will hate on you. We don't have to take things in a negative way. But we do and the degree to which that happens determines how miserable we become in our emotional world. Trying to act like a Saint is ignorant and self defeating unless it's a part of a specific practice with set end points. It's ok to feel that horrible stuff. We need to. But if we act on it, in our discomfort, we only start adding to our misery. It takes a while to realize this then it takes more time in getting used to working on oneself,,, doing Inquiry. Then it takes longer still to begin to notice the slow unfoldment of a Transformation. We can't change because just changing never lasts. We have to transform. Or go through Transformation. This is about stages. We can experience a higher state of Consciousness any time. They never last.

@plutoIncredible! However, I always find the location and scale of an artwork are incredibly important to produce the desired effect. The first painting in a 20ft height room is tingling sensations and euphoria, in a passport size, it's a cool digital drawing someone made. I find Marina Abramovic's work stemming from pain, which is effective because pain, particularly physical, is familiar to most people. Plus, empathy aka 'mirror neurons' and there's art that made chills run down your spine. Except the core/source, many lessons to learn there. I found this fascinating article by Alex Grey on his meeting with Ken Wilber: https://www.alexgrey.com/media/writing/essays/for-ken-wilber/ Here are some excerpts: .. Where is the spiritually inclined, philosophically minded artist to turn?” And Ken replied, “My advice would be to go back to the German idealists like Schopenhauer. He was the last great philosopher to deal with the transcendental function of art. Joseph Campbell wrote a wonderful book called Creative Mythology, part of his Masks of God series of books. Campbell summarizes Schopenhauer’s aesthetics pretty well, so that would be the easiest entry to his thought. If you like it you can go for the original texts.” "Ken has given me other important pieces of personal advice such as the time he cautioned me in my tendencies to look superficially at lots of spiritual paths and not choose one. He advised me to develop an in-depth practice. He quoted an Asian proverb, “Chase many rabbits, catch none.” "A spiritual art must transform the artist and the viewer. In order for art to be transformative, it has to undo you. " "They must reach beyond the present limitations of their bodymind or ego to a higher level of consciousness and being. One could look at the process as “variations on a scream.” There is a violent painful birth to much great art. The artist has labor pains. It is the worst and the best. For the art to be spiritual, the artist has to be a better person after finishing the work than when they began it." "Conventional art is an expression of the self or world as it is now. Transcendental Art expresses something that you are not yet but that you can become…" "... So artists have to ask themselves, “Is my art just a way of affirming my mediocre whiney-ass self, or am I up to the challenge of spiritual transformation, reaching for the higher self and a deeper art?” A list of Ken Wilber’s Art writings on Art: 1. In the Eye of the Artist – Art and the Perennial Philosophy 1989 Sacred Mirrors -The Visionary Art of Alex Grey and the second edition of Eye To Eye. “Bad Art Copies, Good Art Creates, Great Art Transcends.” 2. Various passages from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality 1995 and A Brief History of Everything 1996 3. How Shall We See Art? – What and Where is Art? 1996 3 a. Integral Art and Literary Theory – Part I & Part II 4. Levels Of Art 1997 5. To See A World – Art and the I of the Beholder 1997 6. Foreword to Alex Grey's book, The Mission of Art 1998

@Charlotte if I may say something here... Goes in this pattern...no-self (nothingness) --> everythingness --> transformation (Shinzen Young called this part: Riding the Ox Backwards) --> love (realm) --> ego When it comes, you'll know. Until then, I would just continue working on something worthwhile to give to this world, such as a deep life purpose. Everything is interconnected and counts. Anything worth doing is like a meditation.

This just means that the war hasn't been won yet. Self inquiry. Until the ego never rises again as the I-thought. The irreversible transformation called self-realization. The total extinction of latent mental tendencies or vasanas. Don't sell Enlightenment short.

If you want improvement then you don't need a guru. If you want transformation then you need a powerful external source to transform the very fundementals of who you are.

Well, it's very mixed feelings. So, it's wanting sexual attention and not wanting sexual attention simultaneously, because of the dual meaning and reaction to female sexuality in general. That coupled with being conditioned into understanding your value as the viewed and not the viewer and the object and the not the subject. So, there is a natural desire for sexual attention. Then there is a desire to want sexual attention for the sake of societal appreciation. Then, there is a desire to avoid sexual attention for fear of being reduced to that and to be painted into the box of both a consumer item and a devilish temptress. And for me, the latter wins out in most situations... simply because I feel very platonically toward most men. So, being the projection screen for many societal shadows is difficult to do. And then, when you get past an age where that is possible to receive that projection from others it doesn't liberate you from it. It doesn't subjectify you to age. You are still objectified but seen as a lower quality and more disposable object. And if you continue to hold sexual feelings and desires, people will react with disgust. So, the way we view the feminine is to hyper-focus on the archetypes of the maiden and the temptress at the expense of the mother, the crone, and the wise-woman. So, if you really want to know the experience you have to know it at every age. And you have to not just know it as someone who is beautiful and sexy and young. It's easy to be interested in springtime femininity as a man because it is the most socially appreciated for its utility to men. But you must also know what it is to move past springtime and summertime femininity and to deal with the death of beauty and the stripping away of perceived societal value from your objectified self. It is not just to be Snow White but to be the resentful aging queen who transforms into the hag wielding the death apple. There are many deaths in womanhood. If you really want to know... do you really want to die to yourself that many times? It's hard to do. I know that if I were a man, that I never would have looked into this topic so deeply. I would have gotten comfortable with a simplified answer. And this is why few men will do the work, despite the interest. You don't have the inner conflict to spur you onward toward deeper levels of awareness. Chances are, that you'll find a comfortable understanding for you and will stop long before you reach the bottom with your awareness. If a woman embarks upon this journey of understanding, ( and she may not begin for existential discomfort at the whole thing as it's very emotional and nauseating) but if she continues there is no place for her to get comfortable until she reaches the bottom where there is transformation to be had. All the pleasures of the psychosexual realm are spiked with pain and suffering for women. So, if she can continue to feel into her personal discomfort and existential crisis, she can reach the bottom eventually. Not as to say a man couldn't do this. But it's just so easy to find a comfortable spot or to become fixated upon things of a sexual nature that feel good because they have no clear downside from the male perspective. In the psychosexual realm of the psyche, there is mostly pleasure there for men with little pain because of the ingrained patterns into our collective consciousness and our archetypal memory. So, when a man goes to explore the feminine, he usually only gets so deep before he is distracted by his sexual drives and loses consciousness. But contra-positively suffering necessitates increased consciousness, otherwise the suffering becomes unbearable. And this is why it's both harder and easier for women to explore this issue. Men are more likely to be interested in this journey because it seems exciting and sexy, but they are unlikely to complete it because they get distracted. Women are less likely to be interested in this journey because it's scary and uncomfortable and you have to face with many monsters. But if a woman embarks upon this journey, she is more likely to complete it because there is no way out once you begin, and the only relief comes at the very end of the road. So, again, I ask... do you really want to die that many times?

I watched this yesterday. I agree. Very good. To the point. Fourth way Inquiry aka esoteric Christianity is sometimes referred to as Transformation of being.

HI Alfonso, thanks for the technique ...i did the letting go technique of sedona method maybe ten years ago and after came to Eft and it was there that my biggest transformation of full emotional integration came when i came across the presence process of Michael Brown. by then I was in the sufi path for twenty years...but the presence process took me to a level of complete integration.Its not easy but its ones willingness how one can go...the main method used is the breathwork which is very powerful for emotional body integration. pls check it out. Thanks for introducing the above technique its the exact modality which i want to introduce to my students in the high school together with Eft. but i wanted to get the book to do the technique as above with the same sequence which you explained for eg when you say the ego is a contraction (we use the same terms in sufism) ...i dont see this terms explained in Dr Hawkings letting go book. thanks in advance.!

@bejapuskas If one trully cares about becoming their highest expression or version; the things you mentioned occur naturally. It is simply how evolution is. How transformation and growth happens. It is natural to become more compassionate, considerate and loving. Also wise, mature and well articulated. If this does not happen, there is no actual growth. Only the conceptualization of it.

What is your current perspective on this topic? What is the difference between the two? I came to a conclusion that there is no difference. Speaking from my direct experience; the two go hand in hand. They might as well be indistinguishable. Of course; the concepts used while personally developing yourself differ from those used while focused on spiritual growth and expansion. Simply because each person is unique, while spirituality seems to have a "common ground" for everybody. But that's not what I'm talking about here. There is something that pushes one forward into growth. I'd say it is inevitable. You may call it "purpose", "reason", "mission" or whatever other label you are comfortable with. It is what makes you wake up in the morning. Without it, there would be no existance for you. My argument is; This purpose cannot be avoided. What is meant to be; will be. On one's journey of transformation and expansion, one has the freedom to choose conceptual models which resonate, and study them in order to reach a conceptual understanding of what actually is. It does not change the nature of what is. It only helps one reach a higher understanding of actuality. The expansion will occur regardless of conceptual models and their accuracy. It does not matter whether your "goal" is to become an enlightened master or a professional athlete. Those are merely labels. And they come with a certain conceptual model and environment. Both conceptual paths towards this conceptual goal have their set of challenges; obstacles. What is that actually? It is the process of transcending limitations. Expansion. Growth. You may label these limitations how ever the heck you want. Actual expansion will not be affected by those labels. An individual that is exploring spiritually-themed concepts may argue, that being a proffesional athlete cannot compare to being an enlightened master. Oh yeah? How so? What if; a spiritually oriented individual saying that out loud is actually a part of the althlete's process of transcending limitations? What if your argument is merely a distraction to him? An obstacle for him to recognize and overcome. What if the athlete is closer to his version of enlightenment than you are? And he probably doesn't even have a clue about this thing called enlightenment. What if you are, as a spirutal individual, even further behind on your path towards actual enlightenment? Regardless of your level of conceptual understanding of it. Why? Well maybe becauase you're full of judgement towards the athlete? And you are unable to accept anything outside of your own conceptual model of reality? You are unable to see how his path is equally as important as yours. Equally as valid. The athlete does not pay attention to distractions. He maintains focus on what is and shoots towards the goal. At that precise moment, he might as well be completely empty of self and merged with the absolute. He might be enlightened indeed, and have no need to let everybody know. He himself does not know, probably. That is why it's legit; one could argue. So yeah, my point is: "Enlightenment" is a concept. A highly accurate one, but you can still get lost in it. Big time. This should be apparent by now. "Spirituality" is a lifestyle. It is a perspective. It is a path, not the path. I like to think of it as the self's coping mechanism, even. Real spirituality and enlightenment can look like anything. In fact; the more unique, the more actual. Enlightened, if you will. And please do not bring up arguments such as: "being a succesful athlete is a sign of egoic tendencies" yadayadayada. Claiming such things is absolutely ridiculous. I am talking about actuality here. No one ever pointed to this "ego" actually. It is made up. Imaginary. So stop bringing up imaginary arguments. I feel like I extracted what needed to be extracted from this spirituality thing. I might as well be back on the path of becoming a rock star. It is my enlightenment. My totality. My purpose. My contribution to oneness. My unique way of creating meaning. Anyone who tries to convince me otherwise is an obstacle. And I love challenges. They give me an opportunity to show myself how firmly I stand my own ground. How blindly I trust myself. How enlightened I am. How accepting of other perspectives I am. How focused. How determined. How whole. How actual. How Ivan. What is your twist?

Very hard when you first awaken to the realities of the world and the suffering you see in others. Its normal and natural to have this response, to feel angry, to feel sadness, disappointment, a whole range of emotions. With time as you come to accept more and more that this is just a fundamental aspect of life, it'll lose its emotional power over you. As you yourself continue to suffer and learn and grow, you'll begin to see first hand how suffering is actually the catalyst for transformation and awakening. This thing that used to be so scary and dark and bad becomes a potent tool for transforming your entire life. After this direct experience, it becomes much easier to see others suffer. For the most part, those who do not suffer, who face no resistance, have little room for growth.

What a coincidence, I just have been reading about Adam Strauss. Have you heard about him? He is a comedian with OCD, who tried curing his condition with Magic Mushrooms after everything else failed. You can do a Google search and read a few articles about him. I am not trying in any way to encourage you to try psychedelics, but to show you that there actually might be hope in your situation. Right now you are feeling strong emotions so you might be unable to judge reality properly. Bare yourself with patience and you can make significant progress. Radical transformation doesn't happen in a week, nor a month, not even a year. You have to diligently work on undermining your false beliefs and applying self-love. By the way, you can't convince someone who has had Enlightenment experience that Enlightenment doesn't exist. It's like arguing to Columbus that America doesn't exist. "But I have been there." "So what?! It doesn't exist." That's how ridiculous it sounds.

A lot of new age content make it sound like you are ascending; it’s incredible, we’re getting upgraded to the fifth dimension. But from what I can tell, wether you call it spiritual awakening, mid life crisis, a existential crisis, dark night of the soul,... it is pointing to the same thing, and has been there since the dawn of time. (See Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey). There comes a time in the life of a man where he needs transformation. There is no upgrade, you didn’t choose to incarnate right now because it is so cool to awaken, you won’t get caught in another 17000 years of reincarnation if you don’t upgrade your vibration right now. I can’t believe I adopted these silly beliefs for a while. It is ridiculous. There is only a transformation, a return to the Self.

@Leo Gura But with death comes newly welcomed life and new beginnings; transformation. If one refuses to change, won't they remain fetal, shrivel, and struggle to live whether they're conscious of it or not? Practicing non-resistance is a useful way to prepare for death, and change. The belief of things being permanent shuts out the possibility of any change. Learning to let go (give death) to certain things in life that are only stagnating us, thus holding us back from change, will bring life to change. Redundancy and resorting to remedies to mask our fear of impermanence is preventing death of the old and in with the new; resisting change and progress. We must embody the seasons and all of its colors, such as Autumn, and be the leaves.

TLDR; Need 3 more people to request a 3 months consciousness program with Peter Ralston from August to October 2019. Let's be clear. When we talk about enlightenment you really have no idea what is being talked about. What you have has to be an image, a thought, a concept or some kind of perception but not the enlightenment itself at all. Something that is not generally knowing is that the absolute most of the times is "incompletely" realized. You can know what your nature is, clearly, yet not know what another is, or life is or what existence is. Your insight is, yes, "absolutely true" but still you somehow still make the error of perceiving that as your nature only and not the nature of everything else. What's inspiring is that you really are encouraged to be at the driver seat and do it now. You are repeatedly instructed to get it now, directly. I mean really do it now, at each moment. Seriously, how do you know you need 10,000 hours? This is not a "skill" we are trying to develop. We are trying to have an insight into the absolute nature of something, whatever that is. The absolute is not relative. The absolute is not a function of mind or the brain. The mind exists as a function of the absolute and so does the brain. The consciousness is a higher order property of all of perceptions. The absolute contains(or is the same as) all distinctions. How is it that you relate something you have no idea about (absolute) to a thought (10,000 hours)? Could this somehow open you up into considering that you can actually do it now? I am here to find people who care about actually understanding what is occurring for them. Individuals that want to put an end to the bullshit and set out to investigate with real openness and intent. I want you to know that if you really care about the results, If you really want to understand what is being talked about and you are willing to throw all fantasies and beliefs regarding enlightenment and consciousness and get what is actually true and real then I invite you to consider attending a 3 Month Consciousness Program with Peter Ralston. Significant points: The program will most likely run from August to October 2019. (90 days) Details about schedule/pricing http://chenghsin.com/workshop-threemonthtraining.html The beginning of August to the end of October. The Cheng Hsin Center is located in Texas, United States. The program actually ends with a whole 1 month workshop. Specifically designed to penetrate your experience. http://chenghsin.com/workshop-fall-series.html This might be your last chance. Peter mentioned multiple times that he wants to retire. He might die as well... Be imbued with the attitude of "I am powerful and so are you." Actually get what it takes to be a powerful human being. Aren't you tired of superficial change? ~2 hours of Peter lecture almost everyday. You can simply raise your hands and ask questions. Use the force of other people, the pressure of the environment to increase your odds. You will work on personal transformation too. Such a two fold approach seems to ground the work. Peter mentioned that this approach actually increases the odds of absolute breakthrough even more. The "method" is completely open. I just said, COMPLETELY OPEN. It is the equivalent of saying that there is no method. The goal is to become directly conscious, using whatever means possible. Ever had this doubt thing going on when meditating? Is this the method/the way or whatever? Your doubts will be acknowledged and you will be instructed to go in whatever direction is necessary. Only truth is the goal. My sole purpose of writing this is to gather enough people so that I can do the program myself, as Peter only does them with usually a minimum requirement of 6 people. We currently have 3. There is no guarantee that Peter will agree. We have to contact him personally. Please beware that there is a chance there will be a 7 month apprenticeship program in 2020 or sometime after. (not guaranteed as well) Please ask me anything below, private message me if you're interested in attending.

Thinking doesn't stop but you stop clinging to thinking like a baby clinging to a baby blanket. The idealism of thinking is seen through. It's really just a transformation in how you ARE or how you BE, that's what Enlightenment is. It snaps you out of a certain kind of getting lost in stories mentality that a lot of people are trained with and don't know any better.

No one guarantees that this transformation will finish after 50 years, it's just an arbitrary number... I hope that people will break out of their material paradigms as soon as possible, which will cause this evolution from chasing profit to providing love and support probably. If you would've wanted to run a business in the Czech Republic where I live a couple years ago, it will get stolen by the government, that was highly affected by Russian communists, now it's quite possible to do it, anything can happen, it just doesn't feel real now.

@Key Elements @ivankiss schools and education is the way i understand to lead people into the empty space. It is the thing that served my old self the best and is probably the best value i can offer at this current point in time. None the less, i am still only playing the chess game as the game plays out. i can sympathise that waiting for the transformation of the other peaces i concur would be effective. Simply put from my side: there are too few pieces to currently play with. I am going to filter the problem directly from the source, which in my view is mainstream education.

Simply put: we are interested in you becoming and being the "empty space." You may think that the queen & king of chess are the most powerful pieces of the game, but no, it's the chess board. All the other pieces represent the transformations. They are temporary. Another thing: you're also that "invisible hand" that moves the chess pieces. Again, this is only a transformation. The real "You" is the chess board.

You just accept reality in the Now and realize that reality will rub your Ego the wrong way and it’s not personal. You stop distracting yourself with idealism and focus on pragmatic issues in your life. Enlightenment basically grounds you in the Now — the non-ideological Now. As to suicidal thoughts, that’s just the Ego not liking something about reality. What happens is you become aware of where those emotions are coming from and why and then you can allow them but also not cling to them. In general the Ego does not like change and will trigger sadness during times of change. By understanding Ego you can accept “Ego burn” emotions without getting attached to them. Enlightenment is not knowing a bunch of theory about playing golf — Enlightenment is going out and playing a game of golf. Enlightenment is a way of being not a set of theories to embody. And that way of being is not anything you’re consciously in control over, it’s a transformation of the way you ARE.

There are 3 stages to the Enlightenment Path. (1) Stuck in Unenlightened Ego; (2) Stuck in Spiritual Ego; (3) Transcendence of Truth. The pendulum must swing into idealism and then out of idealism on the Path. It’s a process. But the people who are stuck in idealism have no idea they’re at Stage 2 and not Stage 3. People try so hard to be Enlightened through beliefs not realizing that Enlighrenment is a change or transformation in how you BE or ARE in the Now.

@Aakash When Ken Wilbur was describing it to her, he sounded like he was metaphorically speaking of an enlightenment. There is the nothingness phase, the everythingness phase, and the void phase. Instead of going through something, like the void, and thinking of it as a phase, the nothingness and you are already the same. Even the transformation is an illusion. It's good to know what is the transformation so you know where you came from, but you are already it. In other words, you're always that Space = Nothingness, and things are transforming within that space. But, if you happen to catch hold of a temporary embodiment, it sucks. You rather be the space. Temporary things are meant to be released, let go of, detached.