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The thing with the LOA is that you don't get what you want, you get what you are (here I am talking about you the personality, not the true self), If someone wants money, you'll have to built the personality of someone who has a lot of money, even if you don't have, you can start to adopt this personality, in the begging you'll have to fake it, but then money will start to show up, and then eventually you'll start to believe it, so you won't have to fake anymore, Without knowing anything about LOA, I did exactly this when I went to college, My high school years sucked, I was shy and introverted, had very few friends and no girls, and when I graduated I had enough of that, I decided that when I went to college I would be someone different, I Had observed the popular guys from school, so I had an idea of how they act. When I went to college, since my first day I started to pretend that I was cool and popular, nobody knew me anyway so nobody would know that I was faking it. In one month my life was totally different, I had friends and girls, I was invited to parties all the time, it was like these things came from nowhere to me, I couldn't believe that, such a great transformation in such a short period of time.

@FoxFoxFox So basically fear of the unknown. The unusual. The new. That is to be expected during a process of transformation. It's only natural. What works for me might not work for you. But here's how I "tame" fear; What is the source of all fear? I am. I create it. Thus it must be necessary. It must be an expression of divinity. It must be a reflection of perfection. It's just not recognized properly. What does fear mean? What is it trying to make me aware of? What can fear see while I am blind to it? Awareness would then expand, enough to recognize the message. Contraction and unease would be no more. Fear is tightly connected to overcoming limitations. And it can kick in hard, as you approach one of those boundaries. It lets you know; "You are getting closer to unknown territory, be careful." Also; Get far enough from your heart and fear will signal. That is how you become aware of misaligned beliefs, thoughts and actions. Surrender the need to control fear. It is not to be controlled. It is to be allowed and transformed. Fear is also often combined with excitement. Which is a perfect indicator and a confirmation of the above mentioned. If you're excited about the new, but fear what that might mean for the old/current... Great! That's exactly how it's supposed to be. It's just how this game is. You merge with fear by loving it. Like everything else. You must see it's perfection. Recognize it's purpose. Invite it in. Do not push it away. This too will feel very counterintuitive; no surprise. Fear is unrecognized love. (Talking openly and honestly about your fears to those close to you is helpful as well. At times fear only needs to be expressed. Be heard.)

Hi there @Iiris I love your journal! Opening up to others and being so honest and vulnerable takes courage, and it helps others when you really talk truthfully about your struggles... I had really deibilitating shame and social anxiety when I was younger (I'm 44 now), but with a lot of effort and persistence real transformation happened... I'm not some fearless James Bond figure, but these days I do things that would once have been impossible for me and they don't even phase me... TV interviews and making speeches and such... you've got this! Keep it up and you'll get the results you want.... I also love that you shared that Matthew Silver video... I used to live in New York and would regularly see him doing his funky thing in Union Square... that guy rocks! Hugs, Lucas

I agree. I see this in myself and others. Roots of what turns into belligerence, perhaps. Allow me to be so pompous as to theoretically give a solution to this problem in education that would involve distancing from left brain rationality to include the Chaotic right brain as well as whole body awareness. Starting with Carol Anthony's take on commonsense which she makes one word out of. Commonsense: is a consensus of all the senses. The commonsense comprises the five senses of inner perception and the metaphorical senses. In humans, the commonsense is the "inner judge," which discerns what is in harmony with the person's inner truth (and therefore also in harmony with the Cosmos) and what is not. It's judgement is based on the inner senses, and is in the form of feeling. Another function of the commonsense is that of being the Helper of Transformation (This applies only to humans). This function is referred to in the Hexagrams 15, Modesty, 16, Enthusiasm, 17, Following, and 21 Biting Through. As part of our animal nature, the commonsense gets blocked when a person's animal nature has been slandered as "lowly" or as "the source of evil". Why education needs to include instructing that we are '3 brained beings' - Zigzag Almaas: “For the process of understanding to happen, three elements need to be there at the same time. The element of disidentification is one of them, involvement is another. The third element is the quality of allowing. These elements can be there when there is harmony among the three centers—the belly center, the chest center, and the head center. When there is this harmony, it is possible to experience fully, to allow, and to disidentify. Now, what do I mean by these three elements? Each center contributes to the process of understanding. If the head center is functioning correctly, it means that space or emptiness is allowed. What is the significance of space and emptiness? Space and emptiness make possible the quality of allowing. When there is space in the mind, there is no self-image. You’re not trying to stick to something in particular. You’re not trying to go somewhere. The mind is allowing whatever is there to be there. So the head center’s participation or contribution is space, which is an allowing, a welcoming in a sense—space for things to happen without rejection, without trying to hold on. You become complete allowing. The heart center’s contribution has to do with its central quality, which is the personal essence. The contribution of the personal essence is the diving movement, the actual living of the experience. You not only allow it, you’re in the midst of it, you’re one with it. You’re really it, you let it happen, you feel it fully, you sense it fully, you experience it fully, right? That’s the contribution of the heart center. The belly center has its contribution, which is represented by the self, the essential self. The contribution of the essential self is the disidentification, the turning away. When you are truly functioning in the belly, you are completely present, and being completely present, you are being yourself. So you are not identified with the usual activity of trying to get somewhere else.” Diamond Heart Book Three, pg. 73 Almaas: “Distinguishing Physical Sensation from Essential Substance The capacity to sense oneself must become so refined that the individual can discriminate between physical sensation and the sensation of essential substance. It is not enough that the mind be quiet. It is also necessary for the body to be sensitive. The mind can be quiet while the body is deadened. The body has to be awakened so that the center of sensing, the belly center, can be activated. The belly center, or what Gurdjieff called the physical center, is the center of sensing for all parts of the body. Its deepest function is the subtle sensing, the sensing of essential presence, that the Sufis call the organ for touch. Touch is, in a sense, the most intimate of the physical senses. The skin must be directly against an object to touch it. There is no intermediary medium, like sound for hearing or light for seeing. So this subtle capacity is a very intimate one. Accurately speaking, it is sensing essence by being essence. It is the most direct way of perception. This capacity of touch, connected with the belly center, is very intimately connected with the embodiment of essence. It is the body center; its mode of perception is embodiment. Here, perception as touch, and being, are the same act. So this capacity is the most important one.” Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 130 “Functioning of the Essential Self in the Belly Center Yes, usually the belly center has to do with embodiment, with the capacity to sense oneself. However, the belly center is also the will center. In a sense, the ultimate function of the will is to surrender to what happens, surrender to the now. And surrender to the now means not to hold on to something. The true function of the will is complete surrender to what’s happening without holding on. That is will. The essential self, like all essential aspects, can function in any of the subtle centers. When one is being the essential self its location is usually the heart center. However, when the essential self is functioning in relation to identifying or disidentifying from any content of experience, it becomes associated with the belly center. The essential self is more like a potential for experience, and it also manifests as a capacity for identification. One of the results of that capacity for identification is embodiment. Embodying something means you are identified with what’s happening. An essential state is present. You are embodying it if you are it. The true self has the capacity to identify with something you are experiencing, but it doesn’t have to. It has a choice; it has the freedom.” Diamond Heart Book Three, pg. 79 I guess my notions about commonsense have turned into an argument for education and Culture itself as being too left brained and doesn't include much in the way of whole body awareness or including the heart in the process of perceiving and understanding. This might be relating back to your mention of the paradox of commonsense and introspection. I may have gone off on a tangent but this is my version of fun,,,, Given also that my blindspot is still mostly intact, there is probably some form of me not seeing the forest for the all the trees,,,,

I think you mean Divine Masculine, right? I studied the concept masculinity taught by David Deida and I also heard about Divine Masculine in one of the Teal Swan's videos (she says the Divine Masculine is about initiative, action, purpose, movement, responsibility, strength, focus, material abundance, fatherhood, generosity, encouragement, transformation and growth). I kind agree with her. I'll take a look at him. Thank you! Edit: I watch this vid and found it very fascinating.

@KMB4222 you're welcome. Just wanted to put a little note here: -When you become Truth, you will not have a self at all. That's why they call it: no-self. You will not have an ego: no external environment and no embodiment. You will become fully conscious and aware of this. -Then, you will make a transformation into being everythingness. You will become fully conscious and aware of this. You will become the entire universe. -Then, you will make a transformation back into your ego. When you finally become your ego, this transformation will seem "massive," like the only black hole in the entire universe. You won't just see it. You will become this. You will realize why they call it en-light-ment. As an ego, initially, you will probably think that it's infinitely massive and have a great distance, but no, when you were actually making these transformations, you were just BEing, and there were no distances (and no time), just transformations.

Have you noticed that the ppl who are famous and have experienced truth don't tell it to others directly? They tell it metaphorically. Even gurus who are not famous and actually live in caves, don't tell others directly. I think it's because they don't want others to be obsessed with it, and to continue to try to live a fulfilling life and to contribute to this world in a positive way. They don't want to ruin the process for anyone. Everyone is unique and will contribute to this world differently. It's because everything is you, and the truth is that no one likes suffering. (That's because when you experience truth there is no suffering--even though you're making a transformation back into your ego.) There you go. The statement in the () is part of truth. ? Also, the 10 Ox Herding Pics that was presented in one of Leo's clip points to the truth metaphorically. I like the 10 Ox Herding Pics told by Shinzen Young the best.

Yet another download; yet another quick guide. A few conceptual steps in order to reach a higher understanding of magic. You are reality. Should be apparent by now. There is no separation between anything at all. You are always having a direct experience of yourself. Always have been and will be. Each dream; each reality has it's own core frequency, from which everything is being expressed through infinite manifestations. Awareness can become aware of this core frequency. It can change it. Readjust. Shift. Awareness comes prior to frequency. Frequency is made of awareness; to put it that way. If you don't like the movie; change the channel. Don't complain about what's going on in the movie. It's perfect as it is. A perfect expression of that which it is supposed to represent. Would you expect to watch an action movie on The Discovery channel? Probably not. You'd switch to another channel. A more appropriate one. You would shift to another station. Choose another frequency. There is little to no difference when it comes to reality. You would not expect the main character in the movie to change the entire movie for you to enjoy watching what you prefer. Does not go that way. You wanna watch something else? Experience something else? Shift to it. Stop running into brickwalls. Leave the character behind. Forget about the movie. They are what they are. Can be nothing else. You have to detach from this movie not being what you expected it to be. Detached from the main character. You gotta switch to another channel. Here's some practicality; If you were to press the white key on a piano; would you do it by being focused on pressing the white key, or by being focused on not pressing the black one? Sure; you must acknowledge there is a black key, as well. You must know there is a possibility for you to hit the black key. But you want to hit the white one, really. You want that particular note. That particular frequency. You cannot achieve what you wish to experience while being focused on what you do not. And I am not pointing towards positive thinking and (forced) affirmation. Sure those have their place in the process of transformation. But... I am pointing towards a rather powerful thing. A decision. Hard as a rock. A choice. Radical rearrangement. Massive shift. Decide you want to experience what you want to experience. Let go of that which is not the representation of your new, preferred reality. Ignore it all politely, with a smile on your face. See only that which represent you newborn core frequency. Focus only on that which resonates. Which inspires, excites and motivates. Have that tunnel vision. See nothing but your preferred reality. Nothing but confirmations of your progress. Detach in love and peace. Say your goodbyes as many times as you feel like. You want to watch another movie. Nothing wrong with that. No crime committed. It is your birthright to choose dreams and experiences. To imagine realities that will be the perfect expression of your true nature. Of your core frequency. Have no remorse. Have no regret. Change is natural. Necessary. Align action with imagination. This is the recipe for a successful shift and rearrangement. For effrotless manifestation. Imagination is a direct link between the channel where you currently are and the one you want to shift to. It's pure, infinite potential. All of imagination is directly experiental. There is literally no difference from the absolute point of view between manifesting a giant pile of money or a single penny. Or any thing else, for that matter. The universe knows no limitations. You impose them. You dictate what is possible and what impossible. Become aware of those limitations. Focus on transcending them. Letting them go. Proving them nonsensical. You have to detach from all previously, unconsciously accepted misaligned beliefs. "The work" is (mostly) metaphysical. Happens nowhere; in nothingness. It is pure consciousness work, so to speak. Also; Be aware of the possibility of over-conceptualization pulling you back in terms of moving forward. Do not let imagination and expectations turn into a heavy burden which you carry around. Use imagination in alignment. Do not get lost in it. Act in alignment towards it. Let go of all outcome. Allow all possibilities. Let all come to you. Let magic work. Creativity is key. When in states of creativity and flow; no one is there to filter magic. To limit possibilities. The most incredible, unbelievable and miraculous things happen when one does not expect any outcome at all. When there are no limitations. No conceptual models of what and when should or should not happen. No imposition of any form of control over future. Only flow. Only allowance. Only emptiness. True, authentic joy and passion. Creativity will always find new, creative ways to blow your mind with absolute miracles. To get you closer to that which you wish to experience. To get you far beyond your expectations. And it will do it no time. You literally won't be able to believe it. You deserve it all. You are worthy of it all. Again; absolutely no difference in any experience you have. In any movie you watch. You are the one thinking you are somehow bound to watching only one movie; over and over again. When clearly; it has gotten way too boring and predictable. You are not chained to your current reality. Give that to yourself which will fulfill your whole being. Be the bringer of the change you'll be proud of seeing, experiencing. No one is depriving you of anything. No one is deprived of anything by you having it all. Those are stories; illusions. Created by those unwilling to let go of past. To transform. To grow and evolve. See through the limitations of those ideas. Laugh at them. You are limitless. No thought could ever stop you. Createyour heaven. Step into it. Be it; experience it. Have no worries about a single thing. The past is an echo slowly being swallowed by nothingness.

Writing about my trauma (chapter by chapter) from three perspectives mine, the other persons and a 3rd person point of view, helped to begin the healing process. I recommend watching some of Matt Kahn’s videos about healing afterwards which for me has personally resulted in huge emotional break throughs and true healing and transformation.

Found this message on: https://www.kriyayogalahiri.com (Message 24, https://www.kriyayogalahiri.com/kriyayoga/images/messages/messageuk/message-24.pdf) ... London, June 15, .2000 You are not your consciousness. You are nothing. You are the blank TV screen that does not get affected by the images coming upon it. Does the screen get burnt when fire is seen upon it? Does the screen get wet when ocean or rain appears on it? Do the bullets and bombs of the war scenes destroy the screen? You are the emptiness, the holistic existence, the energy, the intelligence. You cannot experience the emptiness, even though it is your real self, real space. Reality is existence not an experience. “You” must cease for this to be. Our intellect must open up for the penetration of intelligence. We share the same intelligence, just as we share the same atmosphere for breathing. Intelligence is meditation. Your consciousness is constituted by its contents – fear, anxiety, guilt, gullibility, greed, hope, pursuits, paradoxes, images, influences, indulgences, inhibitions, investments, beliefs, bigotry, conditioning, confusions and the rest of such ingredients of the mind. But you are not your mind. Mind is myth. It is not real, but it is valid. It is functionally useful in your daily practical living. You are not what you think. You are exactly that which you cannot think of. You are nothing. The courage to face and understand this void, is the beginning of a fundamental transformation in the human body and mind. The living sense organs of the body generate the mind. Mind, the myth, vanishes as soon as the body dies. A theatre company puts up a tent in a village fair and sets up a stage and also a green room for rest between performances. The players enact the drama in all sincerity and receive much appreciation from the audience. But they don’t get psychologically attached to their roles. They cease to be king, queen, Army general or villain and are nothing when they return to the green room from time to time for rest and recreation, to be able to play once again with vigour. And when the village fair is over, the company winds up the tent and vanishes from the spot. Emptiness is the green room, the mind is the play – stage, death of the body is the winding up of the tent to put it up again in another village fair, until the futility of the play is realized (jivan – mukta). Green room is the Brahma Stage and play are the Vishnu Vacant spot is the Shiva Live life in the stage-play (Vishnu lila), but be available to the Green room

@Shaun I've had moments recently where I've felt completely and absolutely trapped in a fucking living nightmare mate...feeling like I was schizophrenic psychopath...in tears in front of my dad. Part of it is not knowing whether it's from the meditation (ego backlash), just my head (since my mental health past isint great, neither is my mum's) or a mixture of both. I think my most helpful insights regarding emotions and mental health is, I know we are taught to embrace suffering when it comes...but do not mistake this to mean "welcome suffering". You don't want to be actually creating energy that will cause the suffering to come back. We should embrace all of reality as is *naturally* is...including your nature to want to be happy. There is a difference between experiencing actual authentic transformation and denial of reality. This is a trap within Christianity, the Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is; love, joy, peace, patience, goodness faithfulness, kindness, gentleness and self control. But because Christian's don't know how to actually contact the spirit of God authentically, they need to force themselves to *act* as *though* they have love, joy, peace, patience, goodness...etc. true acceptance is not manipulating reality at all. This includes not minipulating yourself when you notice yourself about to manipulate reality. Allowing, *especially* these subtle meta realities. Go to the doctor is you feel like it. If you feel like you want to blast music and smoke pot to feel better, then embrace it. If you then think "oh I can't do that, it'll make me dependant on grass to feel better" ...accept this thought to. And accept the fact that you want to accept these thoughts also. In one sense god is not within reality, ...so this is a also a subtle lesson about the impossibility of the task of "reaching" god. Subtle. How can you reach for something, that isint something? Hahaha

Seeing a higher level of interpretation in the New Testament in part, regarding the idea of the devil. Within the following long excerpt I just pasted below: The conception of the Gospels is that Man is continually being dragged down by evil forces, which are in him, not outside him, and to which he consents. By Man's consent to these forces in himself, progress in human life is prevented. The evil powers are in Man, in his own nature, in the very nature of his self−love, his egotism, his ignorance, his stupidity, his malice, his vanity, and also his thinking only from the senses and taking the seen world, the outer appearances of life, as the only reality. These defects are collectively called the devil, which is the name for the terrible power of misunderstanding everything that undeveloped Man possesses, the power of wrongly connecting everything. The devil is the aggregate of all these deficiencies, all these powers of misunderstanding in Man, and all their transmitted results. So the devil is called the slanderer or scandal−maker, from one point of view, and the accuser from another point of view. THE IDEA OF TEMPTATION IN THE GOSPELS PART ONE As we shall study in the next chapter the Miracle of the Transformation of Water into Wine, which in its internal or psychological meaning is about a certain definite stage reached by Jesus in his individual evolution, approximately just before he began to teach, it may be as well to consider the temptations of Jesus and the idea of temptation in its general significance in the Gospels in this connection. Now here it is necessary to grasp clearly something that is not usually understood. What has to be grasped is that Jesus had to undergo inner growth and evolution. He was not born perfect. Had this been the case he would not have suffered temptation or experienced such despair. Some religious people make a mistake in thinking that Christ had from the start such exceptional powers that anything was possible to him. But, as one instance, Jesus mentions the difficulty of healing a certain form of illness and says that much prayer and fasting is necessary before it can be undertaken. Later on we shall study some of these examples, but it can be said here that the most extraordinary views exist about the unlimited powers that Jesus had on earth, so much so that people even argue that if he were the Son of God, why did he not heal all sickness and convert the whole world? This is the same kind of argument used by people who say that if there is a God why are pain, illness, suffering, war, and so on, allowed on earth? The whole standpoint of both arguments is wrong. The idea of the meaning of life on earth is not grasped. In fact, the central idea of the Gospels is not grasped—namely, the idea of individual evolution and re−birth. Let us repeat the words used above to make the issue of this chapter as clear as possible: Jesus had to undergo inner growth and evolution. Let us start from this point. Jesus was not born perfect, as a fully−developed, a fully−evolved Man. On the contrary, he was born imperfect in order to carry out a certain long−prophesied task. He had to re−establish at a critical period in human history a connection between the two levels called" in the Gospels "earth" and "heaven", and this had to be done in himself practically, so as to reopen a way for influences from a higher level of the Universe of Total Being (which extends up through different degrees of the Divine Being to Absolute Being) to reach Mankind on earth and so make it possible for Man to have a possibility of inner development and also for some kind of intelligent culture to exist for a definite period or cycle of history. Of this period Jesus asks himself whether "faith will be found on earth" at its culmination. "Howbeit when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on earth?" Such are the words of Christ and these words suggest that he doubted whether faith would be found on earth at the end of this cycle. Jesus then had to bridge the human and divine in himself and in this way re−establish a connection between heaven and earth. He had to undergo all the difficulties of an inner evolution of the human in him so that it became subject to the higher or "divine" level. He had to pass through all the stages of this evolution in himself by trial and error, until it was perfected, through endless inner temptations, of which we are only given a few glimpses. And all this took place over a long period about which we only know something of the teaching he gave during the latter part of it, which terminated in the final humiliation and so−called catastrophe of the crucifixion, and a few details of the earliest part, but nothing of the comparatively long, intervening part. Here is silence. We do not know where Jesus was taught during this period or by whom he was given directions for the final drama he had to enact, the heralding of which was given to John the Baptist (who did not know him by sight) and the ordained culmination of which is referred to by Jesus in many places, and, in the Miracle of the Transformation of Water into Wine, in the words he is made to say to his mother: "Mine hour is not yet come". (He does not say "mother", but woman. ) Yet some religious people imagine that Jesus was crucified because of Pilate—as it were, by chance. This view is absurd. He had to play the part allotted to him. It was pre−arranged. Now in the earliest references to the development of Jesus it is said that he advanced in wisdom and stature. Jesus advanced by stages. In Luke it is said: "The child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was filled with wisdom, and grace was upon him". (Luke ii 52). Luke—who never saw Jesus—also records his first words when he was found in the Temple at the age of twelve by his father and mother after a search of three days. His mother is made to say: "Son, why have you treated us like this? Do you know, your father and I have sought you sorrowing?" To which Jesus is made to answer: "How is it that ye sought me? Do you not know that I must be in all that belongs to my Father?" Notice that the distinction between "father on earth" and "Father in Heaven" is made—that is, between the idea of the first earthly birth and the second higher birth which was the subject of Christ's teaching. Even at the age of twelve those who listened to him in the Temple were "amazed at his understanding and his answers". The idea, then, of Jesus advancing in understanding is quite distinct. And it is clear that a long period elapsed before he had advanced to his full inner stature and attained his supreme development, called in the Gospels the moment of his glorification. This final fulfilment of his evolution began when Judas went out into the night to "betray" him, as it is called, and when Jesus said to his remaining disciples: "Now is the Son of Man glorified". But even then, it was not yet attained for he obviously had to undergo two further and very severe temptations—the temptation in Gethsemane where he prayed: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt, " and the temptation on the Cross where he cried out: "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Here must also be remarked that Christ began to teach some three years before he attained glorification—that is, before his full development. Let us ask ourselves: How is inner evolution reached? All inner development is possible only through inner temptation. Three temptations of Christ by the devil are mentioned in detail in the early parts of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and referred to very briefly in Mark, in terms of "wild beasts". Nothing is said of this in John but the Miracle of Water into Wine is made as the starting−point of the teaching and miracles of Jesus. Let us study for the present the version of the three early temptations as given in Luke, in order to realize that Jesus had to advance by undergoing development by the method of temptation and so pass through stages of inner growth, by means of inner self−conquest. But let us first remember that the conception of Mankind in its unawakened state as given in the Gospels is that it is in the power of evil and this is represented by the idea that Man is infested by evil spirits. That is, Man is under the power of evil moods and impulses and thoughts, which are personified as evil spirits, whose object is the destruction of a man and of the human race. The conception of the Gospels is that Man is continually being dragged down by evil forces, which are in him, not outside him, and to which he consents. By Man's consent to these forces in himself, progress in human life is prevented. The evil powers are in Man, in his own nature, in the very nature of his self−love, his egotism, his ignorance, his stupidity, his malice, his vanity, and also his thinking only from the senses and taking the seen world, the outer appearances of life, as the only reality. These defects are collectively called the devil, which is the name for the terrible power of misunderstanding everything that undeveloped Man possesses, the power of wrongly connecting everything. The devil is the aggregate of all these deficiencies, all these powers of misunderstanding in Man, and all their transmitted results. So the devil is called the slanderer or scandal−maker, from one point of view, and the accuser from another point of view. But we shall see a little more clearly what is meant by the devil when we begin to understand what temptation really means. In the account of the tempting of Christ by the devil given in Luke, it is said that Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, "being tempted of the devil". This number forty appears in the account of the Flood, where the rain lasted for forty days and nights, in the allegorical account of the Children of Israel wandering forty years in the wilderness, and it is said also of Moses that he fasted forty days and nights before he received the Commandments written on tablets of stone. Here, in Luke, the forty days in the wilderness are directly connected with the idea of temptation: "Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness during forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he did eat nothing in those days and when they were completed he hungered. " (Luke iv, 1−2). Then comes a description of the first resulting temptation of this period of temptation, which is represented in the following way: "And the devil said unto him, If thou art the Son of God command this stone that it becomes a loaf of bread. " (Luke iv, 3. ) Let us take the superficial literal or first level of meaning. Christ hungered and the devil suggests that he should transform a stone into bread. "And Jesus answered and said unto him, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone". (Luke iv, 4. ) On the literal level this is just as it appears—a physical temptation. Notice, however, that it is said above that Jesus was in the wilderness forty days "being tempted of the devil". If we suppose the wilderness to be a literal physical wilderness, how is it that nothing is said about how he was being tempted all this time? One might merely say that he was starving. But in connection with inner development we must understand by the term wilderness a state of mind, a general inner state, comparable with a literal wilderness—that is, a state where there is nothing to guide a man, where he is no longer among familiar things and so is in a wilderness, a state of distress and bewilderment and perplexity, where he is left entirely to himself, as a test, and does not know in which direction to go and must not go in his own direction. This itself is temptation, for all the time he is being starved of meaning. Why should a man leave the familiar and go into a wilderness? He hungers for bread—not literal bread but that bread that we ask for in the Lord's Prayer, so wrongly translated as "daily" bread—namely, guidance, trans−sub−stantial bread, and, literally, bread for the to−morrow, in fact, meaning, for the development of our lives, not for our lives as they are to−day, now, but as they can become, the bread necessary for our support in growing, the bread for successive and necessary stages of understanding. (For the Lord's Prayer is a prayer about inner evolution and the bread asked for is the bread of understanding necessary for it. ) In such a state the temptation is to make bread for oneself— that is, to follow one's own ideas, one's own will—exactly as the builders of the "Tower of Babel" used bricks and slime of their own making, in place of stone and mortar. They thought they could make a new world from their own ideas. Why should one not fall back on oneself and so on life once more instead of waiting for something that seems doubtful? In Matthew the answer of Christ to this temptation is: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. " (Matthew iv, 4. ) See clearly that the devil has asked Christ to make bread by himself to ease his state—that is, not to await the Word of God. The devil says: "If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. " That is, nourish yourself by your own powers and ideas. But the mission of Christ, which began immediately after the temptations in the wilderness, was not to manufacture truth and meaning by himself, but to understand and teach the Truth and meaning of the Word of God—that is, of a higher level of influences. The test was as to his own self−will and the will of a higher level. He had to do the will of "God"— not his own will. He had to bring the lower human level in himself under subjection to the will of the higher or divine level. It is the human level here that is under temptation for Jesus was born of a human mother. To mistake the lower for the higher is the annihilation of a man, for then he will ascribe to himself what does not belong to him. A man will then be tempted to say: "I am God", and not "God is I". If he says: "I am God", he identifies himself with God from a lower level. This annihilates him. If he says: "God is I", he surrenders his self−will and makes the will of God "I" in him and so is under, and must obey, God— that is, a higher level. Notice that the devil is made to address Jesus in the words: "If thou art the Son of God... " and so suggests that Jesus can do as he likes, as if he were at the level of God. All this was in Jesus. It took place in him. And although this temptation can be taken quite simply as one relative to overcoming the appetites, in this case, hunger, it is clear that other and far deeper meanings lie behind the literal meaning and that they are concerned with those problems of self−love and power—and violence—in which human nature is rooted. Jesus had human nature in him from the woman—his mother. The task was to transform it. This is quite obvious in the second temptation, where Christ is offered all power over the visible world. The devil is represented as leading Christ to a "high place" and showing him all the kingdoms of the world in a point of time: "He led him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall be thine. " (Luke iv, 5−7). This is temptation as to earthly power and the deep vanity that lies in everyone. It is again directed to the self−love. It includes love of the world and its possessions. The devil will give Christ the world. Love of power (authority) and love of possessions represent two sides of self−love. Here the human level in Christ is represented as being subject to the most tremendous temptation conceivable in regard to worldly gain and possessive power. The temptation is described in such a way as to bring this out clearly: the whole world is presented to Jesus "in a point of time"—that is, simultaneously. Jesus is made to answer: "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. " That is, not the world and its possessions. The answer is from the same ground of understanding as that given in the first temptation. There is something apart from the world and the love of possessing it. There is something else that Man must possess. This higher level, both possible to Man and already in a man, is the direction in which his desire for power and glory must turn. But even although a man knows and is quite certain about this direction, he can still be tempted—and even more so. Otherwise Christ would not have been tempted in this way. His human side was still open to this temptation. It is not only the overwhelming effect of the senses and any immediate appeal to self−interest and vanity that has to be thought of here but perhaps the far subtler ideas of being able, by worldly means and outer power and authority, to help mankind by becoming a king on earth. We know that the disciples thought Jesus was going to be an earthly king possessing the whole world and give them earthly rewards. They thought from the lower level about higher things. They could not at first see what Jesus was talking about—namely, the reaching of a higher or inner level which has nothing to do with the lower or outer level of life. We must remember here that the path that Christ had to follow led to apparent failure in outer life, and outer powerlessness—and to a death reserved only for the worst criminals. He had only a few ultimate followers. It looked as if everything had been useless. Certainly we cannot expect to understand this unless we grasp the whole idea of two levels. But we shall speak more of this later on, and only say here that temptation in the real sense is about these two levels and relates to the passage from one to the other. If Jesus had been born perfect, he would have been beyond all temptation. He would not have represented the New Man or the Way to it. He called himself the Way: "I am the Way", for this reason. This is chapter 2 of Maurice Nicoll's The New Man Its easily found for free on the net in PDF

One influence on how I see Jesus: Jesus as Wisdom Teacher by Cynthia Bourgeault When I talk about Jesus as a wisdom master, I need to mention that in the Near East “wisdom teacher” is a recognized spiritual occupation. In seminary I was taught that there were only two categories of religious authority: one could be a priest or a prophet. That may be how the tradition filtered down to us in the West. But within the wider Near East (including Judaism itself), there was also a third, albeit unofficial, category: a moshel moshelim, or teacher of wisdom, one who taught the ancient traditions of the transformation of the human being. These teachers of transformation—among whom I would place the authors of the Hebrew wisdom literature such as Ecclesiastes, Job, and Proverbs—may be the early precursors to the rabbi whose task it was to interpret the law and lore of Judaism (often creating their own innovations of each). The hallmark of these wisdom teachers was their use of pithy sayings, puzzles, and parables rather than prophetic pronouncements or divine decree. They spoke to people in the language that people spoke, the language of story rather than law. Parables, such as the stories Jesus told, are a wisdom genre belonging to mashal, the Jewish branch of universal wisdom tradition. As we shall see shortly, Jesus not only taught within this tradition, he turned it end for end. But before we can appreciate the extraordinary nuances he brought to understanding human transformation, we need first to know something about the context in which he was working. There has been a strong tendency among Christians to turn Jesus into a priest—“our great high priest” (see Letter to the Hebrews). The image of Christos Pantokrator (“Lord of All Creation”) dressed in splendid sacramental robes has dominated the iconography of both Eastern and Western Christendom. But Jesus was not a priest. He had nothing to do with the temple hierarchy in Jerusalem, and he kept a respectful distance from most ritual observances. Nor was he a prophet in the usual sense of the term: a messenger sent to the people of Israel to warn them of impending political catastrophe in an attempt to redirect their hearts to God. Jesus was not that interested in the political fate of Israel, nor would he accept the role of Messiah continuously being thrust upon him. His message was not one of repentance (at least in the usual way we understand it; more on that later this week) and return to the covenant. Rather, he stayed close to the ground of wisdom: the transformation of human consciousness. He asked those timeless and deeply personal questions: What does it mean to die before you die? How do you go about losing your little life to find the bigger one? Is it possible to live on this planet with a generosity, abundance, fearlessness, and beauty that mirror Divine Being itself? These are the wisdom questions, and they are the entire field of Jesus’ concern. Reference: Adapted from Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 23-24.

From my experiences so far in such communities, I have noticed that they require seriously developed and thought out leadership roles. One self sustaining spiritual/addiction recovery community in Thailand was very well run but one thing I could not help but notice was the sheer variety of people that were attending for allkinds of different reasons. It became a strange mix at times and their was nothing that could be done about it. The "leaders"/those in charge definitely had difficulties managing the place with people coming and going all the time and some people living their from anywhere between 4 days- 2 years. There was one dude who kind of founded the place but their was no one leader, and I can't see how it would have worked that way if it was. There were 2 meditation teachers, 2 yoga teacher, 4 different life coaches, and different spiritual teachers teaching different workshops etc. I can't see how it would of worked without this collaborate effort and designating different people to fulfil different roles while having that tight nit group run the whole place and maintain a stable collective energy as a whole community. Personally, it seemed like a big task to pull off, but they seemed to do it well. Power to em. That said, it definitely can work and it was very inspiring, but I agree with others here. Personal self transformation has to happen way before you even consider building your own. I would recommend visiting some around the world yourself for your own personal growth first.

@Serotoninluv What is the concern exactly? Identification with thought? Ego? There is no any. Thoughts are aware of themselves. Recognozed for what they are; imagination. No identification with imagination. No identification whatsoever. Honestly and naturally. I am not forcing nonduality. I am surrendering to it. I cannot be more than I am already. No real embodiment being noticed. There are no bodies left, really. No containers. There is only liberation. Freedom. Exploration. Thoughts are being thought and expressed in alignment. No body is fighting them or stopping them from being. Yet there also is the freedom to stop thinking altogether, at any time. Consciousness is conscious of itself. It is exploring itself. Expressing itself. Experiencing itself. Not caring for a single thing. Perception is illusory. Consciousness does not fear illusion. Nor does it resist it, or anything else for that matter. Illusion is how everything is. And so am I. Peacefuly. Getting more and more comfortable with absolute emptiness. Still, there is an ongoing process of transformation and expansion. I do not care how it looks. I simply allow the unfolding and express it in whatever shape or form I choose to. This thread is one example. I do not identify with words, either. "Consciousness" is merely a pointer, pointing towards that which cannot be actually defined or labeled. It is a concept I use in order to attain a higher understanding of what already is; effortlessly so.

so for the past about 2 weeks i think I'm having an ego backlash (i procrastinate, a lot of resistance, overwhelming feelings of backsliding ...) you get the point. i did a huge transformation in my life in almost every aspect of it and full of motivation to keep going ,but now for the last 2 weeks i still do all the practices but their not the best ex.harder to focus in the meditation and less motivation to even do one.and its been bothering me that maybe im just going back but i am trying to do the best for now while in this phase. so i was wondering if thats an ego backlash and for how more will it stay for and if you have any tips of what to do in that situation.

@pointessa "Initiation is related to honoring the lineage of gurus and not sharing information." The way initiations happen in Isha are purely to transmit knowledge. Not an objective knowledge that you see in books but a subjective knowledge that can only happen in a commited atmosphere and energy transmission. I heard sadhguru once said that if you go through the program and you have 0 clue what he was talking about. If you have no understanding what was happening. After 6months of doing the practice you will understand everything that was offered in that program because they don't just talk and talk. They drill this information like a seed in your energy for life and when you do the practice the seed will sprout and you will realise everything that was said in the program from within. It will just sprout out of you. If the seed is not there. If the initiation did not happen nothing will sprout. That's why initiations are so fantastic. Because they drill meditation into you on such a deep levels that it's forever. You can't grasp these subjetive dimensions through books. It has to be transmited there's no other way. If it was possible to just write a book on it then his work would be 100times easier. @pointessa "I am not sure it is a great idea to believe nothing you have accomplished would have occurred without the blessing of a particular person." It's not a belief it's so overhelmingly real for me like my 5 fingers. It's not blessing it's total transformation. People who go through his advanced programs within 24h they transform so much that even their face will change. It's ONLY because of imense energy that's been invested in them through intense initiations. Some people need to be caried by volunteers because they can't stand anymore. Don't confuse initiations with stupid blessings you receive in churches.

@Leo Gura does this mean enlightened persons can be concious of their immoral and evil nature and indulge in the same with out any pricking of moralality ethics and cheat harm others accepting that as their nature and inadequacy? So its just about getting rid of sense of me? Is it not about complete transformation of mind as well? No annihilation of bayd nature and habbits aka vasanas as told by Ramana maharishi?

who knows if it’s god or the devil who doesn’t like laziness! or do you think in the garden of eden there was no laziness? if so hammoks would not exist! what is laziness anyway? would there even be laziness without obligation/duty vs regeneration/consolidation/transformation or selfresponsibility?

Thanks for your reply. I was wondering about that too. I was wondering the same thing. Since we talk about enlightenment a lot in the forum, I'm going to include that here too. It does relate. Just allow me to try to explain. It's just what I noticed. Remember how Leo did the 10 ox herding pics video? Well, if you digged into that, you will notice that Riding the Ox Backwards is your awakening. That's when you are the no-self (nothingness). Then, you transform into everythingness. Then, there's a "major" transformation back into your ego (body) and this world (realm) where you collapse as a black hole within yourself. You flow into love (bliss) when this happens, and when you finally realize this, your physical environment changes in some way in the form of "ah-ha" moments. If you could apply this in your own life, you become 'enlightened.' You don't suffer when this happens, just like in your awakening, and you're completely detached from everything, including the outcome. It's the end to suffering. You realize that everything is you. That's why it surprised me that at the end of the video, the homeless man mentioned world peace. In the end of the 10 ox herding pics, there is a street person called, The Cloth Bag Monk, who liked to sleep in the snow and mingled with ppl in the market place, esp children, and liked to pass out gifts. I'm wondering, this Cloth Bag Monk lived his life to the fullest as a street person in ancient times. He just had a smile on his face and mingled and went with the flow of things. He didn't look like he suffered, even though his conditions may seem harsh. He followed the "principles" of the deepest awakening (wisdom). I'm wondering, what did he do for a living? Did he babysit out on the streets? Maybe, and no one paid him. He may have just lived off of donations from others since he was considered a "monk." Nowadays, we have the internet. We have a life purpose. We have research and great sources. We have entrepreneurship and startup networking with angel/VC groups esp in major cities across the world. This is our marketplace. We form ideas and exchange our ideas. This is because our society is at stage orange. In the Cloth Bag Monk's time, society was at red/blue. They didn't have the exchange of ideas and opportunities. I think it's time to form ideas and go to our marketplace. Here is a modern day Cloth Bag Monk. I'm a busy person, but looks like I have to follow my own advice.

@lmfao Yeah, I did Thick Face Black Heart. But needs a couple of re-reads with life experiences. I can understand it a bit since I lived in China, that is why I like it a lot. For instance, the boss had such a "big face" that everyone worked hard, and he had a "perfect" life. Multiple startups, always on the go was married which is culturally extremely important. Etc. Nobody would dare to question him(note I don't speak any Chinese languages), and everyone paid him a lot of respect and worked giga hard when he was there, it dropped dead silent and you could only hear the bosses voice upstairs talking very very intelligently and friendly by tonality, yet I have no idea what actually happened. Me and my co-worker from France always had to laugh at weird Chinese social interactions no idea, for me it felt like an anime I am legit not kidding lol, I loved it. Many people in the startup went to uni, no idea which. The French guy did his masters in economics Still, somehow either the culture or the boss abused the people, not sure most people stayed an hour longer. So, by contrasting culture and imagining how business is like. This book can be fantastic imo. For whatever purposes. I read the book integral psychology, this is a great resource talking about psychology and spiral dynamics. Premodern and Modern to Postmodern changes in culture. Theories from Psychologist such as Kohlberg and Cale Gilligan, various stages, quadrants, lines, levels. AQAL -> All quadrants all levels all lines are explained. Yet, it is okay to read, a bit technical, I am not a memory genius. So, talking about it helps or writing. I took a glimpse into the book, stage red is described by the lord of the flies, for instance, power drives, feudal lords, heroes, dragons. Is the basis of feudal empires, is power driven, egocentric, impulsive, heroic. (See any anime fight). "The Feudal Lords protect underlings in exchange for obedience and labor". Also, power and glory enjoy self to the fullest without regret or remorse. Can be equated with a black heart. If it would be the social sword and thick face the social shield. Where seen: Jame bond villains, wild rock stars, Attila the Hun, rebellious youth, frontier mentalities, epic heroes. I can see what you mean with that, owning anger especially with the preference of choosing anger as something good is from my point of view an awesome choice, instead of repressing it and denying it. I am owning my anger more and more. Sports is the game changer for me, yet I cought I could so I am missing that streak for now. Especially, in case you want to grow up stages in the Audibook integral transformation which came out this year, Ken Wilber mentions that weightlifting especially helps, to grow, since its activities the body. It helps with neurogenesis as is commonly known now and helps also to grow in the emotional line and one other line(+growth overall) Also, that training the "subtle", "casual", bodies the physical body is the "gross" body helps to grow in stages like tai chi etc. I am also doing a compassionate meditation now and split it up into 2 segments because I can't stand being overly compassionate for 1h. It is draining, and I feel too many setbacks from that 30 min works is perfect for now. The flow ( i am going by technique name) inside the body feels similar to anger, yet warmer, more colorful, happier and merrier. I feel it helps a lot with jealousy and frustration, I am by predisposition not a very jealous person, I am more ... resentful and frustrated. So, this is great. For counteracting that. (All three emotions). I have this from JP lectures and websites where I took the big 5 test. I assumed you might have read the book Quiet, I always wanted to buy it. Yet, never felt it is that important. I will still buy it in the near future. Ideally. I like MBTI, yet I made myself crazy, I still glimpsed into it. Reading it too much I feel I define myself to one stereotype at one hand at the other I feel when I know how each function works that I can use it to understand ppl and myself. I rarely get types wrong besides INTP, I often think they are ISTJ an ISFJ.. Even after watching so much of Leo's content + LP course. I like it as a model to deal with individuals and seeking out people who I know I click with. For instance, I get along the most as an INFJ with ISTJ is for me the most humorous of all times, INTJ and ENFJ work extremely well. I like all types. So, I don't care that much. This is the video I watched in the past about introversion and extroversion.

Also I shambhavi mahamudra kriya is not like in tao. It's just a simple kriya which somehow has this effect of naturally stopping the compulsive masturbation. I don't know if it's a sexual energy transformation or it is something else. But I know it works only In tao they do something different i think. I'm not the expert here. They play with their orgasms and transform their sexual energies somehow.

@Mulky during an awakening, since you're not embodied anymore, and there is no phenomenon anymore, you don't suffer because you don't have to deal with an ego anymore. Even during that transformation back to your ego, you don't suffer. Instead, you fall into love (bliss) when you embody back into the ego -- both the body and our world (earth realm). Now apply this to life. How well are you going to apply this to life?

no way out of the search, due to extreme suffering. that's usually when transformation actually takes place because the breaches and farces of the ego become clearer. in practice, the generic picture of such situation is someone crying, feeling weak and thirsty for deep changes. oh, i still remember the feeling. i'm so grateful.

@Shadowraix physcadelics are not harmful? Are they addictive? Will it cause schizophrenia? Depression? Or other delusional disorders? What realization/transformation it will bring except to slow down the thoughts in a dizzy state?