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Green has already done the work. Their focus has shifted from "I" to "We" and now use their personal transformation resources for social transformation from the bureaucratic model of protecting the institution at the expense of the individual needs of the human being, to reorganising the institution to protect the individual needs of the human being. If you are still focused on personal transformation then you are not at the green stage.

You are absolutely right thank you. Even befor I made a big transformation I allways had this pride and high self asteem even if I wasn't confident.

For me enlightenment is experiencing who you really are. In essence. You become pure light and pure love. It is also the transformation process that comes after. Nirvana or paradise is the bliss, the ecstasy, the state of mind, the realization and the peace that you get and stays with you every single day of your life after enlightenment.

I feel you!! I can't stress how awesome this is. I am working with coaches and NLP trainers on my working hours. Having coaches or/and an NLP trainers as a coworkers with whom you spend 8h a day is priceless! I've never experienced so much transformation in such a short period of time!! You answered your own question, Indeed. How does working on something take you to fantasy land? I would strongly disagree. Perhaps you meant to say something else?

Following are words of UG. 1.To be yourself is the easiest thing. And you don't want to be in your state. You'd rather be somebody else, imitate the life of somebody else. That's your problem. To be yourself doesn't need any time at all. But you talk of timelessness, which is a mockery. To be yourself, do you need time? To be a good man, to be a marvelously religious man, to be in a state of peace, to be in a state bliss, naturally you need time. That will always be tomorrow. When tomorrow arrives, you say, "All right, day after tomorrow." That is time. [I am] Not [talking about] this metaphysical or philosophical thing. I am not talking about metaphysical time and timeless. There is no such thing as the timeless. 2.What takes you away from your state is this movement in the direction of wanting to be in some state other than yourself. To be yourself doesn't need time. If I am a village idiot, I remain a village idiot. Finish. I don't want to be an intelligent man. Even if my neighbor takes advantage of his extraordinary intelligence and exploits [me], good luck. What can I do? To accept the reality, this is the reality of the world. There is no other world. There is no other reality, ultimate reality. This is the only reality. You have to function in this world. You can't run away from this world. How can you run away from this world? Because you are that world. Where you can you go? Hide yourself in a cave? Yes, you are taking your thoughts wherever you go. You cannot run away from your shadow. It's there all the time. So, you can't do a thing about thought. That's all that I am saying. When you realize the absurdity of all your effort to do something about the thought -- it's creating the problem; it's misery for you; you can't do anything -- when you can't do anything, when you realize that you can't do a thing about it, it's not there. You are not using it [thought] as a means to get something for you. 3.I want to say this again. You desire. If you do not want anything, there is no thought at all. You understand? Wanting is thinking, it doesn't matter what you want -- want self-realization, want God-realization -- you want anything, that means you have to use this instrument. These are not your thoughts, these are not your feelings. You may not like it. They belong to somebody else. You want to make them your own. You have unfortunately made them your own. That's why you ask all these questions. Why do you ask all these questions? These questions have been put before to so many people -- all the sages, saints and saviors of mankind, the holy men dead and alive. They are all ready to answer. They have composed a lot of lullabies. You go and listen to them and go to sleep, if you want to. That's what you are interested in. You want somebody else to pat on your back and say, "Oh, fine, just fine, you are doing very well. Do more and more of the same and you will reach the destination you want to arrive at." 4.You want comfort. You want affection from the person you are living with. You want this, that and the other. But what you want to get -- the GET of all the 'gets' -- you are not going to. That [what you want to get] is in relationship with your enlightenment, your freedom, transformation and all that kind of thing. There is nothing to get from me or from anybody. You want to be at peace with yourself. You will not get anything from anybody. All this is disturbing the peace that is already there. Your idea of peace is altogether different. 5.Because there is a constant demand on your part to experience everything that you look at, everything that you are feeling inside. If you don't do that, 'you' as you know yourself and as you experience yourself is coming to an end. That is a frightening thing. You don't want to come to an end; you want continuity. All the spiritual pursuits are in the direction of strengthening that continuity. So, all your experiences, all your meditations, all your sadhana -- all that you do is strengthening the 'self'. They are selfcentered activities. Whatever you do to be free from the 'self' is also a selfcentered activity. The process you adopt to attain what you call 'being' is also a 'becoming' process. So, there is no such thing as 'being'. Anything you do -any movement, in any direction, on any level -- is a becoming process.

Thank you.There are Generic definitions for self-actualization.but there must be an specific answer for each and every question. something like this : "self-actualization is self satisfaction in every aspect of life." or "It is transformation from 'being in the shadow of our desires and feeling regret' to 'living in our desires and feeling happy' "

@Ayla This is all self-actualization in nutshell and might be the best post in this forum by far. When i realized this 1 year ago, i was shocked. It is just webs and webs and webs of lies. This is why my favorite quote "Repeat a lie a thousand times and it becomes the truth." (But in reality, it is kinda more complex that this) @Leo Gura Leo I am in strange dilemma now. As i mentioned, about 1 year ago i realized that the nature of our beliefs taken as truth are false. I was doing self inquiry for a while and i got really nice insights. But i have a gut feeling that i need to do the next thing : I stumbled upon Eben Pagan's course Man Transformation where he mentions how some really important person in his life asked him : Who are you ? What is your story ? Eben later realized that, at the school party, he was the one who was standing outside the crowd just for sake of ''looking cool.'' He wanted to be ''outsider.'' That was his so called script. The second interesting thing i stumbled upon Jed Mckeena way of asking What is true. For example : Circle has 360 degrees. I did not finish the book yet so there might many more far more interesting examples but these two stories really planted a seed inside me to ask myself. What is my story ? What is my script i tell myself i am ? So my dilemma is to start writing a journal here on forum. I am kinda scared to share every lie that i say to myself but i know if i do not know do it, i will be just stuck inside my head and i will just let my ego swing. If i write in my own journal at home, i dont know how beneficial it will be. Here on forum, it looks like i wont slack (i do not know if i will , but still i would not like to be only own judge of my thoughts ) So can you share your own opinion ? My goal is to get awareness over my beliefs and lies i am telling to my self. I want to get to my core beliefs and dig them out. This video really made question if i should really do it so i ask you now what you think ? Do you think is it worth it or not ? I am already doing good with my mindfulness and awareness during the day and i started to recognize parts of self that have tendency to react in certain way. One example wold be i hold beliefs that i am smart and my subconscious and ego seeks mild validation in certain situations and in opposite situations, my ego just cant accept to be open minded because it can not accept reality. When i get awareness over that, when there is great emotional tendency and ''negative pattern'' of thoughts come in those situations, i just let go. Sometimes i can not do it because i am not aware, but as time passes by, i am letting go more and more of control. EDIT : I got insight what i should i do. I am focusing on the wrong stuff. Even tho journaling is useful, i know which part of me is pulling me to do this and it is not right thing to do.

@FindingPeace In a way, you're right. In a way, you're wrong. Note, what I wrote here is not necessarily that refined, I just went on writing with the flow, and most of it not addressed to you finding; It's not intended to be hostile to you finding I didn't mean what I said about overemphasis in relation to this thread if you thought that mate, I meant of what I've personally come across in a more general sense. Sometimes I write a response to a thread without reading the comments others have done You're right. As I said in my post, I think maybe one of the best things to do when confronted with danger, is to respond with what is needed, but without making any personal problem of it. Like, if someone engages a fight with me, I will respond, either with escape or countering attack. And preferably, if possible, to avoid generating a personal hate for the person in question or for his action. Just a problem solving phenomena, like opening an umbrella when it rains. Or not even battling it at all, calling it a day and just gtfo:ing to inside a building. I don't necessarily need to start a drawn out process of hating the rain. You're right that I might have used "forgiving" in a loose way, but notice that I said OVERemphasis. What my intention to mean was, that I'm a little bit sick of the overarching mentality of "turn the other cheek". Yes, we may all be one consciousness and boundaries are illusion. But I don't fucking care. Yo, if I want to hurt myself, I'll let myself know that I'll hurt myself if I want to hurt me. This is my incarnation as a human being. Don't tell me that there isn't a logical phenomena that I should defend myself if needed. That is the reason humanity has survived, if this instinct was not evolved, we wouldn't even have the chance to experience duality; how it is to be a separate perception. I think I'm tired of it because so many bullshitters use this rhetoric of non-defensive mentality. I am sick of some people's unhinged-to-reality opinions of how to interact in the world. I mean, just because it feels good to say that oh we're all one, make love not war, doesn't mean that it's actually a valid thing. In doing so, you're abandoning logic for your feelgoods, and leaving everyone else to do the reasonable thinking. I'm interested in truth. I prefer to look at the harsh reality of our bloody past. To consider the fact that in the future, there will statistically speaking probably be a horrific painful death in store for "me". Yes, the ego I have might just be an identification of consciousness, and that death simply might be a change of consciousness that leads to another story, the transformation to something else. However, we're living in this kind of story now, and I want to understand this incarnation with sober analytical eyes. How this dimension operates, this certain setting of experiencing. To not delude myself and lose touch with logic through the feel-good way of spirituality. hm ok simon ok The ego has spoken, but let it, because I think it has some valid points. Note, what I wrote here is not necessarily that refined, I just went on writing with the flow, and most of it not addressed to you finding; It's not intended to be hostile to you finding JK, this is what I really wanted to write to you @FindingPeace : DONT FUCKING TELL ME WHAT TO DO FINDING . UR WRONG. FUCK UR DELUSIONAL SHIT ABOUT HOW THE WORLD WORKS, IF U WANNA DIE CUS U PRIORITIZE GOOD FEELINGS OVER ACTUAL CRITIAL THINKING GO AHEAD FAGGET GO DIE LOL IDC BUT DONT TELL ME WHAT TO DO FUCK U KTHXBYE

@Water @Sigma @shouldnt Well... Thanks to you guys ^^ First time ever doing masturbation for me, age 19 x) I know, my name is Ken, so I should already have f***** a couples of barbies at this age, but that's not the cas at all for me ^^ This morning, I woke up, and told to myself... I need to try and see by myself what's that, and to overcome my fear of doing it. I try to force mysel doing while watching porn... but it didn't worked at all, porn just disgusted me. Later during the day, I fely naturally turned on by a youtube video I watched (but it wasn't forced, I was just like following the flow of my feelings) and I did it ;p I forgot the fear and the pride I had, and it worked I can tell you that this first time for me just blew my mind I wasn't expecting that much pleasure... I have to manage that now, thanks x) I see that as a powerfull drug, because I never experienced it before, anf that what it feel like... And indeen, looking at the society today, it is a powerfull drug. My body was asking me more 5 hours later x) It was just so great... I only spend less that 5 or 10 minutes doing that, and when I finshed I encounter a very new sensation for me that I never really felt before... Amazing, great invention x) It released a lot of tensions out of my body, and I felt like my brain had a pleasure shot... During the all day after, I was felling better than before, and I was able to avoid sugar much more easily than usual (because I'm addicted to sugar for a couple of months now... I'm not fat, but I just eat too much of it, sometimes it can be insane for me). I was thinking that in order to do that, you had to spent so much of your time that it was insane, but what I experienced is that, following a natural rise (and not forcing it), it can be just 5 or 10 minutes spend, and the result can be a great relaxation of the body and the mind. Well, It's kind of very weird to masturbate for the first time at 19... But I'm glad I didn't do it earlier, because now that I'm really into self actualization, I'm gonna be able to avoid falling into an addiction... I was just feeling like a human being without sex before... I I was feeling very good as well. I don't change my poinion, sex isn't a need I'm able to perfectly live without it. Now I understand that if I have this human body, and if I have the desires and feelings, I have first to fully apreciate that, and to live experiences, and only then will I be able to transcend that in order to discover a full enlightenment. I see sex and masturbation as... a tool, something pleasurable we can enjoy, similar to good food, similar to football. I live it as somethong more fulfilling than good food, and fooball actually, but that's the same basis, chemicals in our brain telling us that our body is feeling great. Like everything in life, there is a middle way with sex... You can blive one extreme (Like I was) and totally forget it, or live the other extreme, being sexaddict for example... But the best way might be the middle one... Just enough, listening to what you feel in the inside, to what you feel is right for you at this moment. I think that having sex (alone or with someone else) something like once every two days for example (depending on what each individual is feeling), in order to relax and enjoy a good pleasure is great That's what I'm gonna do from now on, and also because I know that it will help me a lot in order to control sugar addiction. Now, shouldnt, I wasn't stopping me from having pleasure... well, I wasn't feeling this way at all... Or maybe that I was doing it, but unconsciously, I wasn't aware of it... simply because I didn't know what it felt like... That the first time I had an orgasm today... I didn't even knew this pleasure existed... Great invention, yeah. Now that I now that sex is pleasurable and that I can enjoy it, I'm gonna use it wisely, in order to release tension when I too stressed... I'm quiet on the outside, but sometimes, I'm angry in the inside... angry at the world (too blind in the opinion of my ego...) and angry at myself (when I eat too much sugar for example... afterward, I'm like "Why did you just do ? You are gonna be sick ! You're rubbish"). I'm also feeling that I might replace my sugar addiction for that... but the root of the problem wouldn't be resolven I would still feel a lack of something in the inside... That's why I'm reading an interesting book from Peter Ralston (pursuing consciousness) about transformation and enlightenment, in order for me to really transform myself from the deep roots. There are so many stuff deeply rooted in us that we are unconscious of... that's crazy... but it's so interesting to do self inquiry. Sex is a need... untill it isn't (or feel like a need, util it doesn't anymore). I feel that I need to experiment before transcending it, and that's what I'm gonna do. Thanks so much to you guys, and to this forum, it's making me self actualizing even more

Name: Ryan Gleeson Age: 19 Gender: Male Location: Luton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom Occupation: Commis Waiter at 5 star Hotel Marital Status: Single Kids: No Hobbies: Nature, Foresting, Hiking, Consciousness, Awareness, enlightenment, meditation, personal development, making big personal goals, you-tubing on my personal development journey In summer 2015, I came across personal development through Actualized.org and ever since that time, I could not be any more happy that I did. Since the discovery of lifes potentials I have been on a journey of growth ever since. As a Kid I always used to think about deep topics but then family and society was a huge major distraction from that curios and inquisitive nature I always knew that I had. NOW however after all that I have been through, I want to continue to grow and expand! Nothing can stop me now I have to knowledge..I could talk about what I have been through now BUUUUT why!? It happened but it dosent exist now, it is not real really! I am free! I want to grow and expand to now where every month that goes by, I am a new Ryan Gleeson...The fire and passion inside of me has now been ignited once again and limiting beliefs will never again now hold me back from my true capabilities. I can do this alone! I now love Ryan Gleeson!! I can move to Canada! I can forget the past and keep on growing! <3 peace out!! Personal challenges I've overcome: *over three years of therapy and the life altering transformation I gained! *Serve Anxiety *Low self belief *Horrific bullying throughout my school life *Mothers abusive boyfriends *Moving out of home in to a care system that got me to independent living through 4 different places I lives alone *My flat *Caring what people thought of me, gone!! What I'm working on now: *Travelling to Canada to consider migration *aligning my life to my values *A future potential business in enlightenment, awareness and presence at a forest retreat in Canada *Self inquiry *A total shift in my self image *Eliminating limiting beliefs and childhood lies I happened to be conditioned too *Ability to be content whenever I shift my thoughts and gaining to knowledge on how to accomplish this simultaneously *Change in External circumstances *Future Gym goals! & diet! *A potential friendship or relationship of companionship where we help and support each others growth on a deep and intense level. * Youtube video journey and communication skills

@step1 Hello step1, here are the books that really got me on the Journey : Way of The Peaceful Warrior, by Dan Millman Zen and The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, and Lila, by Robert Pirsig The Wisdom Of Insecurity, The Way Of Zen, Tao: The Watercourse Way, and In My Own Way, by Alan Watts The teachings of Arnaud Desjardins (don't know if they're translated) I Am, by Sri Nisargadata (transcriptions of questions/answers) On Having No Head, by Douglas Harding The teachings of Karlfried Dürkheim Une vie bouleversée, by Etty Hillesum (don't know the title in english) ; the beautiful and impressive day-to-day spiritual transformation of a young woman living under the Nazi occupation. The Razor's Edge, by Somerset Maugham Enjoy !

Religion or rather Mythology is a great language to use if you understand it and don't just go by the dogmatic version. The best part about it is that the symbols go straight to the subconscious mind, no scientific or psychological description or explanation of things will ever do that no matter how well told it is, so if you for example listen to Leos videos your left brain might start to grasp what he's saying really well but you will still be hold back in every aspect by your subconscious mind. This is probably one of the biggest reasons why meditation is so damn important but if you smash the pillars of Religion and Science together you'd probably only need half the meditation to reach the same level of enlightenment (or something to that effect). Rituals is the best shit ever if you want to change your subconscious btw, haven't tried it myself yet but it's pretty obvious, I've been told to read "kabbalah magic and the great work of self-transformation" by a guy who seam to really understand shit on youtube so if anyone is interested check it out. If you say that you will live your life by nothingness and try to explain that to your red brain you gonna fail, if you say that you will live as a Brother or Sister of Christ and become a born again christian, you gonna fail, if you use all of those symbols and understand the meaning behind them you will progress even if it still take some time you will move forward because your subconscious understand that shit far better than your red, left brain do. On the top of the blue pillar on the Kabbalistic tree of life lies Chokmah - Wisdom, this is to see the reflection of the Christ which is the Hidden one - The Nothingness that you are in everything and everyone around you (as strange at that sound seeing how it's nothing but you'll probably understand what I mean one day if you keep at it, it's the "shining light on things" meaning that Leo talked about in the latest video). The blue pillar is the sub-conscious that see everything as one and there's no time or space in that part of the mind. PS. The Book of Enoch say that the Elect will one day come down even on Mount Sinai which is the moon or human consciousness, that is the true enlightenment The Demiurge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g89tzZq98tw

Hello @Ella90, very good question, I will try to give my perspective on enlightment and hope this is of some use for you, I've listened to some of Leo's videos about enlightement and I remember in one of them, he spoke about a theoretical plateau or level of enlightment he didn't want to theoretize about, because it's out of reach for us in our current spiritual development (he put it in his words, I'd need to look for the video to quote him correctly.) You see, he is wise enough to not speculate about things that are beyond comprehension. Even if we on our spiritual path encounter times where we dwell in higher levels of counciousness, it's not easy to convey the experience, the insight we've gathered etc. And encounters of this hightened spiritual awarness (peak experiences) are open to all of us, also to people who are just starting on their journey or even triggered by some event, circumstances, a book they read or a lecture they attend. On a more practical level (which is deeper than the one previously mentioned), we have a realm of "flow" or "being in the zone". With many spiritual practices we can bring us up to a level where we experience "flow" and do so more often. But you see, this "being in the zone" is not only being experienced by spiritual thruth seekers. Even in sports it is being mentioned and you can read about this phenomenon elsewhere. So what does Enlightenment represent to you? See, we have many traditions. Many definitions. Many representations and "fancy" descriptions of what this state is all about. Some compare it to their tradition, others to their "belief system" and so on It sometimes becomes so bizzare that it's hard to stomach, as people wonder about a word, get confused and immobile even. They don't strive for their aim anymore, because they're literally "lost in translation(s)". I'll admit, the term Enlightenment itself is prone to change. It will change depending on what book you read, whom do you listen to and even if you followed an accomplished Master of a particular School or practice, he will give you many scraps of insight, but never the whole picture. Because, it is on you to find the ultimate truth, the truth where words just can't do any justice. Whereas the Websters Dictionary gives a shaby definition for Enlightenment, it gives a good one for its adjective form, enlightened: This is only meant as a starting point. Those are highly practical definitions. I would, from my own perspective, also say that whatever we do in our lives, we should strive to upgrade our level through "enlightments". We can be good and "in flow" in one area of our life but sloppy or "immobile" in others. We should inspect those areas, as only inspection, putting our awarness on some-thing, will alow for enlightenment in this area to take place. The more areas we master and enlighten the more we grow as a whole, integrated being. Therefore it is important to know what we are good in and honor and appreciate those areas and at the same time also looking for and upgrading the weak-points. (I don't suggest to try to get rid of the weak-points only, as it will firmly destabilize your already mastered areas - acknowledge the areas you're good in.) Can someone see if another is actually enlightened? I am not sure about it, because there are so many different expactations connected to it. Also it is hard to comprehend something which is higher advanced then our current paradigm or mindset. But definitely we can see if we can learn something new, gather a new point to view from and expand our insights and knowledge. Enlightenment is also to a large degree subjective -- and on the other hand, as mentioned before, bound to the definition or tradition you're measuring from. And also I think, even an enlightened being can have a bad day as long as he is alive and carries a body around with him :-D What is of interest, though, for me, is if people are striving for positive transformation, not only for themselves but also for the world in general. Those are the people worth having for companions if you yourself are looking for greater spiritual andvancements. I tell you outright, I'd rather be alone in a cave in the Himalayas than surrounded by ignorant people not worth aligning with. Fortuanatly more and more people are waking up and striving for spiritual development. It's really refreshing. Kind regards, Christian P.S. Please bear with my english. It's my second language and I literally learned it over the internet. I try my best, but my skills in using this language are still limited.

1) You don't know who you are to begin with, how you supposed to be something you don't know? 2) You can't just be confident, it's deep inner transformation, how exactly to do that? It's common shallow advice "naturals" are giving, and it's more irritating than helpful. "Oh, you're suicidal? - Just don't be suicidal". Yeah, right.

@Pinocchio Okay, but I'm still not clear why you say Shinzen is not enlightened. I don't think you ever said why. Let's also not forget that there are many stages of enlightenment. So you should clearly define your terms. When I speak of enlightenment, I mean classic enlightenment: Kensho: dis-identification with the self as a body/mind, answering the What am I? question. There are many stages beyond that and there is a transformation of the mind that occurs over the years as one learns to embody the enlightenment insights.

The old spiritual paradigm focuses on tearing things down, whereas the new era of spirituality invites a more miraculous depth of transformation by building yourself up. Whether the focus is on dissolving illusion, duality, the ego, or unconscious belief patterns, there is no way to tear anything down without ripping your innocence apart in the process. Instead of having anything to resolve, process, maintain, or remember, it is the activity of building yourself up that raises your vibration to bring your highest qualities to life. This includes loving what arises, viewing life through the eyes of beauty, and celebrating the success of what you are doing right in any given moment. When building yourself up replaces any tendency to tear anything down, you will no longer manufacture erroneous symptoms to overcome. As this occurs, you free yourself from believing that spiritual evolution can be earned, when it exists as a truth you are free to remember by declaring it so. This is the way of heart-centered consciousness. ~Matt Kahn

@ElenaO Hi! Yeah I agree with you about the style. Tony's style is rather dry. That is why I think he had not written any personal development book in the last 20 years , he recently in 2014 came up with Money Master the Game(But it's about money). But if you somehow persist and try and finish his books and do the exercises that will really be beneficial. Because the man is all about techniques. Mental and Physiological. How to run yourself to optimal levels. He played a part in my transformation. The man is a gem.

Hey, I don't really get how people who have read Jed McKenna books are still excited about this enlightenment stuff. For those who haven't read it, he clearly points out that: -enlightenment a painful "process" -is not about finding some cool truth, but the destroying of all illusion until only truth is left -is as radical as committing suicide -is life negative, pointless and should only be pursued by those who have no other options -has nothing to do with becoming a better person, becoming happier or raising consciousness -has nothing to do with love, compassion, bliss or heaven on earth I'll let the guy speak for himself because his analogies are ingenious: "Well, I wouldn't want to give the impression that it's almost pointless. It's perfectly pointless. Awakening to your true nature is like dying; it's a certainty, inevitable. You're going to get there no matter what you do, so why rush? Enjoy your life, it's free. Cosmic Consciousness and Altered States and Universal Mind are names of rides in this vast and fascinating dualistic amusement park. So are Poverty and Disease and Despair. Enlightenment though, is not another ride. Enlightenment means leaving the park altogether, but why leave the park? In the park you can be a saint or a yogi or a billionaire or a world leader or a warlord. Be good, be evil. Happiness, misery, bliss, agony, victory, defeat, it's all here. What's the big rush? When the time comes to leave the park you'll know and you'll go, but there's certainly nothing to be gained by it." "From the U-Rex perspective, "I say, U-Rex is obviously real reality and C-Rex is obviously ridiculous. Also, C-Rex has no upside. There's nothing in its favor, it doesn't go anywhere. Truth is a booby-prize. It doesn't do any good or make anything better. It doesn't provide meaning, it strips meaning away. It takes all the amusement out of the amusement park; no meaning, no significance to anything, no reason to get out of bed in the morning. C-Rex brings nothing to the table, whereas U-Rex creates the illusion of meaning. We must have the context U-Rex provides. Even though it's false, it's still context." "So the lie is better than the truth, you are saying." "Sure. The truth might set you free, but then you find yourself standing in an endless parking lot outside the amusement park wondering why you're out, and how to get back in. Truth has nothing to recommend it except that it's true. U-Rex has everything to recommend it except that it's false." "Me, I don't think so. I know Maya pretty well and i don't see her ever losing more than the occasional stray. A species-wide transformation is a pretty idea, but we have little cause for optimism and plenty for pessimism. It's nice to think we could elevate ourselves, and it's fun to dabble in theoretical scenarios, but the reality is that man will never evolve or transcend or develop beyond his past and present level. If that sounds like a bad thing to us, if Maya sounds like a force of evil, if the terms by which man lives on this planet seem to oppressive or restrictive, then we might do well to take a step back and reevaluate the situation. Where are we? What is this place? Is it a prison to be despised or an amusement park to be enjoyed? Is ego a hideous affliction? Or is it simply the vehicle that allows us to come out and play? When the choice is between no-self and false-self, false-self start looking pretty good and despising and demonizing it starts to seem pretty ungrateful." This demonizing of ego, which i see a lot here, seems to me very ironically, just an ego game Now sure he is exaggerating a bit, there are other perspectives and Jed McKenna is off course not the ultimate authority on enlightenment(although i have little doubt that he is enlightened), and i'm sure Truth can be a very great thing for people, but i really doubt whether enlightenment is something desirable for everyone, when the enlightened guy himself states that it's life-negative.

GOOD ! In my case I continue with this sort of watching/awareness/mindfulness practice throughout the entire day and even until I fall asleep. It is not a thing of applying any effort. It has become an automatic "happening" to just "see" the experiencing of the apparent world in every moment of life. I started a long time ago, a little bit here, a little bit there, during the day. It was just noticing the flow of thought as I reacted to something like other people's comments, or watched my opinion coming out of my mouth (unbelievable!). Somehow my attitude towards, and respect for life included monitoring my behaviour and without effort behaviour changed over time. Today I know for certain what that transformation is. Therefore, continue to expand your view of life in various ways - you appear to have a great start. joy

Hola Amilcar! Well, I can share my experience. About 10 years ago, going to a "transpersonal psychology" course in a school I discovered the Fourth Way. I began to study Nicoll 1 ("Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurgjieff and Ouspensky") but I was not convinced about the way they organized the class, the topics and readings, very confusing. I didnt feel confortable and I left. But the Nicoll's book had already trapped me, and I did continue the readings by my own. My mind started to think with the ideas of the fourth way, and also during my psychology studies I realized I could understand much more with this perspective of the teaching in my mind. Buddhism helped me, yoga helped me... yes, but it was something inside me that knew inside those books was something great yet to be discovered that at every time I began to read them again, something powerful started to shine inside. And buddhism or any other self-developement workshop that I did, was not so powerful as the content of the fourth way teachings (my personal experience, not saying that is objectively better) I found another Fourth Way school, about some years ago and that was the begining of my self-transformation. And now, I can tell you there are 2 different things involved. One is the teaching, as you can read them in the books, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Nicoll, and.. I can add other followers like Salzmann, Orange, etc. The other thing completely different is a Fourth Way school in our days. It is simply because schools are made by persons like you and me or Leo perhaps that has so many years of self-developement, study and practice, and that produce the school goes in the direction that the director choose based on his own personal experience. So each school is a result of the level of consciousness of his master and are not for everybody. My advice, as a monk with his kung fu master, that takes all he can learn from him until the point he really and deeply realizes is not learning much anymore from him and now the monk needs to continue the journey to new horizons.

For me the hardest thing has been getting better with girls and stopping caring what other people think about me. American, but generally I see all cultures as silly and deluded. Not much differently other than that I know that nothing else can ever make a human being happy besides Truth. My hard work during high school and college to educate myself Deciding to start my own business and becoming financially independent Living in modern times with such many modern liberties. I don't really coach people at ground zero. I would screen that kind of client out. I like to work with already-successful people. In reality I don't get to see the transformation. Coaching is more like planting seeds in people which may or may not sprout years later if they keep watering them. I give you way too many answer already. Time to think for yourself a bit. I don't know. Do you need one? What is true for you? Yes, I vote. Most things are distractions from finding truth.

Just do one thing at a time and slowly you will be able to turn your life around. This pain can be an amazing tool and catalyst for your own transformation and it can help to transform every area of your life into a higher level. One day you will be so thankful that this pain caused you to work on yourself and your life...all the work you put into this, will pay off 10 times and more

@Leo Gura have you ever seen a client (or anyone) go from ground zero/super low conciousness to something great? What is the biggest transformation you have witnessed, in your opinion?

Aright, day two of my transformation. Decided a time ago to enroll for the university's student play. A bold decision and perhaps a bit risky one, considering the time it will take from my studies. So now there will we be rehearsal everyday for three weeks in row, that's one day done 20 more or so to go ;-). The rehearsals starts later in the afternoon, so I will get time to cram in my other studies. So back to the rehearsal today, allot of new faces, som old ones, think that the names will stick after a while. Don't mistake me, before it I felt pretty nervous, my heart was pumping, allot of negative thoughts in my head, and had some doubts about my abillity to perform, but almost all prooved wrong, expect a few blunders with glitchy scetches. So some lessons from today: What I did right: sang well, got into social flow and felt AMAZING in the end, got to known many new people. What I did wrong: had bad focus on the first few scetches, allot of negative thinking. What to do better tomorrow: Better focus, more positive thinking and speak despite feeling unsocial in order to gain social momentum faster. So that's all for today, let's see what tomorrow brings :-) As before, feel free to comment if anything of this resonated with you. Stay awsome ;-)

Yeah there may be some downsides and sacrifices which will make your ego uncomfortable. But for me, there are no downsides. I happily accept all the hardships I have to endure and all the sacrifices I have to make, because I know I am on the right path. I am gratefull to be on this journey, there are no downsides, there is only improvement and evolution. Even the paradoxes don't bother me, because eventually I will overcome them. Personal development only disturbes your comfort zone and reveal the ego for what it is, this is why you struggle. Your ego makes you beat yourself up over problems. In fact there are no problems. There is only transformation and some stepping stones. Problems are only challenges that serve you so you can grow. And I see you mastered your own problem pretty well, or at least you are on the right path. I think you will be ok