Leo's Blog Discussion Mega-Thread

[Adi996]

If I understand correctly, the dog died 15 months ago. No denying it was a traumatic experience, but life goes on and you should try and research how people deal with such trauma. Otherwise you'll be very limited in your potential, almost constantly having a story playing in your mind about how humans are evil etc.

As Leo said, that is not correct, and if it's true that the incident happened 15 months ago, might be time to begin the healing process.

[Leo Gura]

@Daniel Balan Something to keep in mind: you don't need to trust humans fully. You understand that they will be selfish, so you maintain a certain mild caution in all dealings with humans and you calibrate it based on red flags they send out.

Most people are decent as long as their survival is not at stake at the moment.

Edited 17 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Daniel Balan]

35 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Yes, it is wrong. That is not how reality works.

But it is too soon from your trauma to start correcting your worldview. At this time you need a good 3-6 months for your mind to settle and grieve. Then we can discuss how to improve your understanding of mankind and reality.

For now just take it easy, comfort yourself, give yourself space and time, and try not to invent grand narratives about mankind from your current state. You are in a state of profound loss, hurt, and trauma so your sense-making from that state will be distorted and biased. That is okay, but try not to feed it too much or you will develop a toxic ideology which will be hard to dislodge in the future.

Very horrific things can and must happen in life. Making sense of why they happen is very serious work which requires coming from an unemotional state.

Wishing you peace.

I deeply thank you and all the other forum members for the heart felt advice! Thank you and I wish everyone peace!

[Leo Gura]

@Daniel Balan How long ago did you lose your dog?

[Daniel Balan]

@Leo Gura He died on the 17th of October 2023! Roughly 15 months ago! 

[Leo Gura]

2 minutes ago, Daniel Balan said:

@Leo Gura He died on the 17th of October 2023! Roughly 15 months ago! 

Okay. Why did I think it only happened days ago?

Anyway, you might want to consider therapy, to talk things out.

[Daniel Balan]

12 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

@Daniel Balan Something to keep in mind: you don't need to trust humans fully. You understand that they will be selfish, so you maintain a certain mild caution in all dealings with humans and you calibrate it based on red flags they send out.

Most people are decent as long as their survival is not at stake at the moment.

I thread very carefully every interaction with humans, I am always on guard when it comes to my physical safety! In the village I live I've only encountered all my life stage red individuals and I am treating every interaction with extreme caution. That's why I am the happiest at night, because I am alone and I feel a deep sense of serenity. When I'm all by myself. I've never needed anyone to be happy all I ever wanted is the serenity of the nightsky!

[Daniel Balan]

1 minute ago, Leo Gura said:

Okay. Why did I think it only happened days ago?

Anyway, you might want to consider therapy, to talk things out.

Probably because I've described the situation in such deep detail like it happened a few days ago. As I said I have accepted the situation, It was not the death of the dog per se that caused me to view mankind in such a negative manner, It was all the experiences that I had since I was a child, and because I contemplate nightly everything that happens during the days, after years of contemplation and independent thinking I came to the conclusions I laid above. The only thing I can't contemplate is why such horrific events are ought to happen. That is the main reason I follow your work, to make sense of the blind spots in my own contemplation. My contemplations have been corrupted by the negative experiences I have been exposed to, and I came to you in order to address the flaws in my corrupt worldview.

[Daniel Balan]

@Leo Gura You always talk about the importance of developing independent thinking, You see all my conclusions I've shared today on this thread are as a result of my own independent thinking and contemplation, yet my independent thinking resulted in a flawed and dangerous view of mankind, from my POV I feel like it is the correct one because of all my past experiences, but on a holistic level it is wrong because It makes one become bitter and helpless. My question is, how to do independent thinking and contemplation, in a way that doesn't result in toxic ideology like it resulted in my case? How to ensure that you are not self deceiving yourself even further by practicing independent thinking and contemplation? 

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, Daniel Balan said:

My question is, how to do independent thinking and contemplation, in a way that doesn't result in toxic ideology like it resulted in my case? How to ensure that you are not self deceiving yourself even further by practicing independent thinking and contemplation? 

That's right, independent thinking is no guarantee of proper sense-making or truth. It's just the bare minimum to even stand a chance. Independent thinking easily turns into corruption or distortion.

1) In your case you can clearly see through a bit of self-reflection that your worldview is strongly colored by hurtful traumatic events. This kind of emotionality creates bias and distorts sense-making. So a simple answer to your question is to not ever make an worldview based on hurt, bitterness, or suffering, since such a worldview will be distorted and dysfunctional. Basically, don't construct worldviews based on negative emotional states.

So in this case, proper independent thinking should have led you to see that your worldview was constructed from a place of trauma, which is not a sound way for constructing a worldview. Imagine if I constructed the entire Actualized.org worldview based on my mother abusing me as a child. Would that be an accurate worldview? Clearly not. I would first need to heal that trauma before I could construct a proper worldview.

2) There cannot be any formula for avoiding self-deception. The only solution is live consciousness and active intelligence. This intelligence must be active at all times and self-reflecting. It cannot be a one-and-done thing. You must keep being intelligent as long as you live.

3) Practically, in your case, therapy would be a good way to gain more clarity over your worldview. Psychedelics as well of course.

4) If you have deep Awakenings or realization of Infinity/Love/God, then you will realize that self/other is an imaginary duality which must collapse. From this understanding you can know that your bitterness and hatred of mankind cannot be truthful, because mankind is just an aspect of God/Infinity/Love/Self. The truth is that the same people who killed your dog are metaphysically identical to your dog and yourself, since there is no difference between self and other at the highest level of reality. So in order to heal yourself from this tragedy would require connecting with that disowned, shadow aspect of yourself. The thing you hate the most -- the people who killed your dog -- is the thing that you will ultimately need to realize as identical to yourself. That would be the conclusion which results in the healing. But that is a tall order. I'm not tell you to necessarily just do it right now. You probably need much more time to pass before you are ready to face such radical integration.

I'm sorry, this is difficult to tell you, but the following applies here:

https://www.actualized.org/insights/actualized-quotes-090

The entire challenge of spirituality is to integrate that.

To integrate that basically requires complete Awakening beyond what a human mind can imagine. It would be an Awakening so deep that you would basically die and return from the grave. In that moment of death, death itself would heal you. (I am not talking about suicide.)

When the self dies, God's love cleanses your psyche of corruption by melting you into pure Infinity. An ocean of love where your dog, yourself, and your enemy are One. This Oneness is Absolute Truth. From this Truth all sense-making must derive, otherwise it will be corrupt.

Edited 15 hours ago by Leo Gura

[JTL]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

To integrate that basically requires complete Awakening beyond what a human mind can imagine. It would be an Awakening so deep that you would basically die and return from the grave. In that moment of death, death itself would heal you. (I am not talking about suicide.)

When the self dies, God's love cleanses your psyche of corruption by melting you into pure Infinity. An ocean of love where your dog, yourself, and your enemy are One. This Oneness is Absolute Truth. From this Truth all sense-making must derive, otherwise it will be corrupt.

You write beautifully, Leo. Like a rational minded Rumi 😂😁

[EternalForest]

The Understanding Solitude post was one of your best, Leo. Great work.

[Daniel Balan]

6 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

That's right, independent thinking is no guarantee of proper sense-making or truth. It's just the bare minimum to even stand a chance. Independent thinking easily turns into corruption or distortion.

1) In your case you can clearly see through a bit of self-reflection that your worldview is strongly colored by hurtful traumatic events. This kind of emotionality creates bias and distorts sense-making. So a simple answer to your question is to not ever make an worldview based on hurt, bitterness, or suffering, since such a worldview will be distorted and dysfunctional. Basically, don't construct worldviews based on negative emotional states.

So in this case, proper independent thinking should have led you to see that your worldview was constructed from a place of trauma, which is not a sound way for constructing a worldview. Imagine if I constructed the entire Actualized.org worldview based on my mother abusing me as a child. Would that be an accurate worldview? Clearly not. I would first need to heal that trauma before I could construct a proper worldview.

2) There cannot be any formula for avoiding self-deception. The only solution is live consciousness and active intelligence. This intelligence must be active at all times and self-reflecting. It cannot be a one-and-done thing. You must keep being intelligent as long as you live.

3) Practically, in your case, therapy would be a good way to gain more clarity over your worldview. Psychedelics as well of course.

4) If you have deep Awakenings or realization of Infinity/Love/God, then you will realize that self/other is an imaginary duality which must collapse. From this understanding you can know that your bitterness and hatred of mankind cannot be truthful, because mankind is just an aspect of God/Infinity/Love/Self. The truth is that the same people who killed your dog are metaphysically identical to your dog and yourself, since there is no difference between self and other at the highest level of reality. So in order to heal yourself from this tragedy would require connecting with that disowned, shadow aspect of yourself. The thing you hate the most -- the people who killed your dog -- is the thing that you will ultimately need to realize as identical to yourself. That would be the conclusion which results in the healing. But that is a tall order. I'm not tell you to necessarily just do it right now. You probably need much more time to pass before you are ready to face such radical integration.

I'm sorry, this is difficult to tell you, but the following applies here:

https://www.actualized.org/insights/actualized-quotes-090

The entire challenge of spirituality is to integrate that.

To integrate that basically requires complete Awakening beyond what a human mind can imagine. It would be an Awakening so deep that you would basically die and return from the grave. In that moment of death, death itself would heal you. (I am not talking about suicide.)

When the self dies, God's love cleanses your psyche of corruption by melting you into pure Infinity. An ocean of love where your dog, yourself, and your enemy are One. This Oneness is Absolute Truth. From this Truth all sense-making must derive, otherwise it will be corrupt.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this heart felt answer. I copied and pasted it on my commonplace book. I will need to read it multiple times so that I don't fall back into darkness. God bless you. This answer helps me so much. Thank you. Thank you for existing <3 

[Leo Gura]

@Daniel Balan *hug* brother.

You have a deep heart.

Edited 9 hours ago by Leo Gura