Attention All! -- New, Stricter Quality Guidelines Now In Effect

[Leo Gura]

So.....

After years of running this forum and watching things unfold, I have come to a firm decision that what this place has been lacking from the very beginning is a high bar for quality. People who join here get the impression that since this is a "public" forum, they should be free to spout whatever nonsense their ego wants. They get the impression that this forum is just like any other dumping ground on the internet. Well, not any more.

My initial attitude towards this forum was to moderate as little as possible and to be as lenient as possible, treating everyone with kid gloves and giving them many second-chances to correct themselves. Unfortunately, people who post crap are usually people who are incapable of correcting themselves. It's become clear to me now that such a permissive attitude drags down the quality of the entire forum and makes this place unappealing for my most serious students. It is also a giant waste of time to deal with.

So, from now on, this forum will not only be moderated for all the basic, common-sense guidelines which are necessary to keep an online community from turning into a toxic troll-hive, we are going one step further to moderate for quality. Posters who are unable to demonstrate a certain moderate level of ego maturity and show a certain moderate level of post quality will now be banned. The bottom line is this: to be a member of this forum is to be part of a special class of human who is able to conduct him/herself with a certain maturity, wisdom, openness of mind, humility, intellectual honesty, kindness, compassion, thoughtfulness, and well-spokenness. The kind work we do here requires a relatively high level of maturity which, unfortunately, many in the general online population are just not capable of -- and as of today we will no longer be accommodating to such people. There are plenty of places on the internet where such people can congregate. Actualized.org should not be one of them.

I've updated our Forum Guidelines to reflect this. Please read and adhere to them. It's really not too much to ask. Our Mods will now be keeping an eye out for low quality posts and immature posters, issuing more warnings and bans than before. But if you are a mature and thoughtful member here, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. I know 90% of folks here are good folks and post quality stuff. It's the bottom 10% that we want to cull. So just don't be that guy.

Thank you for your support. Let's raise the bar and make this the best community for serious self-actualization work.

P.S. Of course I will be accused of "censorship" by some for this decision. So be it. Quality stuff doesn't happen without filters. For every troll or ignoramus that we allow here, we lose at least one serious member who doesn't have time to deal that shit. By being too lax, it's the best members who end up punished.

[Gesundheit]

I could hear the ban hammer in the nearby 

Edited September 13, 2020 by Gesundheit

[Lyubov]

Great news!

[electroBeam]

What's interesting is how you've described this place as a lounge to have a break for contemplation work. 

I find that to be a valuable description, because you really can't get good advice on here for the most part due to this place being an online text based forum. To give proper, good advice, you need to understand the context and background of the OP. And that's really only possible through face to face or skype sessions. Most people here just project their own lives onto the questions of the OP, and that isn't really that effective. 

People who post good content here (like in the high consciousness section), or who reveal cool resources on the internet that you didn't know existed, is generally valuable though. 

[FlowerNote]

Please contemplate how far you take this. For example it is not (yet) true for me that God is love. And thats one of your core teachings. Would you ban me if i posted a thread giving arguments against God is love? You locked a thread from a guy who said God does not exist. Is spiritually disagreeing with you considered troll behavior? If so I don’t think the title “self-improvement forum” is appropriate anymore. That would be too broad if you are narrowing your forum down to your core teachings. Just sayin.

[Lyubov]

6 minutes ago, FlowerNote said:

Please contemplate how far you take this. For example it is not (yet) true for me that God is love. And thats one of your core teachings. Would you ban me if i posted a thread giving arguments against God is love? You locked a thread from a guy who said God does not exist. Is spiritually disagreeing with you considered troll behavior? If so I don’t think the title “self-improvement forum” is appropriate anymore. That would be too broad if you are narrowing your forum down to your core teachings. Just sayin.

I think this is mostly motivated due to the society/politics section. There has been some posts in there spreading dangerous information about COVID being a hoax. 

[Proserpina]

I think there should be a little more leniency rather than further banning. People are in a high stress state.  With recent forum drama and the Covid situation people might not be interpreting text voice too accurately.  Also what counts as immaturity? Certain kinds of self actualizing work can be confronting.  

 

[captainamerica]

It's needed. Covid-19 hoaxes, Trumpism, racism, etc. is no joke.

Because of racist people choosing a racist president already 200k~ people have lost their lives and one still cannot teach them how wrong and stupid they are looking by choosing a president who is stripping away the economy, "but yeah why not choose him because he is a racist like me."

Edited September 13, 2020 by captainamerica

[Leo Gura]

40 minutes ago, FlowerNote said:

Please contemplate how far you take this. For example it is not (yet) true for me that God is love. And thats one of your core teachings. Would you ban me if i posted a thread giving arguments against God is love? You locked a thread from a guy who said God does not exist. Is spiritually disagreeing with you considered troll behavior? If so I don’t think the title “self-improvement forum” is appropriate anymore. That would be too broad if you are narrowing your forum down to your core teachings. Just sayin.

You can question the topics of God or Love if you are genuinely confused about them and desire to learn and to seek further clarification. But if you are going to take a denialist attitude that God and Love are BS, then you will eventually be banned because I'm not going to entertain such pig-headedness.

God and Love are so fundamental to my teachings that if you disagree with me on these things, you should not be following my work.

[FlowerNote]

@Leo Gura when I became aware of no self (not ego death but it was clear the self was illusory) I wondered about how I can still enjoy a youtube video very much even if there is no self. How is this possible if there is no enjoyer? Is that what Love is? The embrace and enjoyment of everything without there ever having been an actor? There is only the act:. Love? 
 

I thought I might be on to something but im not sure. Even if its all love why does that equal God? And if the Godhead is at the “center of reality” like you said in your structure of reality video, why not just call the Godhead God? Why is the entirety of the universe God?

[Leo Gura]

@FlowerNote You have not yet become conscious of what God or Love are. This will require additional awakenings.

Rather than trying to grasp at straws, it's best to simply admit that you simply do not have a direct experience or God or Love. That's okay to admit. It is better to work from a blank slate than some twisted ideas and vague speculations.

[FlowerNote]

Ok thanks Leo. Tbh I dont even want to go in the awakening journey but I can never go back. My desire for Truth is too large and I hate it. Sometimes I feel like why not kill myself and awaken anyway. Personal life feels like a facade. Sorry for the vent, you guys are all I have on this journey.

[Jacob Morres]

Thank you lol 

[Akemrelax]

I have seen you break your own rules. Calling people fools, denying male rape, and other trollish behavior and other insults... 

[diamondpenguin]

I find that gura's holo breathing is a good mechanism to battle trauma and addiction. 

[Sizeable Oof]

there's an error on the forum guidelines: metal-masturbation should be mental masturbation.

[Space]

1 hour ago, Akemrelax said:

I have seen you break your own rules. Calling people fools, denying male rape, and other trollish behavior and other insults... 

No one is perfect, we all make mistakes and write things that in hindsight may have been inappropriate. There is a big difference between this and someone intentionally trolling, not being open minded, trying to create friction and arguments for the sake of self amusement etc.

Usually Leo's harsh words come from a place of wanting the other user to wake the fuck up and stop being so damn ignorant - it's really an expression of love and empathy, like a zen master wacking you on the back with a wooden stick.

[electroBeam]

1 hour ago, Sizeable Oof said:

there's an error on the forum guidelines: metal-masturbation should be mental masturbation.

that's a good example of mental masturbation  

[Opo]

@Leo Gura Thank you I was feeling exhausted by the close-minded stuff. 

 

2 hours ago, Proserpina said:

I think there should be a little more leniency rather than further banning. People are in a high stress state.  

You're not thinking about my stress state. 

[Ya know]

Hey, not that I would do it, but I'm wondering why you would be against people meeting up in the same city? Wouldn't that be kind of cool to meet someone like minded?