The importance of career work before spiritual/metaphysical work

[kray]

When I first came across actualized.org, it was the best tool in my life. The insights in a lot of Leo's videos were truly inspiring, and led me down my own route of personal insights, and I thank Leo and actualized.org for this. Ever since then, I've tried making meditation and conscious work a key role in my life. From 2019-2021, this has helped me in miraculous ways. I guess things didn't look too good when I started getting into deep philosophical topics. At first, it was just out of curiosity, then it became a thing to apply them...this is where things took a sticky turn. Instead of studying for that class, I instead was watching videos on strange loops, how consciousness work, breaking the myth of science, etc. which in a way turned me off to my career. I paid that price, and I ended failing a lot of classes, making me stretch my college career by a year. Now I realized the danger of this work. I hadn't even started my career, and I already fucked up my prospects of getting into a FAANG company. Even my last interview, when basic Java questions were being asked, I couldn't answer them . When asked "what is it called when two methods are named the same name, but different number of parameters", I could not answer this question. I mean for fuck sakes, I used to love to code, and I was doing well in my Java classes my first two years, but I'm mad at myself for forgetting simple concepts like this. I realized that the knowledge I NEED was overwhelmed by the airy fairy knowledge that was out of my interest. I realized my mistake, I realized that to live a life of "detachment" I need attachments. This should for all of you who are just starting in their careers or in college. We are just starting our lives, and we have to live our life authentically, have those attachments in lives (money, career, hobbies) before we even think about a lot of the deep epistemic, metaphysical topics that Leo teaches us. If you are majoring in some science at college, you probably should not learn about "deconstructing the myth of science", as you should be learning "what is science". I learned that while they are not of use to me know, I still want to be open to these deep topics, but much later in my life when I have made a name for myself in my career. What I really learned from my mistakes is that life is a journey, and a journey that should be done with complete authenticity. If that means acquiring more cash, sex, cars, etc. then it means those things. The idea is that we need to come to that realization ourselves, not by some internet guru, or even a real guru. Right now, I want to make a name for myself in my career, and shine in my career. I want to make that my life purpose. My life purpose is, to put it vaguely, create a positive effect on society through the use of technology. That is my life purpose, and I will work tooth and nail, and even die for it. By all means I am not criticizing Leo what so ever, but I think I won't be watching his deeper videos, or exploring those topics, as that's something I want to do maybe 10 or 20 years from now. At the end of the day, we need to live life naturally, and if that means wanting to initially make a good career, make a stable income, and the other "stage orange" aspects, then we should let our egos chase those things. Instead of someone else telling us that those things don't buy fulfillment, we should DIRECTLY experience that for ourselves. Then we can naturally move up the spiral. At the end of the day, to move up to Tier 2, one still has to have a good foundation of Stage Orange. And for those of us that haven't even started our careers, we shouldn't even think about moving up that spiral until we ground ourselves fully in the practicalities of the real world and our careers. I do still plan on raising my awareness and consciousness through my life, making meditation, prayer, and yoga a central role of my life, but my mind has no space for conceptual spiritual/philosophical/mystical bullshit. Concept has no meaning without experience, and I am simply just starting life. 

 

PS my bad for the super long post, realized I went on a rant LOL 

[Razard86]

I agree....everybody's journey is their journey. If everything you said is what resonates with you, then move further toward all that you desire in peace. 

[Realms of Wonder]

Lately been realizing something similar. That in the future, 5-20 years from now, those topics, and deconstructing the mind completely is looking. But now, is now, and now for me looks like meeting basic needs, building a passionate life purpose, creating massive value for others with music, building financially independance, dating, and eventually, maybe naturally, I will realize when it is time to dive balls deep into the depths of Reality, Spirituality, and God. 
 

that being said, I don’t think it’s a good idea to completely throw it all out, mayhap there’s a balance. to keep the practices that can also help this stage, as well as doing my best to stay spiritually connected in my work, as I meet my needs.

[flyingguitarist]

I agree ,Same here ,All these spiritual , metaphysical ,solipsism will make sense once we get our basic material needs ,comforts. I have stopped watching his metaphysical vids for sometime as listening to "God is Love" ,"reality is illusion"kind of vids hardly help to get out of rat race and survive in this material world.especially if you are living in a third world country 

I think for most of teens and 20s in this forum , Spritiual topics ,conciousness etcc.. would become distraction (tho its okay to include practices,watch here and there ) Stage Orange,blue  self-help is required first and foremost .

Meanwhile you can rewatch the practical self-help stuff ,in his videos & booklist ,there's tons of practical content 

Edited May 20, 2022 by flyingguitarist

[SonataAllegro]

17 hours ago, kray said:

I realized my mistake, I realized that to live a life of "detachment" I need attachments.

I'd rephrase this as: to actively practice and develop the SKILL of detachment, one needs CONTENT in one's life to practice it on, such as a career, relationships, and personal projects.

I too have been trying too much to strip my life of contents and see what it's all about, and I agree that it's not the best strategy. Spot on!

[ZenAlex]

Why can't you use paragraphs?

[kray]

9 hours ago, ZenAlex said:

Why can't you use paragraphs?

Yea I realized LOL, kinda went on a rant haha

[Chrisd]

Certain survival needs need to be taken care of. A job (money), food, shelter etc. Then you can choose whether you want to follow a career or dive into spirituality. Do you agree ?

[Philipp]

@kray I have been having very similar thoughts for the last years

• I feel like following an online guru is quite unhealthy. . It's spiritual bypassing. It's dopamin and thought addiction. It fuels your narcissism. It's a parasocial relationship. We need to be grounded in our experience, in letting others experience us (opposite of parasocial relationship), in our search, in our passion (and in our families, regions, traditions).
• You don't need 100 advice and insight. You need 1 advice and insights that is tailored to your current situation, helping you to overcome challenges and get to the next stage. So the advice a friends gives you may be more useful, since it was created for you specifically and not for an audience. 
• Real spirituality is anyways experience, so you are not even really missing out on anything if you stop feeding yourself "spiritual content". 
• Understanding the deep epistemic cracks and evilry of society makes you lose trust in society, science, religion (even friends and family to some extent). And losing all this trust really disorientates you, making it hard to get started with some career. In some sense the problem is, you always start from the bottom, so you will have to accept things as they are, but if you get conscious you will want to change all this evil you see, but you just can't at this stage, which is very frustrating for me.
• Even things such as Life purpose has some problems. At certain ages it is probably better If you are not searching for it, because you can be more flexible, trying out things for no particular reason, doing things just because you like them for the moment, without putting on them the huge label of "Is this my Life Purpose?". 
• Don't forget Leo Gura did not have a Leo Gura.

Edited June 4, 2022 by Philipp

[kray]

1 hour ago, Philipp said:

@kray I have been having very similar thoughts for the last years

• I feel like following an online guru is quite unhealthy. . It's spiritual bypassing. It's dopamin and thought addiction. It fuels your narcissism. It's a parasocial relationship. We need to be grounded in our experience, in letting others experience us (opposite of parasocial relationship), in our search, in our passion (and in our families, regions, traditions).
• You don't need 100 advice and insight. You need 1 advice and insights that is tailored to your current situation, helping you to overcome challenges and get to the next stage. So the advice a friends gives you may be more useful, since it was created for you specifically and not for an audience. 
• Real spirituality is anyways experience, so you are not even really missing out on anything if you stop feeding yourself "spiritual content". 
• Understanding the deep epistemic cracks and evilry of society makes you lose trust in society, science, religion (even friends and family to some extent). And losing all this trust really disorientates you, making it hard to get started with some career. In some sense the problem is, you always start from the bottom, so you will have to accept things as they are, but if you get conscious you will want to change all this evil you see, but you just can't at this stage, which is very frustrating for me.
• Even things such as Life purpose has some problems. At certain ages it is probably better If you are not searching for it, because you can be more flexible, trying out things for no particular reason, doing things just because you like them for the moment, without putting on them the huge label of "Is this my Life Purpose?". 
• Don't forget Leo Gura did not have a Leo Gura.

Yea I completely agree with all the points made here

[Ulax]

Think its important to keep in mind.

However, I think folks with more severe difficulties have to integrate a lot of green to actually be able to do stage orange things. So, think it often depends on individuals. I.e. if someone is rendered non-functional by a mental health phenomena.

[NatureB]

If you look at any healthy green or yellow people, they went through a serious career phase. Spirituality is amazing but first things come first, which is to say personal success comes before the deeper topics Leo covers. (I personally avoid the less practical videos atm.)

An example of the above is Leo himself. He got a double-major college degree, worked in game design, started a marketing company, and was a life coach all before he started his spiritual journey.

In my own life, I've gone a little too "green" and now I have to loop back and establish a better "blue" and "orange" base. Seems a lot of us are in the same boat.

Edited June 6, 2022 by NatureB
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