In the age we live in, is it possible to maintain a high state of consciousness ?

[Razard86]

25 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

That's not the point.

The point is, talking to and having friends hinders one from enlightenment.

Have you never wondered why humans are so damn stupid?

Hint: it isn't an accident. Show me a human with 100 friends and I'll show you a fool.

I know what Leo is saying here. I noticed that socializing strengthens the ego. First people keep calling you by your name, so speaking to people is very similar to thinking. 

Second people can influence you and bring you down to their more egoic opinions. If you keep trying to talk to people about Spirituality who are not on that level normally they will create some distance from you. So the only way to communicate with them for a sufficient time, you have to talk to them on their level.

So your mental diet can go in the reverse. Now I'm not saying stop socializing, just understand it is definitely bringing down your consciousness unless you have techniques to raise it back consistently. 

On another note I had another psychedelic experience without a psychedelic last night and discovered something. Its pretty interesting, I'll share it later.

[Leo Gura]

16 minutes ago, Proserpina said:

This is oddly comforting especially since I can’t make friends or socialise to save my life.

The converse is not automatically true. Just because you are a desperate and inept loner does not mean you are highly conscious or intelligent.

Plenty of loners are less developed than social people.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Leo Gura

[Tyler Robinson]

Consciousness or intelligence is very much contingent upon your own level of passion and commitment to values that consistently align you to freedom and spirituality and away from the illusion of materialism. The level of intellectual and emotional maturity needed for the same has to be outstanding. 

 

[Razard86]

4 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

The converse is not automatically true. Just because you are a desperate and inept loner does not mean you are highly conscious or intelligent.

Plenty of loners are less developed than social people.

Leo........your doing it again.....that masculine love directness of yours (which I have in me too but OUCH) remember your embodying of love and meeting people on their emotional wavelength etc?????

Now you can be that direct with me, I love that crap. But.....cmon.....

[Ulax]

6 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

The converse is not automatically true. Just because you are a desperate and inept loner does not mean you are highly conscious or intelligent.

Plenty of loners are less developed than social people.

@Leo Gura Ye dude I'd recommend being more respectful in these sorts of communications

[Greatnestwithin]

25 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

There is nothing like intimate relationships to distract you from waking up.

It works both ways, in my own experience ? @Leo Gura

[Proserpina]

7 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

The converse is not automatically true. Just because you are a desperate and inept loner does not mean you are highly conscious or intelligent.

Plenty of loners are less developed than social people.

People can cause an inferior ego in me if I don’t take long stretches of time in isolation. I can be in contact but I don’t go out of my way to really socialize. I don’t know if it’s the same for anyone else. I wouldn’t really call myself desperate with long stretches. Maybe inept. 

[Tyler Robinson]

4 minutes ago, Proserpina said:

People can cause an inferior ego in me if I don’t take long stretches of time in isolation. I can be in contact but I don’t go out of my way to really socialize. I don’t know if it’s the same for anyone else. I wouldn’t really call myself desperate with long stretches. Maybe inept. 

Maybe you just haven't found the right people. 

 

[Breakingthewall]

The problem with socializing is that relationships aren't authentic because people aren't. they are more like chimpanzees screaming in the cage establishing roles. this is empty and stupid, and obviously away from the truth. real relationships, with real people, get closer to the truth. the problem is that these people are almost non-existent. They almost... I mean, they exist. you have to look for them and interact with them, not with the monkeys in the zoo

[White Monk]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Funny enough it is easier to ascend high with a mindless job than a highly intelligent and creative one.

You could ascend pretty high as a janitor. Because you got nothing to think about or stress about and no one to talk to.

It's socializing what really kills you. Socialization in like cancer for intelligence and consciousness. If you want to be intelligent, stop socializing. The more you socialize the dumber you will get, until you turn into Joe Rogan.

One of the best statements so fa. Also, Im curious if you think socialization has that affect or just the type of mindless, spineless, shallow socialization that has this affect? 

[Breakingthewall]

Just now, White Monk said:

One of the best statements so fa. Also, Im curious if you think socialization has that affect or just the type of mindless, spineless, shallow socialization that has this affect? 

true relationships, of all kinds, sexual, friendship, a chat, are God looking at himself. they raise consciousness, not lower it. now, if you lack that dimension, and you consider every relationship to be empty stupidity, you will never see it, and you will be awake, but only up to a certain point. do not forget that you are human, and you exist for the relationship

 

[caspex]

Assuming as true the validity of "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda. In it, mention is of Lahiri Mahasya, Guru of Yogananda's Guru. Apparently he was both an enlightened individual (conscious to a degree where miracles were no big deal) and a householder. Precisely for the reason to show people that it's possible. 

So personally I feel that yes socializing and the current society will pull you down like crabs in a bucket. And that yes one needs to withdraw at first to raise their baseline. But I think at one point you're consciousness becomes so powerful that people cannot simply just pull you down. Instead you pull them up just by existing. I believe it's something within me if I can't stay conscious within an unconscious environment. I do not want to blame 'people' and 'society' for my own shortcomings.

As for whether socializing itself is harmful? I believe not. Because if both in a relationship are highly conscious, they will propel each other higher and higher using each other's weight. This is incredibly rare because such a dynamic would require the collective entity that is their relationship(not just each of them individually), to be at a stage that is immediately able to require self-deception. Usually both the parties in any kind of socialization have some shortcomings no matter how many spiritual attainments they hold. These self-deceptions then, instead of higher consciousness, are boosted by people coming together. Think about it, when people come together the collective entity that is formed is lower consciousness the more the people. If the collective itself was say, at a stage such as Turquoise, then it would act as a propellent for the individuals within, it will not become a cult to hold people in to keep surviving as that collective entity it is. This is what I believe.

[Tyler Robinson]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

t's socializing what really kills you. Socialization in like cancer for intelligence and consciousness. If you want to be intelligent, stop socializing. The more you socialize the dumber you will get, until you turn into Joe Rogan.

You're looking at this in a very myopic way. The benefits of socializing will hinge on the quality of socializing. If you are hanging out with a low shallow crowd, it's going to be revolting to your intelligence. Hanging out with people that match your intellectual and emotional frequency will help you learn and share and grow together, that's one of the best ways to grow, the only caveat being that you need to put in your hardest to collect the gem of people that you wish to surround yourself with. Being around low vibrational people is always going to hurt. They will bring down your progress, both material and spiritual.. Choosing people with high consciousness is a gamble that pays you off really well in the end, you'll find people that will bring enormous social and emotional acumen to your life, something you'll badly miss out on if you're too engaged with a low consciousness crowd.

[Tyler Robinson]

Just now, JoeVolcano said:

Socializing is the height of mindless indulgence in illusion. It's not any kind of path to truth.

You could indulge in junk food or you could indulge in healthy food.. Choice is always yours. You can't blame the food. 

[Breakingthewall]

5 minutes ago, JoeVolcano said:

What's that?

integral people who reveal the truth through themselves. the opposite of monkeys that play power games

[Tyler Robinson]

Just now, JoeVolcano said:

Socializing is not food, it's the biggest waste of energy you could think of.

The "benefit" of socialization is that you get to keep and polish your identity. That's what socialization does, that's what it is. It serves a vital function, if you want to stay asleep. When you're waking up, it's among the first things to fall by the wayside.

You don't speak from experience. I've found high quality people, though rarely, they have benefitted me beyond the scope of what I would have imagined was possible. In fact even the bad socializing was a tuning fork towards growth, although the risks are a bit heavy, depending on your emotional stamina, yet the good kind of socializing was helpful in learning an awful lot from others, the irony right now is that what you're doing with me, all of this interaction, in one way or another is characteristic of socializing as well, just that you don't see it. Man simply cannot afford to not want to talk to people and interact with his species, even the hardest introverted bunch among us for that matter. 

[bambi]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

There is nothing like intimate relationships to distract you from waking up.

You keep saying this, dsitracting you from waking up, waking up to what? Havent you relaaized the duality between awake and asleep, theres nothing to wake upto Leo from what I can fathom

[Tyler Robinson]

Just now, JoeVolcano said:

Believe me we're not socializing...

Believe me we're. You crave it even though you criticize it. You won't be on a forum otherwise no matter how much you deny it. 

Would be a different thing if you were simply lurking and reading posts. 

If you're talking to anyone, whether it be face to face or through text in a personal context or just generally on a forum like this, as you type you're exchanging energy with the other person. 

You think it's simply responding to people's posts, like reading pixels on the screen. 

Although it's not the most potent personal direct form of interaction, it's still interactive to a milder degree. 

 I hope you aren't thinking of me as a robot in which case your point would have been valid. 

 

[The Mystical Man]

Modern society is an amazing achievement: many survival issues are taken care of, life is relatively easy; awakening should be easier, too. These days there is no need to go into a cave. Your modern home can be your cave. And the social aspect is good, too, because you need people to push your buttons. Adyashanti said that it's a good thing if you don't have the luxury of avoiding the social aspect of life, because people will enlighten the darkest recesses of your unconscious.

[Nilsi]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Funny enough it is easier to ascend high with a mindless job than a highly intelligent and creative one.

You could ascend pretty high as a janitor. Because you got nothing to think about or stress about and no one to talk to.

It's socializing what really kills you. Socialization in like cancer for intelligence and consciousness. If you want to be intelligent, stop socializing. The more you socialize the dumber you will get, until you turn into Joe Rogan.

Nice strawman. Socialization is no different than any other activity - you can do it consciously or unconsciously. This is just obvious projection.