Paradims, Contemplation, Concentration, Roles

[Epiphany_Inspired]

I just spent a bunch of time asking important questions (to me anyway) on those subjects, only to have all of what I typed gone... again...It's happened a few times, where I get signed out even though I'm still on the forum....then go to post....all work gone....dear admin person, can you rescue it? If not, I'll try to type it all out again later....thanks!

[Leo Gura]

@Epiphany_Inspired Sorry, there's no way to rescue it on our end. There needs to be a successful submission resulting in a post.

Sometimes your connection can time out, which means the forum never got your data.

Most web browsers allow you to click the Back button or CTRL+Z to go back and retrieve your own data.

[Guest Annetta]

@John Flores I've been getting this glitch as well.

[Sevi]

@John Flores yeah, I've been having difficulties as well. Forum's major page is frozen in one date.

Edited April 1, 2017 by Sevi

[jse]

I'd like to report a glitch as well - I've narrowed it down to somewhere between keyboard and chair.
 

                                    

[Guest Annetta]

@My_Name_Is_Mud  This person is not me.  Stop gaslighting.

[Guest Annetta]

Oh, another glitch is that I can't send messages to anyone it keeps telling me I have to wait 117 seconds to send something, but I haven't sent anything.

[Loreena]

No glitches for me though. Our dear admin fixed everything. Immm so glaaaad 

[Epiphany_Inspired]

Wow, I feel so blessed by the support here, thank you all! I will attempt to re-write my questions. Total gratitude, thanks! @see_on_see I was doing the copy paste thing after the first couple crashes, but I forgot that time, thanks for the reminder!... paraphrasing from memory,:

So first:
I said how super awesome the Big Picture video was, and that the general road map is just fine, thanks Leo!

Then I asked about Paradigms...great video, but I was confused about how to take action on this...I wanted to know if we are lumping all of our bubbles into one main bubble?....and if we are popping bubbles by entering other bubbles, by making new habits, or by stepping beyond comfort zones/ surpassing fears/ sheer personal bravery? Something else?

Next must have been contemplation...oh yeah, I was wondering ...if I tend to do this a lot already...both the "good" kind, and the analytical type too, is it best to engage mostly understanding through direct experience first? So that I can use that as a guide...

Concentration: first, with the visual ones, can the image animate a bit?...like the candle would flicker (my orange rotated, showing the stem, zoomed into pores, etc), everything I imagined had movement, is this ok, or distraction? Is it best to concentrate on a goal related image as in visualization? I had other questions, I can't remember...but I think I wrote something about the mudras...when I was learning to work with the Mala beads, they said to use the middle finger and thumb (earth and sky fingers) not index finger (fire)...does anybody know if using the fire finger is good for this practice...when Leo used those fingers he looked like a Tibetan deity...lol...

Roles: still really struggling...other similar ladies (also have childhood trauma) that I know, say it's like we have "multiple personalities"...we have too many masks to name, and wardrobes like there are dozens of us. Roles are in my earliest memories, and I have felt really upset by how inauthentic/ superficial this particular work has left me feeling...despite my love of authenticity, and my devotion to embodying it....I now feel like a bad actress suit with a perpetually broken zipper, unable to reveal the real spirit within.....I have no idea how to isolate and pick away at the masks when they seem to be so endless...ideas?

Insert random positivity here now (picture a cute puppy snuggling a kitten or something)...lol, thanks!

Addition: I just spent half an hour writing a non-duality post, and forgot to copy it before submitting...like I did with this one...I've tried the back button like Leo suggested...but all my work is gone again...lesson hopefully learnt this time...

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2017 by Epiphany_Inspired
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[Epiphany_Inspired]

SQUEEEEE! Thank you soooooo much actualization team, whomever fixed the issue of all our work disappearing if we get signed out! My computer just crashed, and when I logged back in my comment was still there, this is awesome! Thank you amazing technical wizard!
 

[WaterfallMachine]

@Epiphany_Inspired

I think I might be able to answer your question on paradigms here. I only watched that video recently and I've only known about Leo's videos for about a few days, but I'm familiar with some of the concepts in them. I've went through a lot of time questioning random paradigms this way without even knowing the word paradigms and while I don't think I'm at Leo's level (This guy's knowledge from the sounds of it is wayyyy better than mine.), I still think I might know something. 

Let's concretize this in a specific situation. Let's pick a small situation between two people. 

I remember at some point in my life, I noticed my mom's paradigm is often the prioritization of practical needs in life. Food, health, finances and basic hygiene. She was a health nut and yes, she was one of those nagging moms about being healthy. That's  one bubble. Haha. 

And my own paradigm is all about how knowledge is important being the encompassing reason for much of my own different actions in life, even just for its own sake. So lots of time on my interests and hobbies here.  And boy, did I get pissed about being nagged all the time to spend more time learning about health than my "less important non-productive" interests. I thought my mom was way too shallow in thinking about everyday things. And this is the other bubble with the other bubble arguing with each other. Haha.

These bubbles got closed in by a bigger bubble when I realized that practicality is stil an important need in my life and had a greater desire to care about my health later on. I still cared about knowledge for its own sake but I shouldn't let it be the only  thing I need in life and my goals in life expanded, into the bigger bubble. I took the good parts of each side and ignored the excess of use along the way. And for this, I had to be open minded enough to consider. And stop insulting myself whenever I would consider her perspective. While getting out of my comfort zone of actually taking action in more practical aspects of life. 

Another phenemenon is popping a bubble. 

Let's say a whole paradigm of thinking of a person in service is how they are the "saviors" of others. Other people are helpless victims to be cared for. He changed his paradigm and popped his bubble when he realized that other people could help themselves and he could act as a guide to teach others how to help themselves rather than just helping them all the time. It's the difference between telling people what the answer in a math test is rather than how to solve the equation. 

For this, he had to doubt and surpass his ego fears of "wanting to be the hero," and having people praise him. He had to point out certain traps in his mind ("You see, this person is weak now so she'll be weak forever.") He had to take action beyond his comfort zone to actually try to help people this way. Think of ideas, research, make the plan, start doing little steps this way. From what I've seen on Leo's videos, there's an emphasis on really experiencing something rather than just reading it to really understand things — and to go into a worldview might be also doing the worldview. 

And one day the bubble pops. It's wrong. Totally wrong. But he still encompasses before and after a larger bubble of having a reason to help people and he still uses the bubble when it's true that that person can't help themselves much like maybe paralyzed people, but those are more exceptions. And there's the possibility of a different bubble in service if medicine can find a cure for that in more advanced treatments. 

There are of course, non-contradictory bubbles. A bubble for relationships and a bubble for what good art is is in a person of course different. 

And if the whole amount of bubbles is encompassed with a larger bubble is interesting to me. I don't know either. How do bubbles from relationships and what good art is connects? Maybe the bubble thinking those are contradictory in itself is a bubble and there's another bubble that believes everything is connected like when I read about cross teaching as an idea for education. What if people can mix perspectives on politics with how science is going for example? The politics of science and the science of politics. Or it could be the idea encompassing all that there's good knowledge to be found in something that is overall bad.

Maybe the biggest bubble would be more on what our view of reality is. It could be a religion and it could be no religion. You can say we're all in a simulation and you can say there is something non-physical as a bubble that takes all the little bubbles. Maybe the biggest bubble is about your highest motivation in life, namely satisfaction or happiness for many people and all actions below are made for it. Though, Leo mentions that saying reality exists is a paradigm in itself. How can you be so sure reality exists? Isn't that an assumption of itself? And more interesting is how he says your identity and self is a paradigm. That language and thought is a paradigm.

Whoa. Have to checkt this out.

Haha. Well, I'm done explaining here. Maybe it's too detailed? If yes, sorry. I do long explanations to myself alone often as a way of making sure I understand shit. . . really really really well. Tell me if you have any further or opposing thoughts.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2017 by WaterfallMachine

[Epiphany_Inspired]

@WaterfallMachine I think you are probably correct about the bubbles, and it helped me to understand:

It seems like there must be a large bubble, with the smaller bubbles within. It seems like popping the large bubble would be more difficult than popping smaller ones (unless you could drastically shift your entire perspective). I also think you are likely right about what the big bubble is: the totality of our view on reality....I have a shitload of small bubbles, but I'm uncertain how determine what the big one is even with your definitions. When you mentioned the higher goals...is it a higher consciousness ideal that we've just distorted through ego, or more of a low conscious survival based interpretation of desires - believing it's of higher service?

You seem to have an eye for bubbles. I am struggling, like the roles (too many/ quite diverse). I guess finding the big bubble is about developing the ability to see the entire distortion created by the whole pair of glasses, rather than looking at the issues with each individual  "tinted" lens...the issue is when you mix the blue, red, & yellow lenses...it's like looking through murky mud/ pretty hard to see clearly...looking through them or at them....

As far as art appreciation & relationships: I think Leo said something about how sometimes our bubbles serve each other, but if they contradict, the ego has a way of bridging the gaps with self reasoning. For example as an artist, I am terrible with that, I can't seem to check out a library book for my daughter if I really don't like the illustrations...but my choices in relationships often have less to do with appearance and are more about the "story"/ connection (the last one was an unfortunate exception...lol...). I can see how my mind could bridge these type of gaps- In practicing mindfulness, it's ridiculous how I can make anything seem reasonable in my world, if I want to, or need to... to maintain my perceptions. Yeah, totally, everything seems to be a paradigm...but my intuition and optimism lead me to believe that something better must exist beyond them...

 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by Epiphany_Inspired

[WaterfallMachine]

11 hours ago, Epiphany_Inspired said:

@WaterfallMachine I think you are probably correct about the bubbles, and it helped me to understand:

It seems like there must be a large bubble, with the smaller bubbles within. It seems like popping the large bubble would be more difficult than popping smaller ones (unless you could drastically shift your entire perspective). I also think you are likely right about what the big bubble is: the totality of our view on reality....I have a shitload of small bubbles, but I'm uncertain how determine what the big one is even with your definitions. When you mentioned the higher goals...is it a higher consciousness ideal that we've just distorted through ego, or more of a low conscious survival based interpretation of desires - believing it's of higher service?

You seem to have an eye for bubbles. I am struggling, like the roles (too many/ quite diverse). I guess finding the big bubble is about developing the ability to see the entire distortion created by the whole pair of glasses, rather than looking at the issues with each individual  "tinted" lens...the issue is when you mix the blue, red, & yellow lenses...it's like looking through murky mud/ pretty hard to see clearly...looking through them or at them....

As far as art appreciation & relationships: I think Leo said something about how sometimes our bubbles serve each other, but if they contradict, the ego has a way of bridging the gaps with self reasoning. For example as an artist, I am terrible with that, I can't seem to check out a library book for my daughter if I really don't like the illustrations...but my choices in relationships often have less to do with appearance and are more about the "story"/ connection (the last one was an unfortunate exception...lol...). I can see how my mind could bridge these type of gaps- In practicing mindfulness, it's ridiculous how I can make anything seem reasonable in my world, if I want to, or need to... to maintain my perceptions. Yeah, totally, everything seems to be a paradigm...but my intuition and optimism lead me to believe that something better must exist beyond them...

I don't think I fully understand your question about higher goals. But it reminds me of Leo's video on this. It's called Fake Growth vs Real Growth where he mentions the possible goals of the ego or the higher self. 

But I think from my understanding, you have trouble realizing large paradigms in the world and being objective, right?

Well, I guess you're right about me having an eye for bubbles. It's one of my more natural talents early on. But I still appreciate how I found someone who seems to surpass me in that area to learn from. (Leo). 

But these are some of the ways I found large paradigms somehow. I think the first thing to realize though is to find big bubbles, you must understand the smaller bubbles. Learn to follow the assumptions of smaller bubbles and later on you'll find the big ones. 

• Seeing the world in what kind of values people emphasize and seeing that as a paradigm. Does this person value fun, security, authenticity, hard work, objectivity, kindness, etc. ? How do they act according to these worldviews? How do you relate to them? How do you not relate to them? This applies not just to individuals, but to cultures, teams, groups, businesses, schools and more. And seeing how these values play out in specifc life areas.
• There are a whole cast of big bubbles found in the study of philosophy if you check. So many assumptions that we take for granted are in there. So you might want to check it out. And all kinds of different beliefs on the world on what reality is and how should we live from different religions. 
• Study cognitive biases. These are scientific researched phenemenon that classifies the common logical biases people have in their head. You can take time to be aware of them and practice them, little by little. 
• What kind of people do you look up to? Why? What people are you jealous of? Why? What people do you dislike or hate? Why? You can do this in different areas of your life. It seems to point to specifc paradigms somehow. 
• Another good technique in finding assumptions is asking why repeatedly. A person may ask, "Why do I work hard for my business ?" "Because I can get rich." "Why?" "So I can be happy?" Then asking is that true? You can google the Ishikawa or Fishbone diagram for this. You can take the simplest of beliefs with this technique and strip it down to its deepest beliefs. 
• Another thing is to learn about other cultures beliefs. Different cultures seem to have different assumptions built into them and when you search on their culture online, you might find different practices and beliefs that talk about their worldview. A good idea to work on are the differences of beliefs between the west and the east. The differences between individualist and collectivist cultures.
• You can google mind maps to better diagram your paradigms.
• Other models of seeing the world. I think looking at the sites Personality Hacker and Personality Junkie cognitive functions seem to help with being able to realize where your paradigms come from in the first place. Cognitive functions is a theory based on finding what type of information people are attracted to and how they decide things in life. Mbti is based on it, but Mbti oversimplifies the theory too much that several people find it unhelpful. There is also enneagram, a system based on trying to find people's deepest motivations and core fears. You might argue that these things generalize too much but it is a pretty good guide and only as a guide, not a crystal ball, to see what kind of paradigms you might have and what you can learn from other paradigms. 
• Another thing is googling a belief you have and seeing other's opinions on it. Or asking other people what their views on things are and asking about it. Even if that belief seems rather obvious.
• Leo has a questionnaire guide on challenging paradigms under his How Paradigms Work video. You can download the file if you want.
• Seeing big bubbles from the smaller bubbles is basically another way to say the ability to summarize ideas well. So you can try practicing summarizing smaller ideas and build your way up to notice bigger ideas from multiple perspectives to summarize. I've tried a daily log of my actions, thoughts and feelings and summarizing them in beliefs. Then read these  logs over several days, even months, and seeing what similarities in a paradigm can appear. You can practice summarizing ideas in all kinds of different interests, hobbies and areas of life though.

I was able to watch the contemplation video recently. 

And I think the idea comes from a value in being able to understand the theory and understand what's practical experience. People need both. Leo has emphasized people who do not reflect like this in his videos and has also criticized people who do not base ideas on observation and concrete examples. So any order seems good to me. Some people do better with theory first and some people understand better with concrete examples. But it seems from my stay around this forum, lots of people here are the type who are more likely to emphasize theory too much. Probably the reason he emphasizes not to actually look at what other people say is to allow a clean state to think for yourself and looking at other views early on may remove some ideas you could have thought on your own. But later on, seeing others' views on it is beneficial to learn more.

I also took time to watch the roles video and I already seem to be familiar with how my roles limit me from my study into cognitive functions and cultural perspectives but maybe I should think about this more. I think of these roles less as something you have to subtract and your real self is what's left. I think of your real and actualized self as what is there when you transcend your current roles to learn from other roles, a kind of addition. Or what happens when you're aware of them and you choose what roles you really prefer yourself, an act of mindful subtraction. I wouldn't call to really remove every single trait of every single mask you play. More that it doesn't have a tight hold on you and a sort of easygoingness with trying these different roles appropiately, choosing it's good traits and not letting it limit you. And  being able to see these roles in an " authentic clean slate" as Leo puts it, adding a freedom to what you want to be.

You might find it easier to understand roles as labels. Our minds sees  objects as a certain label. A book. A tv. A couch. But these things are human constraints. In reality, these objects are a collection of colors, shapes, sizes, lines, sounds, smells, tastes, touch and more. And if you see this world, you'd see you are not your role. You are a collection of traits, thoughts, feelings and actions that you can try to see beyond those generalizations or labels.

A way to notice being limited in a role is when you criticize people for not playing the same roles as you well, when it's fine for people to have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Change comes from awareness first and being aware of it not only in theory but how it actively appears throughout your life in thoughts, feelings and actions is going to be relevant here. There is no shortcut to this, only gradual awareness that can be helped by records and reflection.

Any further questions?

 

 

Edited May 4, 2017 by WaterfallMachine

[Epiphany_Inspired]

@WaterfallMachine  No, I have too much to discover there to have anymore questions yet...my ignorance & the sheer scope of this, has left me feeling like there is so much more to learn before I could even conceive of something more to ask...thanks so much for everything! I especially love the list of ways to find large paradigms! Awesome! I feel like I mostly had theories before....and it's like you've given me the whole formula, and a how to road-map, thanks...an over-simplification is like:

worldviews + beliefs + values + biases + assumptions + motivations + fears + aspirations/ admirations + attractions + spiritual orientation + envies + dislikes + culture + actions + stereotypes + etc... = large bubbles

So, if I actually get to the point where I can complete that equation personally....I hope I can actually distill it down into the all encompassing singularity...to the point where I can recognize it as a total unification, possibly name it, and begin it's transformation....thanks!

Yes, it's likely when liberated folk must put on their ego suits, they put on a mask or two as well....but consciously....

Edited May 5, 2017 by Epiphany_Inspired