Leo's Blog: Infinite Insights
Miscellaneous bits of wisdom and resources on personal development, life purpose, philosophy, epistemology, nonduality, psychedelics, etc. Published randomly throughout the week.
- penetrating mental vision or discernment.
- the sudden act of grasping the inner nature or truth of a situation.
- a deep understanding of a person or thing.
Insights here are meant to be quick and half-baked. Consider these food for thought.
I've deliberately disabled comments to keep the blog streamlined. If you want to discuss any of the blog posts, you can do so here: Actualized.org Forum
Rasputin was a strange mystical character. Was he a real mystic or a creepy charlatan? Or something in between?
Why do I say charlatan? Because a serious mystic would not be so eager to cozy up to power. A true man of God is not interested in playing political games and getting friendly with the rich, famous, and powerful. A true man of God has already found all the Power he needs. Truth is not kind to the rich, famous, and powerful. Do you understand how dangerous these ideas we talk about are to the rich, famous, and powerful? No one with power has a pure enough mind to even understand what I teach, never mind live it. People in power are not philosophers, they are epistemic perverts and devils lost in survival.
There is an interesting category of what I would classify as quasi-mystics. These people have some mystical experiences and they posture as mystics, but they are also very corrupt and full of shit. Their mysticism isn't pure, it's a mixture of genuine mystical experiences and bullshit. They don't have the purity and clarity of proper mystics and non-mystics don't know the difference. It is easy to have a few minor experiences of God and turn it into corrupt nonsense. A few mystical experiences do not a Buddha make.
What the intelligent, highly rational mind misses is that it’s simply overlooking things. Rationality does not solve the problem of simply overlooking things. A very intelligent person can just overlook very fundamental, basic, obvious things. Doubling down on rationality does not solve this problem because Consciousness is more fundamental than rationality. Rationality cannot factor in things it is unconscious of. Rationality can only work on things Consciousness is conscious of. This ends up dooming rationalism and scientific thinking. Scientific thinking cannot even imagine what it is overlooking and taking for granted. When the mind is overlooking something fundamental, no amount of scientific evidence or argument is enough to change that. A scientific experiment or a scientific apparatus cannot force you to recognize something fundamental you are overlooking. You have to recognize that you are overlooking it, which requires deep self-reflection. So, Reality cannot be understood without self-reflection, which is what dooms science.
What is the rational mind overlooking? That's the key.
The rational mind does not understand, and does not factor in, the significance of what it is overlooking.
It's the things you're overlooking that will be the cause of your self-deception. The deepest self-deception is about what you are overlooking.
Reality is not understood by being anally rational, it is understood by paying careful attention to what everyone is overlooking.
