Leo Gura

A very common issue for artists. Confusing success for growth/happiness is one of the biggest traps there is. Nearly all mega-successful people fall into it. Which is WHY they're mega-successful. People who realize that success != happiness would never work so hard to accumulate the mega-success that people like Avicii get, because it often comes at a great expense to one's happiness and sense of peace. Of course this problem is made even worse with the low-consciousness club party culture in which Avicii swam. We have all the big name DJs here in Vegas. I often wonder how they can keep playing night after the night, the same stuff. After a year or two of that, it must become the lamest job in the world. Seems like he was at least wise enough to stop touring several years ago. The problem is that most such people don't even know there is any other dimension to life besides the material and the creative one. The spiritual dimension is not considered seriously because religion and science have made such a mockery of spirituality.

Hehe, that's the whole problem of life: you have a finite amount of time and an trillion different directions to explore. It's almost like you'd have to be God to explore them all Talk about a quality problem.

The Truth is one. That's not the issue. There is a pragmatic issue: how permeated is your mind & life by the Truth? To what degree are you aware of it? How deeply do you see/feel it? What is your everyday level of consciousness? Which facets of the Truth has your mind understood, and how deeply?

Conspiracy theories are against Forum Guidelines. They are a distraction from our work here.

Cause under the materialist, rationalist paradigm such things are impossible. So why invest billions of dollars in hocus-pocus?

@Source_Mystic I've already addressed your issue. You are being hysterical. If you don't like the technique, don't do it.

@Dinesh Karki Every perspective has some worth. It's worth listening to Hitler or Bin Laden. But you have to understand how to understand what you're hearing and put it into proper context and avoid the trap of subscribing to ideological positions in service of self-survival.

@zenjen Two things: 1) That whole "I am struggling to kill myself... this is so difficult..." is itself a farce. It's the ego over-dramatizing its own death. It's the final form of egotism to overcome. The ego loves to make a big deal out of dying. 2) Tap into love. It conquers all fear. Including the fear of death. When you feel like you cannot go any further, tap into love and let it overtake you. Push, but let go of control.

Peterson is distracted in the Lesser Jihad. He is wrapped up in waging an intellectual crusade, and his followers are doing the same. All of these issues of men's rights, liberalism, capitalism vs Marxism, etc. are issues of self-survival. Which is orthogonal to consciousness. Consciousness has nothing to do with intellectual crusading. Consciousness reveals that all intellectual, moral, and idealistic positions are false, and ultimately obstacles to the solution of the worlds problems. The counter-intuitive move in this case is to drop the desire to argue and turn inward. All criticism is untenable. Anyone who takes their own criticisms of anything in reality seriously has not awoken. Criticism comes from the arrogance of thinking you know what is right and that you are in control. Classic self-deception traps. All of this I explained in my Self-Deception episodes.

Careful with the Hare Krishnas. They have a big collective ego and they will brainwash you with their dogmas. Regardless of any spiritual benefits which you might accrue (and there probably are some great spiritual benefits to their practices). You want to be spiritual without becoming a group-think zombie. Practices alone are not the only factor. The other factor that's really important is inclusiveness and broad understanding of all spiritual traditions, without attachment to any particular one.

As Sadhguru always says: Snort that nose candy. Isn't it? Yes or no?

Find a good life purpose.

@egoless Very good

@egoless Did you become conscious of why reality exists? Of what it is?

@MM1988 Like I said, the Stoics were good philosphers and psychologists. When you closely observe your inner nature, you will come to the same basic conclusions. The parallels exist because anyone who studies human nature honestly will tend to see the same core principles at work. It's really just a question of how deeply you go down the rabbit hole, and how you choose to express your insights, from within which cultural background.

Just consider the possibilty that there are many many many many degrees to it, and very very very very few people have ever seen the deepest degrees. When you think you've reached the deepest, you probably haven't.

There is much deeper to go. No-self is just the start.

Awakening is not really logical in the end. It will not make sense to you from within the ego. The key point is: you cannot locate yourself no matter how hard you look. Notice that. That should make you very suspicious of this thing you call "me".

@Ether If I did that, you'd be the one controlling me.

This PizzaGate stuff is annoying. They are not the same logo. People are way too sloppy in how they connect dots.

@Rilles While you're at, you might also ask, "Where is the universe located?" Maybe you can make it disappear too. Now that would be something!

@Monkey-man What are you talking about? No, no, no. Spiral Dynamics stages are nowhere near enlightenment. You are making that stuff up.

A wise mind realizes its own limits and domain. The end-goal is No-Mind, or Infinite Mind.

This is all fine and good, but do not confuse emotional mastery or lack of suffering or bliss with enlightenment. They are separate things. This is not to say you shouldn't do "The Work" if it appeals to you. Enlightenment is about realizing what reality is.

Careful as the mind comes back and tries to cling and appropriate these insights towards its own devilish ends.