Leo Gura

We are not saying to do away with all dualistic notions. Language is always dualistic so that would not even be possible. What we are saying is to be more conscious of the socially constructed nature of human institutions and culture.

@mandyjw Firstly, you can do both. Secondly, if everyone took your attitude we'd be living in Nazi Germany or worse. If you care about human life, your worldview must be GLOBAL! Mankind's greatest challenges are GLOBAL. This cannot be resolved by just focusing on your local community. That's what got us into so much trouble that we're in today. This planet will be destroyed if we don't adopt a global perspective immediately.

Then when the government goes to hell, don't be surprised and don't complain. Cause that's what such irresponsibility creates. See, the problem here is, you take good government for granted. If you spent a year in Iraq you'd really be able to appreciate the importance of good government.

Of course that already happens. But its too small to really address any serious world problems. What you're describing is called: American society. Here it is. You're in it already. The question is, how do make this society better for 300 million people? You are underestimating how much these kinds of constructions contribute to your sense of self and how much they shape the behaviors of hundreds of millions of people. This is not merely about you. This is about entire societies and cultures.

In practice, no you can't, because we live in a globalized world. You cannot just build a wall between your community and the outside world. Because fundamentally everything is interconnected. Eventually your commune would die out or become a cancer. The issue of running a good society is very complex. You cannot it do it in isolation, or by sticking your head in the sand, or by ignoring issues of mass scale. Whatever solutions you imagine must work at the scale of 100s of millions of people AT LEAST, and even at the scale of 7 billion. Otherwise you're not actually addressing the deepest issues, you're just offloading them on someone else to solve. Yes, you can create a small commune of millionaires who live on a golf course in a gated community with security guards. But this is all made possible by the larger society which maintains the police, military, legal system, monetary system, education system, fire department, important regulations, food inspections, vaccinations, environmental protections, trade treaties, taxation, nuclear weapons, telecommunications, immigration, airports, etc, etc. Your little commune could not exist without all that as supporting infrastructure. Just as an example of how everything is interconnected: let's say you build your perfect little commune on a tropical island. Everything is going great until some large corporation decides to use your island chain as nuclear dump site. A giant oil tanker full of nuclear waste material come and dumps 100 tons of radioactive material on a neighboring island. This material leeches into the water and gives 70% of the people on your island cancer which you cannot cure without flying back to the mainland. But to cure your cancer requires you pay $100,000 in medical bills which you cannot afford because you lived on a remote island with no major economy. You have no way to stop this from happening because your island is without any political power. So your commune very soon dies.

I don't have a source in the way you expect. You come to know such things after years of studying all sorts of books, gurus, retreats, and teachers. There's not just some one book I go to to get my knowledge on Hinduism. It's much more messy than that.

@FredFred First become conscious of what you are. Then you will know the status of others. The questions you ask cannot be understood by you until you have at least a few awakenings.

I am not saying that we need to eliminate all social constructions. Social constructions are necessary and useful. We just need to be conscious and honest that they are social constructions, not objective things. And we need to not get out identities attached to them. 300 million people can never go back to living in a pre-Columbus society. This is not possible due to problems of scale and technological and cultural evolution. You cannot put the genie back in the bottle. 300 million people requires SERIOUS bureaucracy to manage. Bureaucracy itself is not the problem. The problem is corruption in the bureaucracy, which can and must be eliminated. The invention of modern bureaucracy is a miracle greater than electricity. Without it your life would be so awful it would hardly be worth living. People take all this for granted.

@Shaun Yes, of course. 1-2g is good for that. Just set a genuine intention to know. Frame your question and ask it in your mind a bunch of times before the trip. Then let the mushrooms show you. They may at first show you other stuff before they finally show you want you ultimately want. Sometimes to get what you ultimately want you must go through a few detours and work out some kinks in yourself.

The devil's weed

Yes, you DO have to get involved in politics. But not from a position of ego. I am not saying you should hate your country or deny whatever country you live in. Just don't confuse it with who/what you are. America is a very small part of God's creation, and really, it's a creation of your mind. God does not know or see any America. All that's being said here is to be conscious of the socially constructed nature of all these social constructs like money, political parties, nation states, races, genders, etc. Do not confuse any of that stuff with Truth or with yourself. Do not take any of it personally. Use it and enjoy it, but don't attach to it. The Earth is a cool place, I'm not disputing that. But to divide up the Earth into parts and call one part yours and other part not yours is an egoic fantasy. It's only true in your mind. "America" is something you invented. If you think you're "an American" you invented that. It's very important to be conscious of that. Just because a bunch of people get together and say that "this is America" doesn't make it so. It's a collective hallucination. Besides which, no two people in the world agree on what "America" even means. Everyone has their own ideas about what America is and ought to be. Some people believe America is "The Great Satan". And they're not entirely wrong. If Americans are not devils, who is?

Well, most of the best meditation techniques were developed by the most advanced sages of mankind. They were exceptionally gifted and highly functional (for the most part). But that doesn't mean that a dysfunctional person can't benefit from Vipasanna. That would be a misguided conclusion. Yeah, lots could be said about that. Books could be written about that, and have. There are many books written by people who went through long periods of recovery and healing before ultimately awakening. I would definitely suggest doing more basic self-help work. Tackling advanced metaphysical topics for dysfunctional people wouldn't be too effective I imagine. Going from dysfunctional to functional is actually a very good approach. Traditionally, dysfunctional people were not even allowed to get initiated into yoga, for example, because you need to have your shit together to do yoga properly. There are qualifications for serious spiritual seekers for good reason. Spirituality is not for slobs and rubes. Spirituality requires high maturity and innate wisdom. Otherwise it get corrupted into evil. But this doesn't mean you can't have some kind of mild spiritual practice while you're doing basic self-help / healing. You can. Just don't expect it to take to the highest levels of insight. Yes, developing a spiritual connection is a big part of the answer. But also developing that connection properly is not easy. It requires serious commitment and work. Which many dysfunctional people are unable to muster. But again, don't take this on as a limiting belief. No one is stopping you but yourself. Perhaps the biggest obstacle for a dysfunctional person is that he/she will simply be unable to tolerate the stark brutality of the Truth which spirituality reveals. Which is why they are dysfunctional in the first place. Weak people cannot handle hearing the Truth. They have all sorts of twisted defense mechanisms to deny it all day long. Developing a genuine desire for raw truth is essential to spiritual work.

Some of us are more fools than others

The key point is that you realize that there is no boundary whatsoever between you and all other sentient beings. And that all identities are fabrications for purposes of survival. If you think you're an American, that's something you fabricated to make yourself feel good. It's not true and it's an unconscious survival function. This becomes very problematic when people refuse to admit that they fabricate such identities. Which of course all nationalists will refuse to admit. The whole point is to ground the ego in that identity in order to deny Emptiness.

The avoidance of suffering is a problematic source of motivation because avoidance of suffering rarely leads to Truth. It can, but 99% of the time it leads to various forms of devilry and delusion. Because there are so many ways to mollify the suffering with illusion. And the desire to escape suffering itself ends up creating the most suffering. What is it that wants to escape suffering? Mostly ego. And of course it doesn't really want Truth, it merely wants pleasure. And as soon as your suffering is mitigated, you stop caring about Truth. That's the problem with negative motivation. It produces yo-yo effects. The more your suffering is reduced the less you care about Truth. Which means you're unlikely to ever reach it. Whereas if your whole motivation was Truth, you'd reach it very quickly. Wanting the Truth is the highest kind of motivation for this work. The highest masters didn't get that way to avoid suffering. They got that way because the loved and valued Truth so highly they were will willing to incur enormous suffering to reach it. But of course this kind of motivation is rare. As the proverb goes: a fool will learn no other way than through suffering. Which means the wise aren't motivated that way.

Many people get into spirituality due to intense suffering. That is very common. My point is though, that is not the only way to get into spirituality. That's not why I do spirituality for example. I do it to seek Truth, wisdom, and understanding. My point is, I want this path to be open to people who just want truth for truth's sake, not just because they seek to escape suffering. The idea that one must be deeply dysfunctional to get into spirituality is not a good one to spread. Spirituality is for highly functional people (and also dysfunctional ones).

Candace Owens is a joke. Why does Russell Brand even bother talking to her? He's got bigger fish to fry.

That's something we can improve on.

Compassion is always good of course for those who are suffering.

Do not make such generalizations. Fundamentally this work is not about avoiding suffering, it is about a desire for the deepest truth, wisdom, and love. Not because you lack or suffer but because you desire it. Lack is a poor motivation source.

There are no such parties. We live in a Teir 1 world. Don't be perfectionistic. Vote for the highest consciousness people running who can win.

@JohnnyBravo Notice your disrespectful tone.

It's important to distinguish learning facts and memorizing stuff from learning wisdom and core principles. These are two very different pursuits. Learning facts and memorizing stuff is rather pointless and can even be counter-productive. Wisdom, however, is never forgotten. Deep understanding is permanent.

@JohnnyBravo Like I said, you are here with a closed mind and some agenda to defend.

The self is RELENTLESS! It's way trickier than you can possibility imagine at this point. The self will not allow itself to be deconstructed. Because you're barking up the tree of life & death. Even after a deep awakening the self will tend to regroup and come back with a vengeance. Your whole life hinges on it.