Leo Gura

Smoking is harsher than plugging. Plugging doesn't produce visuals, at least for me. Unless it's a really big dose, but even then the visual is: everything become infinite. It's not a psychedelic visual. It's more like pure consciousness being aware of its own infinitude. It's like a transparent sort of visual. Like the air got sucked out of the room and every object became infinite. At higher doses there's a freaky effect called recursion: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Recursion Don't close your eyes during the trip.

Actually it's the most common scenario that even after an awakening or two the identity still stays. Very rarely is the identity totally transcended. Usually a spiritual identity is created. This happens even with many gurus, monks, and yogis. To transcend all identity completely is a very rare and challenging thing.

That doesn't matter. It's still survival even if it's deluded or wrong. Someone pursuing enlightenment to escape suffering, for example, is doing it out of survival. Now maybe he happens to finally reach nirvana, where survival is extinguished, but that's distinct from how/why he got there. His motivations were still survival-driven in this case. This is false.

If you say so.

Where is the full movie found?

Yes, it would certainly work, and work powerfully. But be careful what you wish for. Depending on how many inner demons you got, it could get hairy. But then again, that's where the real growth is. There tends to be an inverse relationships between growth and comfort. You can't have both at once.

Actual vs conceptual is a duality. Mind vs not-mind is a duality.

Suffering is a principle tool of survival. You create suffering to ensure you stay alive.

It certainly can. People create whole identities out of seeking Truth. @Norbert Lennartz Do not conflate thinking with feeling. They are distinct. You can feel without thinking.

@mandyjw You cannot be worthy of love because love requires no worth. True love is unconditional.

Even then you are still limited.

You create polarity in order to survive as the polarized thing that you have imagined yourself to be. Life itself is a polarity: life vs death.

It is surprisingly accurate. The only inaccurate part is that God has any form whatsoever, or that God is separate from you. God has no form at all.

Worth and worthiness is a measure of survival.

@sausagehead You are all beings at all times simultaneously.

Sounds like your passion lies in spirituality. So follow that.

Looks great!

@Jcent To do what? A solo retreat? Maybe start off by doing a 2 or 4 week solo retreat and see how that goes. That shouldn't cost you too much. After that re-evaluate your results and priorities. No one can tell you what's worthwhile for you but you. It's always smart to make small strategic bets and testing the waters before going all-in. Do a 1-week program before you sign up for something that's months long. Most retreat centers have short 1-week programs to get you a feel for the place and people.

I never said going to the gym is against consciousness work. I was talking about the gym rat types who create an identity out of going to the gym. Do you even lift, bro? This is extremely common. Unconscious survival strategies tend to backfire and become self-destructive. They lack the intelligence necessary to navigate out of a complex situation. When it comes to improving with women, the RedPill/MGTOW/incel survival strategy is to blame women for that man's problems. It's the victim strategy. This is a very effective strategy for staying your old self. See, if incels and such took full responsibility for their problems they would have to admit that their inner game is the problem. This would mean lots of work to fix it, and if you failed, it would be on you. It would mean you're weak or lazy or unintelligent. This is difficult for the ego to accept and deal with. Instead the ego would much rather not change and blame someone else: women, society, feminists, SJWs, etc. This quickly becomes an appealing ideological position, similar to radical Islamic sects. Getting good with women can be very emotionally challenging. So most incels instead create elaborate victim narratives and justify those narratives with bro science. Then they don't actually have to go out and talk to girls. They can sit at home and make toxic online posts against feminists. Of course this will not effectively resolve their problem. But they are not conscious enough to see that. They are addicted to their fear-based, hate-based ideology. The ego gets off on it. Admitting that you've wasted years of your life subscribed to a false, egotistical ideology is too much to admit for most incels. So they double-down on it and attack even more. Yes, the ego-mind will try to co-opt glimpses of Truth/Being for its own purposes. Which is why the most advanced spiritual teachings have typically been held secret, only revealed to qualified, mature, serious students under the expert guidance of a master. Truth is prior to logic, so logic must always be subservient to it. You can have Truth without logic, but you can't have logic without Truth.

You can't become totally limitless so long as you have a human body. Being human is a very particular limited thing. You cannot escape that entirely until physical death. The purpose is that you are experiencing what it's like to be human. Until that runs out.

Keep in mind that in many of these places you actually spend more time working, cooking, cleaning, socializing, etc. than meditating. If you want the most effective and direct path, find a cabin in the woods and live there for 6 months by yourself. Then you can get some real work done. Even just 1 month totally solo will be life-changing. The deepest work is done solo, where you have zero social obligations. All you gotta do is handle your food, water, and cleaning.

Well, I can't tell you what is right for you. But it sounds like you've simply not done enough work/experience with it. Remember, that relationships are what you make of them. If you put in no enthusiasm you will get none back. Maybe you just want to be a celibate monk. I dunno. That's a fine path, if that's what you truly want. But for most people intimate relationships are the way to go. You can always become a celibate monk later in life after you gain more experience with relationships & sex. I think becoming a monk is only proper for very serious people who know what they're doing. It's not right for most ordinary folks.

To be an effective Bodhisattva one must be enlightened. Holding off one's own enlightenment is not the proper understanding of how to be a Bodhisattva. Christ and The Buddha are prime examples of how to do it right. They did not hold off their enlightenments. Trying to save the world while one is unenlightened is a dangerous game to play. One needs to be firmly rooted in Truth & Love, with minimal ego and shadow.

Well, you'll need an army larger than Hitler's to enforce that.

I don't know what you mean. Give an example.