Leo Gura

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Posts posted by Leo Gura

  3. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    6 minutes ago, Raze said:

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-it-may-be-justified-to-starve-2-million-gazans-but-world-wont-let-us/

    They ARE starving them and the world ain't doing much to stop it except some stern phone calls.

    What's actually stopping Smotrich is not the world, it's internal Israel civilization. Too many in Israeli government would disapprove of an actual genocide.

  7. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    1 hour ago, Jayson G said:

    Is that so bad if its in pursuit of higher ideals but that incorporates some degree of luxury? 

    That is fine.

    That is not what I mean by luxury.

    Building up your nest is good.

    There are objects of convenience like an MP3 player, which is fine. Then there are objects of luxury, like some fancy diamond watch or a $3000 bottle of wine.

    I know a lady who installed glass toilets in her fancy house. Shit like that is what I mean.

  10. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    @Karmadhi According to this report 7,500 civilians were killed by the US military in the first 2 years of Iraq invasion.

    https://asiatimes.com/2023/03/how-many-iraqis-did-the-us-really-kill/#

    But Gaza is way more densely populated and the US has much higher level of military standards and professionalism. Also US was not interested in ethnic cleansing like Israel is, since they live there.

    But also, US was not really under existential threat. Israel is much more threatened in the Middle East than the US is.

  11. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    5 minutes ago, Karmadhi said:

    but I have not seen USA do anything near this inhumane as a response to 9/11

    Now I get to use your logic against you.

    Isn't the US more evil than Hamas? After all, the US invasion of Iraq lead to some 100k-500k deaths.

    If you just count raw death numbers, the US is more evil than Hamas.

    But see, this is bad analysis. Likewise, it is bad analysis when applied to Israel.

    You can't just look at raw death count. Moral development is more than that.

    Your analysis is too simplistic.

  12. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    13 minutes ago, Karmadhi said:

    Also Hamas did revenge after years of Israeli brutal occupation and domination

    Yes, I know. But it's still different.

    No matter how much history you cite, how many examples, it's still different.

    Post Oct 7th Israel has lost all self-control. Similar to the US after 9/11. Israel was much more reasonable before Oct 7th. Yes, I am mostly focused on Pre Oct 7th Israel because Oct 7th was just a heinous attack which would enrage any civilized nation. You can't reasonably expect an attack like Oct 7th not to trigger a huge over-reaction. A major problem with Hamas is that they are not developed enough to even care about that. They did the attack anyway, knowing it would lead to their destruction. This is why they are so low in development. A developed political group would not undertake such an attack because it would backfire so badly on their own people. But since Hamas is suicidal, they don't care.

  14. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    @The Caretaker There is a problem at both extremes.

    Extreme poverty is a serious limiting factor. But so is extreme comfort, luxury, and complacency in 1st world democracies.

    Many people in the West are just too addicted to social media and porn to build a proper life. Building a proper life is hard work. Why do it when you can just sit around playing video games while your parents pay for everything?

  15. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    4 minutes ago, Karmadhi said:

    They blow up hospitals, refugee cams and schools full of civilian and kids

    Either you are in denial or not fully informed

    I am informed of those things. But they are waging a war at this point. Yes, in a war stuff like gets blown up.

    And after Oct 7th Israel is doing revenge and ethnic cleansing.

    Yes, Israel does revenge attacks on civilian targets sometimes. They can't help themselves. Those are war crimes. War crimes are common in war.

  16. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    25 minutes ago, PurpleTree said:

    How morally superior is North Korea to Japan and South Korea?

    That's the wrong question. The question you wanted to ask is how morally superior is North Korea to Hamas?

    That's an interesting question. They are both quite awful in different ways, but at least North Korea is sane enough to not nuke their neighbors because North Korea is not suicidal. Hamas is suicidal.

    Suicidality is quite the mark of low development. Especially for a political group.

    North Korea is awful, but actually their diplomatic dealings are rational. North Korea can be reasoned with.

    A suicidal actor is just impossible to deal with because you can't even count on them caring about their own lives. This is ultimately why groups like Hamas must be destroyed. You can't make deals with a suicidal actor. Israel is being asked to make such deals, which is a lot to expect of Israel. Any deal Israel makes, some Islamic lunatic will just blow it up. This creates an impossible situation.

  17. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    @The Caretaker Most people have no idea what they want in life. They just bumble along like animals and follow the path of least resistance, doing only things that reality or society forces them into.

    Most people have a poor understanding of themselves. They don't reflect enough to know what they value, what makes them happy, or what suits them and what doesn't. It takes a lot of experience to know yourself that well. Lots of experimentation is required. I dabbled in a lot of stuff before I found my core niches.

    Also, most people are so constrained by the need for basic survival that they don't have the luxury to even think about their values or passions. They just work on whatever work is available today. Cultivating values and passions requires years of investment and development in yourself. Most people don't have that kind of freedom. They need food and money right now.

  18. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    7 hours ago, Princess Arabia said:

    Leo and most says that consciousness is fundamental but I'm still working on that because I can't see how that is when it implies someone to be conscious of something when that is duality.

    Consciousness does not imply that. That implication is a bad assumption from the materialist worldview.

    Consciousness is just an infinite field that exists by itself for itself. It does not exist for anyone. Consciousness is not happening to anyone. There is no creature or entity that "has" consciousness or "is" conscious. There is just Consciousness, period. Consciousness is not happening to you. Consciousness has no observer or witness. Consciousness is just Consciousness, like space is just space.

    Stop thinking of Consciousness is something a creature has and start thinking of it as a fluid that just exists, like an ocean. An ocean just exists. An ocean is not happening to some creature. A fish does not "have" an ocean. The ocean is not a biological process. The ocean is prior to the fish.

    Fish don't have consciousness. Consciousness has fish.

  19. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    48 minutes ago, Yeah Yeah said:

    @Leo Gura

    If state is everything, and none of the things I’ve tried so far — meditation, weed, writing, deep contemplation, surrender — have shifted my state into that “radiance of God” you describe, what specifically changes it? Like what changed it for you?

    5-MeO-DMT or DMT should do the trick. These are the most direct and most powerful state-changers.

    Quote

     

    So here’s my question — does changing state mean moving into higher vibrational states? Like David Hawkins' map of consciousness: powerlessness, grief, fear, desire, all the way up to joy, peace, enlightenment. I've even heard some spiritual folks say that if you get too blissful, too joyous, your body starts to "de-manifest" from physical reality because your frequency is too high.

    Is that what you’re pointing at?

     

    No.

    That vibrational talk is mostly not deep enough. Those are relatively mild state changes relative to what I'm talking about.

    Quote

    That I’ve gotta basically drop my painful life story — stop identifying with the suffering, poverty, loneliness — and instead force my state into one of joy or love or expansion? And then that will be the gateway into God-consciousness? Or are you saying that even that wouldn’t be enough unless it’s a radically different state that overrides all vibrational emotional states?

    I'm saying that's not good enough.

    You need a more serious state change.

    Dropping a painful life story doesn't really change your state. It frees up your mind and removes emotional obstacles, which is great, but I don't call that a state change.

    Quote

    So I’m open — I just need some clarity: does the path involve transcending the lower states by reaching joy, or is the path something else entirely?

    No. That's not serious enough.

    You need a serious state change.

    My advice to you is to research Bufo or Ayahausca retreats. Invest in a retreat and you will likely have a breakthrough. It's actually quite simple, it just costs some money and effort to travel.

    In a sense you are over-complicating this with emotional work. Emotional work is great but it is not directly related to Awakening/God, which is why you aren't seeing progress on the God front. You need to upgrade to a more direct method.

  21. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    @Vynce The issue is so broad that I don't think there's a single approach. It depends on many factors like the topic being learned and your personal learning style and strengths.

    If you are learning practical stuff like coding, software, etc. it's all about practice, not reading or watching. In this case the best way to learn is to design for yourself a small project and then just try to actualize it. And along the way as you encounter obstacles and lack of knowledge, you search specifically for resources on how to overcome that obstacle. You do this until your little project is complete. Then start a larger, more complex project and repeat the whole process. This is how to learn something like game development or editing. The key is to keep your projects very small and doable.

    Of course if you can find a good video course on a topic, that's a great way to get started.

    I don't spend money on teachers these days because I'm not learning much practical stuff now. I'm mostly just developing my own ideas and reading books to feed my mind.

    But if you can find a good teacher, yeah, that is a good investment if you are serious about the topic. A key here is to get very clear with yourself about which topics are you truly serious about because you can waste a lot of resources and effort dabbling in stuff. Dabbling is okay when you are young, but eventually you want to get very clear about what you're trying to master and why it's important to you. For example, game development is such a serious and difficult field that you need to be very clear with yourself that you want to master it. You can't just dabble in it because it's too hard. You need to have a clear sense of purpose.

  22. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    4 minutes ago, Amilaer--- said:

    @Leo Gura Any other ways to change the state other than hardcore meditation and psychedelics? Could you recommend something else? Maybe kriya yoga? 

    Kriya yoga might work. You'd have to try and see.

    Kriya yoga requires years of consistent practice though. If you don't do it every day for years, expect nothing.

    People who achieve Awakening quickly all have special genetics, which is very rare.

  25. Posted · Edited by Leo Gura

    3 hours ago, Raze said:

    No, I’m disputing the notion Israelis are morally “superior”, by any relevant metric their actions are worse.

    Their actions are worse only because Palestinians are too uncivilized to have serious technology.

    Imagine what would happen if Hamas had nukes. Israel has nukes. There is your purest example of moral difference. This difference is real and you are trying to weasel your way around it with every post. And I keep trying to point it out to you. But you keep refusing to see it.

    Just to have nukes and not use them requires both technological AND moral development.

    There are some crazy far right Israelis who want to use nukes on Gaza. And they are morally equivalent to Hamas. But Israel as a society is developed enough to have checks against that. But Palestine does not. However bad Netanyahu is, he's is not barbaric enough to nuke Gaza. The same cannot be said of Hamas.

    Nothing I said here means you can't hold Israel accountable for war crimes or put sanctions on them. You could. But it just won't happen for larger political reasons. I am not saying what should happen, I am predicting what will happen. You can see if my predictions are correct over the years. The aim of my political views is to predict social reality as accurately as possible, as opposed to having my wishes and ideals fulfilled. That's the difference between me and typical leftists. I actually care what is real.