luckieluuke

@Baotrader Please don´t do anything rash! When I was depressed for a few years this Ted Talk was one thing that made me feel that I was not alone in this feeling and there is a way out of it

"Before Enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment chop wood, carry water” There. That should clear things up?! ;-)

Id say, ditch the conceptual models completely. Do the practice and the answers will flow effortlessly

I´d say that treating reality as material works great. It enables you to do fantastic stuff, like going to the moon and creating the internet. The problem is that we get caught up in this material game and think everything is just material, including us. Then we try to find happiness in the external material objects or ideas of future and past. There is nothing wrong with using a material perspective IF you know that it cannot effect your since you are the eternal awareness. We have made incredible scientific discoveries but since we dont know our true self we use them like we were kids. If we want to be at peace and "happy" and build a better society materialism is not the answer. We will need to mature in spirit.

On top of my mind, the one thing I got from your story @ivankiss is the importance of respecting psychedelics. I agree with @Kaity I don´t know why your story stirred up so much negative emotions. It simply is, and you portrayed it just perfectly like that. Hey Ivan, do you have your music available? on spotify or something? would love to hear some

Leo has never said that he reached enlightenment. The "psychotic" episode in the video was induced by psychedelic and Leo explained afterwards that it was an enlightening experience but not THE everlasting enlightenment. I have a feeling Leo takes his lessons from psychedelic experience to literal. Like Carl Jung said: "beware of unearned wisdom" This guy "unspiritual" seems very aggressive, pushing his agenda. Get a bad vibe from him.

William Blake is fantastic! and the others too. I really need some more non dualistic poetry in my life but sorry don´t have much to contribute. Zen buddhism has alot but never really appealed to me

@ivankiss Yes very irresponsible. But then again, that´s what youth is designed for: Taking stupid risks, not thinking about the consequences and finding new ideas. You went overboard with that thou. Sounds like you learned your lesson. Be careful. Like Jung said "beware of unearned knowledge" It was a great read thou, thanks for sharing and....be careful! take care of yourself.

The trap is when you believe that the other person brings happiness to you. When the truth is that you bring that happiness to yourself via that person. If you believe that person brings you happiness to you will soon "get used to it" and demand that he/she continue, which is impossible and the relationship will crumble. But if you realize only you create your own happiness you don´t depend on eachother in that ultimately destructive manner. You cannot control, cage or depend on real love.

@Shroomdoctor Exactly

My general feeling about JP is that he presents solid facts that our irrational culture finds provocative. Like him saying that there seems to be a problem with sexual harassment in the work space. Women paint their lips red because it represents sex. Is this not true? Men are equally responsible as women, and JP might do wisely to say that do thou Or saying that in an equal society the physical (rather than cultural) difference will be greater. Is that not true? Instead of learning from him and building on these truths to find a better way people demonize him and make up stuff like "it´s rhetorical trick" or "he leaves it to the audience to connect the dots". That is just your projecting yourself onto him. Just listen to the basic claims he makes, find out if it´s true and make up your own damn mind. In todays emotional driven politics and culture we need someone to point out uncomfortable truths that we need to talk about. And even if he does come from a regressive point of view it is a point that needs to be represented in a democrazy. Every aspect needs to be represented, that´s what makes democracy work. It´s in the chaos of confligt new ideas are born. So even if you don´t agree personally with his perspective you need to deal with what he is saying and realize that you might have something to learn. It´s like any other philosophy you learn about. There are some nuggets of gold in everything and it´s your job to find them and make your own ideas. But media don´t want to talk about them , so they demonize him. If you listen to media you will hate him, but if you listen to him you will see that he does have some valid point (if you are objective) I believe this is what divides people. Journalists and others twisting his word.

Theres an amazing game inspired by Alan Watts. It´s awesome! http://www.everything-game.com/

@herghly There is a very helpful and enjoyable forum over at ld4all.com for lucid dreaming It will probably take you longer than a few weeks so. Do reality checks as often as possible. Even better if you do "lucid living" where you constantly question your surroundings. It´s very similar to self enquiry. I combine the two.

I really do love you! Leo. Wow. You are such an explorer, adventure, psychonaut! You keep pushing the limits to find out what I am. I love that about you. Me and my ego applauds your voyage in life, how you relentlessly keep pushing to find out. Your curiosity amazes, as does your bravery! imagine the places you´ve been in mind! This is such a journey. And I honestly don´t know where it´s heading. But it is amazing! It´s like a game. I am one. But it´s so boring to play chess against myself so I split into two. What is this other thing that was me? I don´t know. But lets find out! Yay now I can play chess with someone. something. some thing... not me? Oh and I experience. Now I can share it! Thanks Leo for sharing! And thanks everyone on this forum! But you were me. And I Love you all deeply, whoever, wherever you are. Always know that. Always. I understand it can feel colorless and dull sometimes but remember we're just playing a game! Enjoy! Is the game pointless you say? No it has meaning. You create the meaning. The meaning is Love! The opposite of love is pointlessness so of course, there is meaning OK I admit, i´m not in my ordinary state.... and I don´t have anything to discuss. Just wanted to remind everyone out there who are going their path that I love you. Love is always the answer. If you´re ever confused, know that.

@Flammable Wow yea that´s crazy...or completely normal since either reality are equally real. It´s quite an awakening experience. Don´t feel weird for doing weird stuff in your dream. Once I took a motorsaw and cut of my own limbs just to see what it was like hehe. It was very very weird as one might imagine.

@Flammable There is a site and a wonderful, open, fun and loving community in the forums over at ld4all.com if you want to explore lucid dreaming more @Bluebird Haha yes me too! it takes some practice to manage to stay calm enough not to wake up lol

@Flammable Are you struck by awe at the realization that it´s just a dream? When I realized it, expecially the first times, it was among the most amazing experiences in my life. If it´s not that "special" of an event there is a chance that you merely are dreaming that you realize that it´s a dream. Similar to false awakenings. This is my very personal experience. Anyway you´re on the right track

Nice topic My DreamCharacters have a similar response when I ask them if they are aware that this is just a dream (or something along those lines) They answer something like "yes ofcourse" and continue talking about something else like it´s no big deal, like i´m being silly. It´s like they have that answer programmed into them and it hinders them from really asking the question or even take it seriously. But maybe they know that if they tell me "no it´s not a dream" im gonna insist that it is. I just wanna grab them and shake them and scream wake up goddammit! but it´s no use. That´s not the way to go about it. Recently read Jed Mckennas book "enlightenment the damnedest thing" and it seem similar to how he experience life. He knows it´s a dream and other ppl are dreamcharacters, stuck in the ratcace and not seeing the obvious thing, that it´s just a dream.

@Charlotte How I wish that movie was real (with Jim in it)

before enlightenment chop wood carry water, after enlightenment chop wood carry water

Yea Jim is awesome. The real deal

From my experience it´s great to calm the mind on the surface but not to go so deep. This seems to be because a mantra is an external object that you focus on. If you really want to quite the mind the mantra is not helpful because it is not you.

...and make sure you are comfortable and safe in your environment. And if you get the urge to explore the nature around you be careful not to get lost lol ;-)

@alankrillin Well yes, on the surface it does look like a scam. But when you hear honest people on this forum saying otherwise you might do wisely to loosen your judgement. @Nahm I´d also be very interested to hear you describe your experience with this in more detail

@Strikr @Elysian @Flammable @Hellspeed @alankrillin Have any of you actually tried it? Do you have experience the thing that you criticize? Sure, I agree the idea sounds crazy at first. But how do you know? How many here have had this done and what is the result? lets get the facts straight.