TheAvatarState

I'm currently reading Meditations (probably halfway through), and that dude was fucking woke. I'm blown away that someone 2000 years ago, steeped in a solid Blue culture, could possibly be that wise. This is an interesting question, because he says a lot of Blue keywords like Justice, but he's not dogmatic about it. I'm sure he had a much higher understanding of it, perhaps similar to Karma. One thing I'm certain of though: he was too wise and careful of a thinker to have any blue in him. Some of what he says might appear blue today, but that's only because of the culture he was in. He arrives at everything he says through careful examination and thought, and what was true 2000 years ago (on a topic like justice) will not ring true today. He strikes me as pure yellow. Probably the pinnacle of mind during his time. Millenia ahead of the average commoner.

Hmmm. Allow me send you into overdrive again... Was there really any control over the experience?

@Wisebaxter HA! By all accounts, you can consider me a certified psychonaut. ? I'm excited for you! And you're doing it on Christmas, how amazing is that??

I have good news: you CAN end your suffering, and you CAN learn to stop identifying with your thoughts. It will take a lot of practice, however. You can't just flip the switch right now, and that's ok. Just practice bringing awareness to your every day life, and you WILL improve. Best of luck, and feel free to DM me if you have other questions!

@How to be wise I can really see The Work has made you a more loving and open-minded person! @Cudin do not be afraid. I get that shit sober on a daily basis, sometimes even more insane. It's actually really beautiful, but scary at the same time, because you understand how great a responsibility you have. It's a superpower. You are the universe. There is no difference between external and internal reality, this duality collapses to only internal. It all boils down to inner game. Practice on becoming directly conscious of this many times through the day, and your reality will start to collapse. Don't be afraid on this journey. You're after Truth, are you not? You have the power to change the world by raising your consciousness. How cool is that??

@andyjohnsonman wrong. The reality is that even stage green is conformist in a non-conforming way. You've never seen true individuality on a large scale yet. That's yellow. What would that possibly look like?

@Wisebaxter yeah, imo, you should focus on your intent in the days prior, then don't think about it during the comeup. I find that focusing on that stuff makes me nervous, and is a distraction. Your true self already knows what it wants, it will guide you. Just focus on calmness, surrender, and joy. Don't forget to smile, it's really powerful during the comeup.

@Alex14 the law of attraction is powerful, but it ain't gonna make up for a lack of work on your part. For instance, this girl has to know you exist, and you have to have an attractive personality and good social skills. The visualization is more of an enabler for necessary action and confidence, it won't make girls fall on your lap. There is nothing to overwork. It is what it is, so stop thinking of it like a get rich quick scheme. Impatience with the universe sounds like neurotic behavior. You are the fucking universe.

@Wisebaxter it's great that you're doing a lot of research, but keep this one simple rule in mind: nothing can prepare you for the real experience. Nothing. Adding more research and theory at this point may hinder more than help... I would say the come-up is arguably the most important and underrated stage of the trip. That's the part you have the most conscious control over, and it will set the tone for the entire thing. Prioritize comfort and chill, soothing music. Drop all expectations, breathe, and surrender. A beautiful trip is all but guaranteed if you do this. Intent is obviously very important. However, it is separate from expectations of sensory feelings or emotions. Drop those as best as you can.

Now that I've pondered it more, I have something to add to my revelation on suffering. Rupert Spira describes it clearly here: Suffering arises when you IDENTIFY with your emotions, and include them in your sense of "I." "I am happy. I am sad." It turns out that these are completely false assumptions. You are not your feelings. What you really are is the background presence or consciousness, and the thoughts and feelings come and go, wash over us, but the consciousness is what remains. You may experience sadness, but you are not the sadness. You don't have to let it control you. Counter-intuitively, identifying with your emotions actually locks them in your body, and stops you from fully feeling and releasing the energy! Rupert describes this in the most simple and direct way possible... it was a joy to watch, and it just solidified what I already knew. This video is so powerful! This insight is like the second pillar in my understanding of suffering. The first, what I described a few days ago, was the conscious practice of awareness. You tap into peace and calm, your true state. Wait, perhaps these insights should be flipped?? The 1st pillar is the self-inquiry, understanding that your identification with feelings is the root cause of your suffering. It's a nasty paradigm. The 2nd pillar should be the conscious practice of awareness. 1st pillar = theory. 2nd pillar = practice and execution. They compliment each other. And you must learn both to successfully free the mind. Today, Leo posted a video titled, "Spiral Dynamics - Areas of Application." I loved it because it really got me thinking. It became extremely clear to me just how important spiral dynamics is! And how lost in Maya society seems without it. Of course we have NATURALLY been evolving up the spiral since humans have existed, but it has been SLOW. There are STILL parts of the world at stage purple/red! Those stages emerged 10's of thousands of years ago! We have even witnessed a particularly large chimpanzee society start to evolve from purple to red. They've become ultra alpha-male dominant and are resorting to cannibalism to solve social conflicts: So a relatively small, but still significant part of the human race hasn't evolved much past fucking chimpanzees. That's shocking. Basically the only thing separating us from apes are some basic social structures and an intricate web of symbols we use to communicate. So here's the reality cheque: society at large is still in the Dark Ages. BUT, here's where it gets interesting: human evolution has been rapidly accelerating since the end of the historical Dark Ages. Humans never went past Blue (except for a handful of Turquoise spiritual figures) until the 1700's (eh, maybe the Renaissance could be considered orange?). Think about that. Now the majority of societal impact is Orange. Green basically didn't exist until the 1960's and now we have entire countries at Green! But here's the problem: this acceleration is only happening in pockets around the globe. This progress isn't trickling down to Africa, the gap is just getting bigger and bigger. Of course it hasn't! That's because the magic happens at Yellow, when a significant percentage of societies have adopted a spiral perspective. Well, this is quite alarming, because even considering the acceleration of our evolution, we're not going to get to that place for at least another 50-100 years. Realistically, we could very well destroy the planet and ourselves before that happens. If our current widespread neuroses continue for another hundred years, I'm certain there will be catastrophic damage. What makes me certain is my awareness of all the technological advances looming in the near future, and us lacking the consciousness to handle these tools properly. Let me explain further. We have an entire generation addicted to gaming, and they lack the tools to properly handle the addiction. What happens when immersive virtual reality becomes affordable and mainstream? Because it's a technology so pleasurable for our primitive minds (constant sensory overload with no pain or suffering), kids will literally never leave their parent's basement. You think games are addicting now? Just wait... This WILL happen within the next 10 years. VR Porn hooked up to a vibrator or fleshlight, with other sensory feedback? Holy shit, talk about an age of sexually dysfunctional teenagers... While the positive potential for VR is even greater than the negative (especially in the healthcare field), it will really shake up society given our current neuroses. AI will replace a majority of jobs over the next 15-25 years. Brute fact. Not some, but a majority of currently existing jobs. Eliminated. Now, this gets interesting because that will forcefully cause a shift in society towards Green. All the jobs robots can't do are the ones intimately relating with people. Although it's fascinating to see our own technology move us in the right direction, the fact is that society will be highly resistant to rethinking its core values to align with the shift in AI. The transition will be UGLY, and this will unfortunately catch most people by surprise. Modern marketing is doing no one any favors here... This is just scratching the surface. There's no doubt about it that humanity is at a giant precipice like it never has before. We're either going to blast up the spiral and everything will (mostly) be great, or we're going to suffer a huge collective ego backlash, possibly regressing our progress for decades. Now this isn't all doom and gloom. I'm not saying we're going extinct or anything. I'm confident we'll survive through this and continue up the spiral in some fashion. I'm just pointing out the very real possibility that all this incoming change will cause a lot of destruction in our own lifetimes. Destruction that could potentially be averted if many yellow/turquoise figures rose to the occasion. That's really the only way I see us attaining the global shift in consciousness necessary to avoid (or at least temper) many of these looming disasters... We don't have several generations left to progress education, it's the current and the next generation that needs to take the leap. I hope you're still with me, cause this really got profound for me here. I got to the root. What could cause this giant shift in consciousness that I'm talking about? Well here it is: Spiral Dynamics needs to go viral. Ta da! If let's say a billion people were to be properly exposed to this model, it could change everything. Well, a valid objection would be: "How could something like this go viral? Would people even be ready for it?" Well in my own experience, even asleep people find this stuff interesting. If it's taught in a non-judgmental, proper manner, even people in the lower stages aren't triggered by it. You would think they would, but that's not the case. This is because this grand perspective reveals that everyone else around them, whether they're blue or orange or green, still needs a lot of work! So the main issue isn't that it isn't interesting; given the right content, you could make it extremely interesting. The trick is to present it in a way that limits judgment. If not handled with proper, holistic understanding, this information, if made viral, could EASILY be abused by lower stages to point fingers. I see that it could be used as a weapon for the unconscious. You also might ask, "Has something like this ever been done before?" Well, yes it has! It's happening right now! I implore you to research the impact that monk-turned self-help guru Jay Shetty has had so far: His life purpose is "Make wisdom go viral." As he's reached over a billion people, I'd say he has accomplished the goal! So the takeaway is that higher-consciousness information can be received extremely well in today's society GIVEN THE RIGHT VEHICLE. You need a likeable role-model figure to deliver the message. That's just because the ego mind needs something to latch onto; you see this time and time again throughout history. Whether you like it or not, lower consciousness people fundamentally buy into the PERSON, not the INFORMATION. Now for me personally, I've mostly transcended that, and even if an old, homeless man told me his take on the meaning of life, I'd inquire and be genuinely interested. I would actually be MORE interested in what he had to say than a successful Green executive, because I love taking on new perspectives. Wisdom is obviously not dependent on one's current circumstances, but I recognize that that's not how most people see it. So yeah, I'll be contemplating all this stuff in the coming weeks. It's so fascinating to me. Just what would a successful marketing campaign for spiral dynamics look like? What mediums would need to be at play? A movie/documentary (I personally think this could be really effective)? More seminars? Interviews with influential people (and how would you get them on board)? All of the above? Something else I haven't thought of? Of course taking Leo's advice into account, you shouldn't market to everyone. You'd target the green segments of the population first, cater the message to their values (ironically using spiral dynamics to market spiral dynamics), and as that percolated it would trickle down by word of mouth to lower stages. Really make this go viral in a healthy way. I truly believe it's possible! Instilling this type of big picture vision in society would speed up our evolution so greatly, and just might help us to systemically deal with our problems before we poison ourselves further. Well, that's it for now. Peace.

@VictorB02 thank you for sharing! That's cause you realize enlightenment has been right in front of you the whole time. All enlightenment is, is to see what's actually here. That's why attaining enlightenment can't possibly be a "seeking" process, it has to be a surrendering process. "Attaining enlightenment" would be a lot more helpful and accurate to refer to as "losing ego." The egoic search is what hinders so many people who start out. Of course you need to do a lot of work to lose all the Bullshit you've been feeding yourself your whole life. A whole lot of work...there's absolutely no substitute for that.

A work of art cannot be defined as Stage Yellow. Only your perception of it. Spiral dynamics outlines the general LIMITS of the mind as it evolves. I'm starting to see infinite beauty in every work of art I come across... it's all about perspective. On the flip side, a normal person off the street probably couldn't connect with the visionary art of Alex Grey. A yellow person will see the "yellowness" of everything he sees, that's what it means to be yellow. Everything connects in one way or another. Also, art is all about the sense of discovery! Do you really want someone else to decorate your house? What's special and meaningful for me won't be for you. So in sum, go find art that you love and that makes you happy. Or better yet, create some of your own art.

@Mikael89 I apologize if you already are, for some reason I assumed you were just discovering them or something. I really don't know why I assumed that.

@Sockrattes The "Absolute" is a word which points to something. That something cannot be symbolized or thought of. It lies beyond concept (and including it). Which means by definition, these machine elves must be a part of the Absolute. Because if they lay outside infinity, then infinity would immediately have to include them to stay infinity. If these machine elves were beyond nonduality, then you'd have to explain what they are and how they got there... Which gives you the same problem doesn't it? The true essence of everything is nothing. Groundless ground. As it must be! Really try to understand this, if you have any questions let me know. These machine elves ARE you. They are projections of infinite consciousness, resulting in a first-person experience or appearance. Does this mean you're going insane? Of course not! By that definition, we're all clinically insane, because this is nothing more than a mass hallucination! There's no objective hallucination that's more valid than the other. It's all you. It's all perception. Be open to the possibility that these elves are trying to tell you something extremely important. And listen with an open mind.

@Mikael89 It will only be hardship if you're resistant to them. I meant that phrase only from the perspective that you're not aware of how deep the rabbit hole goes... Although depth in the 3 dimensional sense is quite a counterproductive way to think of it. There's nothing I could say to help you in that pursuit, just be curious and open, if you want. Start inquiring into the nature of synchronicity. When you bring more consciousness to them, they will start to explode as if fate had slapped you in the face. Good luck!

@Ampresus 1. You're feeling desperate. 2. You're about to make a huge life decision. Uh. RED FLAGS!! NO!! STOP!! Understand that you are not in a position to make the best choices right now. Seriously consider if you NEED to make a choice right now... And, of course, the answer is no. I know how much pressure family and society put on you to choose a career path. Well, they are simply misguided and dogmatic. You obviously need to take a chill pill, explore the world, do personal development, take the life purpose course, and really take the time to map out your psyche, then map out your best options accordingly. If you were to take off a year, let's say, and really focus on yourself, balls to the wall, I guarantee you that would be worth more than any college education. It's not fair to yourself or your family to waste time and money doing studies in something you're not passionate in. Your studies must be aligned with your life purpose, and if you don't know what it is yet, then you're CERTAINLY not going to find that in formal school...

Lol. My sweet, summer child...

@Cineva up until a couple weeks ago, I fit what you described almost to a T. Really reflect and see if there's any repressed desires that made you feel like that. I saw that part of me REALLY wanted to be a slob and play video games all day. That was actually what I wanted. The way I was going about it was unhealthy, which was the cause of the "rot" or depression, but there was a valid part of my psyche that didn't want to grow up, to not have a care in the world. Stop thinking there's something wrong with you. You are EXACTLY where you're meant to be. The negative outlook is not the cause of the problem, it's the cause of the perpetual downward spiral; it's the cause of the rut from which you can't seem to escape. Raise your consciousness. Raise your capacity to love. See the art and beauty in all of creation. In not too long, you'll find yourself in an upward spiral from which you can't seem to escape even if you tried.

@John West yeah, thanks for sharing your concerns, and welcome! You bring up some valid points that your ego can abuse the knowledge of a backlash to trick itself into not doing any work. I'm glad you're conscious of that. In my experience, your body can handle A LOT more than you think it can. If you set proper expectations (Leo has a video on that), and are armed with an intimate knowledge of your ego and its backlash tendencies (without letting that fear control you), then nothing will stop you my friend!

Eh, I m pretty certain I haven't met an enlightened person yet. In passing on the street? Probably. Actually talking to them? 99% sure I haven't. Just being real here... The META understanding that we should all have is that we are all one. Yes. Love everyone equally. But that's not practical or helpful in every day life. In fact, it's detrimental. You're thinking like a green idealist who tries to help everyone equally, and then wondering why your aid in Africa isn't working like you hoped. The fact is that different people at different stages egoicly react to policies or information in different ways. You have to be nuanced to be effective. It turns out you actually have to talk differently to a stage blue person than with a green person, or you're going to alienate them! @Tony 845 uh, you're sitting at the precipice of the greatest spiritual growth you've ever had. You're sitting on the gold mine to end all gold mines. I hope you're open-minded enough to cash in...

@tecladocasio It was more of a joke lol. I'm sure I would get a lot out of spending the day with any enlightened person. As far as I know, I haven't met any yet.

Why would you do anything in life? You can't choose NOT to, because you'll pick up the defacto motivations, which is ultimately unconsciousness, or more specifically, egoic desire, and other people's egoic desires. These all amount to shortsighted stumblings in the dark, and won't in any way be aligned with your True self. It's exactly how Leo explains metaphysics. There's no such thing as metaphysics-free. You can't decide NOT to partake, because you're going to unwittingly pick up the defacto metaphysics of your culture. So understand that you're going to have reasons, motivations, passions, or higher purposes for doing things, and how you view your actions will determine how high or low of quality those actions will be... I hope you're starting to see how important the FOUNDATION of your beliefs and morals is. In fact, the strength of your life depends on it.

Leo Gura. Just because he's so involved in his work, studying, and teaching people about so many facets of personal development, I think he would have so much to offer besides just meditating and talking about enlightenment. He's a lot closer to my age, he's sharp, and still on the upward spiral. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like some old enlightened masters would recognize that the only true thing to talk about is "present moment" "focus" "practice" "what is there to know?" "There is no I" and then give you a bunch of fucking Koans to meditate on. In adopting the groundless nothingness, you probably lose a lot of friendliness and relatability. If I'm going to spend the day with an enlightened person, I'd want him/her to be more relatable, still working through some things, be "real," and working on their life purpose. That's just my two cents

@Tistepiste Yeah, that's basically how I see it. You have to appreciate the amazingly complex social structures (societies, governments) that had to be created in order for people like us to survive after dropping ego. Don't take any of this stuff for granted. Not just the structures, but the freedom of speech, millions of people had to die for us to have the freedom to do this work and not get persecuted or hanged. Of course we still have a ways to go (legalization of psychs, etc.) but in most first world countries, you can do this work from the comfort of your home, without worrying too much about base survival needs. I said we're starting an era where the average person can do this stuff, not that all of society is READY to do this. We're still far from it. So much of the world is still at stage red/blue/orange! I'm just saying that transcending the ego is our main goal, but the ego was needed in order to create the vast and intricate social systems necessary for this to work. We are at the precipice of a vast, global awakening, just watch.

@AceTrainerGreen your paradigm is backwards. You're operating under the ASSUMPTION that we're biological robots who evolved over millions of years by random, darwinian processes. You take this as fact. "Well of course, it couldn't be any other way." Have you ever really explored if this is true or not? Have you ever wondered if there might be something more to this human experience? The first step is to fully recognize that this concept of yours was spoon-fed to you by society, and that it is nothing more than an assumption, to distract you from the truly and utterly inescapable fact that nature is irreducibly mystical...