TheAvatarState

@WindInTheLeaf not feeding the wheel of thought is precisely the way. Don't believe me, experience it for yourself

@WindInTheLeaf No offense, but it didn't look wise . I was struggling to figure out what you meant. Unless you want to be misunderstood, strive for simplicity.

@LastThursday Yes, you can prove to yourself that reality is fundamentally a strange loop. All the evidence is right in your direct experience. However, that doesn't answer the question, "Why is there awareness?" Which fundamentally is OP's question. Just because you can think logically and arrive at an inconsistency, doesn't mean the mind can fully understand or grasp what's going on. Perhaps I'm missing something here?

@LastThursday Yes, I like this. There wouldn't be anything unless there was awareness to perceive it. All we have of reality are first person perceptions. There's not logical reason for awareness to exist, you're not going to get to the answer of such a question through the mind.

@Alfox

@WindInTheLeaf I am not trying to talk down to you and tell you you're wrong. If you read my comment, all I suggested you do is observe. Observe that nothing and something are concepts of your mind, bound to reasoning and logic. If you want to find the answer to your question, you must be open to seeing another perspective, one that is trans-rational. One that cannot be grasped by the mind. Yes, I'm aware that the ego mind is a harmonic oscillator, just like Leo described in his "Understanding Ego Backlash" video. There's nothing easy about this, if it were, we'd all have a nondual perspective. All perspectives are valid, all have slivers of Truth, but not all perspectives are equal. There IS something higher. The only requirement is an radically open mind.

@Dodo not sure how you can have 3k posts on this forum and still subscribe to "luck" or "happenstance." It's a real thing and I'm conscious of it every day. Perhaps you have some ideologies you need to sort out...

@Cortex you're thinking of the universe as a physical plane of existence. That's an illusion. This isn't something the mind can really grasp (sort of), but it's always going to be an ideology until you have direct nondual experience.

@WindInTheLeaf "nothing" and "something" are concepts. Do they actually exist? "But what is true nothing?" Why don't you have a look around

What I present here are Leo's original 65 core principles (plus 2 of my own), compiled and organized into an extremely helpful list to help orient you through life. I call it "The Compass." For this is a man-made tool to help guide you through the turbulent oceans and wild mountains of everyday life. This compass POINTS to Truth, but is itself just a collection of symbols. I have found this guide to be extremely accurate and useful in my own life so far. If you haven't already, please watch The 65 Core Principles Of Living The Good Life as Leo goes into much more juicy detail on each principle. All credit for this post goes to @Leo Gura. The first 4 principles are the purposes of life. Orient your life to embody these: Raise your consciousness. Raise your capacity to love. Take in the beauty of life. To feel alive! To not have a single day where you're just going through the motions. The key to this is to bring consciousness into every task, even the most mundane. Practice present conscious awareness and acceptance. There is no suffering to be found here. (This is my own principle I added) Ego is the root of all human problems and suffering. Self-deception. Self-bias. All fear, all judgment, all evil, all anger, and all suffering are delusion and falsehood. Do not demonize anyone. No ideology or dogma of any kind. Be radically open-minded. Recognize that you enter this world not knowing anything. You must explore all facets of reality without any pre-judgments, for you truly do not know a thing unless you've experienced it. Being close-minded cuts you off from direct experience. Also recognize that many of the deepest truths are counter-intuitive and will appear silly or crazy on the surface. Question everything. Especially the most "obvious" things, as those are often the most misunderstood. Question the outside world as well as your inside one. Literally. Everything. Direct experience is King. In order to cut through the bullshit of society and your own mind, ground yourself in your present direct experience. Do not judge things which you have not personally experienced. If someone talks to you about something you've never explored, keep your mouth shut and your ears open. Self-experimentation is the only way to truly find what works. This requires radical open-mindedness. Prioritize big picture thinking over technical knowledge. Care about philosophical and metaphysical matters. Genuinely care about the Truth no matter the cost. Love Truth for Truth's sake. The Vow; my blood. Genuinely intend to understand every point of view. Appreciate that the world is nothing but different perspectives. Integral thinking. Spiral dynamics stage yellow. From studying multiple perspectives, gain a meta-perspective at the intersections of all. What does that tell us about life? Every point of view is fundamentally partial; there is a sliver of Truth to be found in every perspective. Pull from hundreds of diverse sources. When you do this, the Truth gets triangulated and the big picture emerges. Lifelong learning and self-education. Cultivate a thirst for knowledge and wisdom. This process should never end. Do not be cheap with your self-education. Develop a system for taking notes and organizing the information, such as a commonplace book. Observation. The essence of learning is observation. It is through observation that insights come. Build your metaphysical connection to reality. This is what spirituality is. You are not an object that exists in the universe, you are existence itself; you ARE the universe. Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing (of course don't be dogmatic about it, be conscious of how you apply this). Reality is deeply counter-intuitive. Expect that reality will work the exact opposite of how you think it will, until you get experience with it. Absolute Truth exists, but it cannot be thought, imagined, communicated, spoken, written, proven, or argued. Nonduality is the ultimate Truth. Reality is perfect. Reality is infinite and God is a real thing. The word God points to infinity. You are God. Remove ego from this realization. You created yourself, you are everything. Only when you realize you are God will you take full responsibility for your life. Reality is not material. It is a giant mind. It is all imaginings within a mindscape, and mindscape is all that there ever is. All one. Life is a dream. And like a dream, it is possible to awaken from it. That is, to become lucid and stop taking it so seriously. 99.9+% of people are deluded and asleep, and they don't know about any of these deeper principles. Which means you can't look to others for guidance on this path. When it comes to your own well-being, you are essentially alone. This doesn't mean you can't find help in a specific avenue where someone has complete mastery of, like a doctor or therapist or counselor. However, very, very few people could ever provide you with proper guidance in big picture thinking, and the only true guidance is to look within yourself. It's all there. I understand that these principles serve as a compass to help orient me, not a Holy Book itself. Question everything, but do the work. All of these principles make sense to me now but wouldn't have just a couple years ago. This is only because of my direct experience. Society is still in the Dark Ages. We are still in adolescence as a species. Very pathological and dysfunctional. God is the devil. This is a distinction that collapses. When you understand, you'll stop seeing evil in the world, and that all the "bad" things do in fact have a higher purpose and intelligence behind them. All identity is relative and fluid. The goal is to dis-identify with your egoic constructions and to start aligning with one-ness and Truth. This is the trick to overcoming death. Or put another way, it is the trick to realizing you're already "dead," to overcome that fear. Out of this nothingness, you can truly start living. Everything is relative. A thing is only known in relation to something else. Prioritize context over facts. Recontextualization is an extremely helpful tool. Everything boils down to inner game. Your psychology. Everything you think is "external" is actually a reflection of you. Authenticity. In every facet of your life. Develop a life purpose. Figure out who you are and what you want out of life. Without this, you get the default--mediocrity. Be a strategic motherfucker. The 7 pillars of strategic thinking are: 1. Strategic Intent, 2. Strategic Analysis, 3. Strategic Preparation, 4. Concentration of Force, 5. Detailed Execution, 6. Adaptability, 7. Study of Principles. Watch Leo's video with the same title. Take 100% responsibility. Anything less is suffering. Be a leader. Be proactive. Be decisive. Take risks. Be a creator. Tap into the joy of creativity. Provide massive value to mankind. Become a master at something. This should directly be tied to your life purpose. Reason and rationality cannot be trusted. All the highest insights are trans-rational. Embrace confusion, paradox, and not knowing. Develop emotional mastery. It is emotion that dominates the reasoning process. Integrate the masculine and the feminine. Do not lie. (my own rule, but one worth saying. Of course, follow this consciously. This should be 99%+ true, not necessarily 100%. Be aware that in many cases you feel like you should lie, there's a way to structure the truth in a way that's more acceptable. You should never tell a bold-faced lie. By lying, you actually poison yourself and stray from authenticity.) Do not manipulate. Satisfy your base needs so that you stop craving. Using Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs to self actualize video. Master your basic survival and livelihood. Learn business. Learn how money works. Keep your life simple and spartan. Practice minimalism. When your life frees up, the ego mind will seek to fill it with various obligations, commitments, and distractions. Use that time instead for personal development. Be a systems thinker. Develop an awareness for the ecological interconnectedness of things. Leo's Intro to systems thinking video. Think ecologically. How are you impacting the world? Be conscious. Happiness is only possible with enlightenment. No material possessions will ever make you happy. This is more certain than the laws of physics. Learn to be happy all by yourself. If you can't be happy sitting on your couch doing nothing, then you can't truly be happy. "Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god." -Aristotle Development AND Awakening; not one or the other, not one above the other. Without practice, exercises, and techniques, there will be no results. Theory alone, while important, will not produce much results. Here are the most important and powerful practices for personal growth: psychedelics, meditation, meditative yoga, journaling, contemplation, self-inquiry, visualization, and solo retreats. Plan to meditate for one hour every day for the rest of your life. Do not turn Actualized.org into an ideology.

@Arkandeus Don't buy into the dogma. That's obviously the wrong way to look at the law of attraction, but the truth is that there's a deeper, underlying force at work here. In fact it's so profound that it's literally magic if used correctly and with the right context and expectations. Are you aware that visualization is such a strong tool? Are you aware of how many synchronicities you experience on a daily basis, and how that's actually not "possible?" You can deny the power of the mind to attract what it wants, but all the evidence is right in front of you. Just observe. So what's the deeper mechanism at play? Well we're obviously not in a physical universe. This is all a mindscape. That should give you some clues. The law of attraction is very real, but it's often blown way out of proportion by lower consciousness people only interested in material goods. Don't buy into it, actually start to see it for what it is.

I had an enlightenment experience last night! WOOO! Even though... it's not "woo"... holy shit words are so fucking silly, aren't they? Let me instead describe a scene from my favorite TV series of all time, and hopefully that will illuminate what the experience was like. I can't think of a better representation. ************* On a journey to find the Source of firebending, Avatar Aang and Prince Zuko (the two main characters) meet two ancient dragons long thought to be extinct, Ran and Shaw. Colored red and blue respectively, the dragons symbolize the harmony of duality, the Yin-Yang. They are so wise and mystical that they can read your entire ancestry and mental fortitude on the spot, and will deem whether you are worthy or not to be gifted the secret of the Source. Heavy stuff for a children's cartoon! Well, after much build-up and dancing (don't ask, you'd have to watch the series), the dragons deem them worthy, then proceed to breath majestic rainbow flames in a spiral around them. It's awe inspiring to watch, but the most important part is that it's implied that Zuko and Aang were shown (beyond the mind, intuitively) MUCH more than we as the outside viewer were shown. It's perfectly ambiguous, and all that Zuko can say, with the most awe-struck look on his face, is simply, "I understand." Out of harmonious duality comes the complete oneness of peace and understanding of awareness. Or, I should say that awareness comes prior to duality, this example is like traveling back to the Source and seeing it was all illusion. That's what my experience kind of was like. It's a no-mind state (as it must be), with a complete awareness of being aware. Unlike my example, there were no rainbow flames, no mythical dragons, no sense of "I." It's just... being. Understanding on a level that cannot be communicated. I completely understand now why it can't be grasped by the mind! There's no "event" really, which is why I think the chase for enlightenment is such a big obstacle for people. It's really simple. Too simple. All I said after the experience was, "That was IT!" "I understand!" Followed by much hearty laughter ************* I'm really thankful that I got this so early in my journey! It pains me to see others search for enlightenment their whole lives, never really understanding what it is. "Oh, if I keep doing my practices, it'll just be over that hill! Keep on plodding!" they say to themselves. It pains me so. I have very little practice under my belt, just a few months of researching enlightenment, watching various spiritual teachers, some psychedelics, about a year of consciously studying my ego, and a radically open mind. Of course I'm not enlightened, in fact, I'm not sure if there's a definite boundary to be drawn in the sand to make any such claim. It's not a title. I think that's extremely misleading, and nothing more than a ego headtrip. Even though I had this enlightenment experience and I understand what it means IN ACTUALITY, I have a long way to go to integrate this into every day life. To be in that state 24/7 would sure be something else though... That's where I'm headed... To infinity and beyond.

@Vitamine Water @Wisebaxter Thank you! I really appreciate it. I've been thinking of a rating system that myself and others may find useful. I even had a vision of graphing the data, to show my rise and falls of various feelings over time. I think that might be a really interesting experiment! What would the most relevant perceptions be? I'm thinking energy level, alertness/awareness, sexual thoughts or cravings, confidence personally (self-esteem) as well as in social situations. Of course there are many other factors at play, but this might be really helpful to map out this journey of mine. So to break this down: All these stats will be rated 1-10 every day. I know I said I was trying to get away from the 1-10 scale, but that's what I'm familiar with and I'm using it consciously for good here. Energy Level will be the average level of the day. Awareness (this is important because I get a foggy mind after fapping) will be the average level. Sexual thoughts will be the peak difficulty I encountered that day. Self-esteem is an average. Social comfort and easiness will be a perceived average level, but I'll say that I don't get a lot of social interaction currently. Sometimes on my off days I won't see another person, but this is an important metric to me nonetheless. Day 2: Energy: 5 Awareness: 6 Sexual thoughts/urges: 2 Self-esteem: 3 Social confidence: 4

@Wisebaxter that's the spirit! But I'm seeing it everywhere in my life. Me, you, My friends, their friends, we're going through some huge shifts. I don't really know what it is yet, but I can feel it...

@Wisebaxter energy is rising everywhere. Can you feel it? Observe it?

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.