EternalForest

@LordFall @Leo Gura I never said reality didn't have great aspects. But we could easily keep all the great elements and do away with all the elements that cause suffering and ignorance. Is that so much to ask?

@Osaid In that case I'd say God's pretty unsympathetic to not just tell us there is no purpose rather than have us finite beings run around in circles trying to figure out what God's "purpose" is. And I recognize that God speaks to us in more ways than words, but considering that's the most direct way for most of us, I just wish God would be more direct.

@MsNobody To be hopeful, the autopsy results weren't conclusively linked to the virus being the cause of death. Here's what NY Times stated: "Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Tuesday said the death, of a 17-year-old boy from Lancaster, Calif., was from the coronavirus. Hours later, it walked back that statement, saying the death would be further evaluated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The case is complex and there may be an alternate explanation for this fatality,” the health department said in a statement." Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/us/california-coronavirus-death-child.html

@Leo Gura I understand all that, but my biggest question is why? Why would God do this?

@Inliytened1 Even if I accept this infinite power I still can't, say, flap my arms and fly. If everything's imaginary why can't I just imagine anything I want to?

@TylerJ I'm not saying I can't receive messages from your mind, its that I can only get those messages if you want to give them. I can't make you do anything you don't want to do. So then how am I...you?

@XYZ I'm curious, how exactly did you choose it?

Lately I've been getting nostalgic about 2017. This is the year that I discovered actualized.org. I remember during my days off I would put on his videos and listen while calmly looking out the window on bright sunny days and just be amazed at the amount of wisdom and deep insights I was hearing. Over the years, the videos have gotten better and better, and I've grown to love the metaphysical and spiritual content. But at the same time I think there was a certain magic in Leo's more motivational content from 2014 to 2017. It was such an inspiring feeling listening to him back then, it felt as if he was speaking directly to me when he explained how to escape depression, how to use meditation to improve your life, how build a foundation for success, how to conquer your emotions, and how to see the big picture of life and take action to accomplish your goals and life purpose. I remember those days so fondly, listening to his guided meditations while staring at the beautiful summer sky, taking long meditative drives while being motivated, dreaming and having a sense of wonder, being positive about the future ahead. The newer videos are valuable too, perhaps in a different way I can't fully recognize yet (above my current level), but I was just wondering, does anyone else get nostalgic about Leo's early content?

Rewatching Understanding Impermanence right now after doing some deep contemplation on the state of physical media and data all being impermanent. No matter what the disc, the record, the hard drive, the book, no matter what, all human knowledge will eventually be destroyed, as well as all physical records of our existence. For some reason, this is a harder truth for me to accept than death itself. Because the human body itself is a naturally impermanent thing, but its hard to accept that even everything human body does, writes, records, creates or impacts will also die...

@OctagonOctopus But you can't really lose resources when it comes to consciousness. The law of conversation of matter states that things are not created or destroyed, only morphed.

@OctagonOctopus Why must the fractal eliminate what's behind it? Why can't it expand with addition, instead of with destruction?

There's a time to be serious, but there's even more time to be laughing! To live a life of seriousness all the time makes the soul weary. The line between comedy and tragedy is extremely thin. The same thing that would make you cry your heart out could also make you laugh your head off. It's all about perspective. There's nothing you can't joke about, because when you do, you let go. Laughter is an amazing way to maintain happiness. Leo once made a video about listing out your Top 10 Things You Love About Life. Laughter would definitely be near the top of my list.

The more deeply I study Spiral Dynamics, the more I realize that the true juice of life is lived at Tier 1, and not Tier 2. I mean yes, at Stage Yellow or Turquiose you've accessed levels of consciousness that most people couldn't even imagine, you've gained a total understanding of the entire system, and you've obtained all the wisdom you'll ever need. But...then what? What's left for you to do? The answer is nothing. There's nothing to do, there's nowhere to go from there except to start anew. From my view, the people at Stages Blue, Orange and Green, although they might be going through their own dysfunctions and they have their own levels of ignorance about things, there's a certain bliss in that. There's a certain bliss in living your life simply to make your family happy, to make your friends happy, to go see a football game or an epic concert, to building a business that matters a lot to you, to going to church, to having your own passions, goals and dreams. There's a certain joyful simplicity in life at Tier 1, a genuine purpose and a certain wonder at how the whole system is constructed. Sure, you can still have the knowledge of how the entire thing works metaphysically at Stage Yellow and still get that juice out of life, but its more subdued. There's more joy in experiencing than simply being. Tier 1 gets to actually get dirty and appreciate the highs and lows and intensities of life first hand. Turquoise may be conscious, but at the level they're at, they can't unknow the fact that they are an observer. It's like asking someone: Would you rather watch a movie or be inside the movie? There's a certain pleasure to both, but if you ask me, I'd rather be in the middle of the action, I'd rather be inside the movie!

I never said there was a best stage, I just said Tier 1 is underrated. What stage do you think I'm in? @Eph75 If you think I'm in fear, you're mistaken. I'm just becoming aware that moving up to further stages is inevitable and so it's best to see the best in the lower stages, and recognize that your perspective in them is temporary. Like Leo's video about impermanence, all of this will be gone someday. The more you internalize that truth, the more you appreciate Tier 1, I believe. I'm allured by Tier 2 yes, but I'm not afraid of it. Very important distinction. A defense mechanism would be to straight up attack it and call it inferior, which I'm not. In concept, it's the logical end point to the entire system, and as you said, a building process.

@Serotoninluv Sure, but I think if God wishes to experience itself through the self, then the self is something to be cherished. I guess over time I've stopped becoming so attached to this constant need to transcend-transcend-transcend all the time, and instead, fully relish in the state I'm in now. Because once you've transcended, you've transcended. You'll never really be who you are at this moment again. And I think that's what the beauty of Tier 1 is. Your identity is created out of what you do not know. But once you do know your true identity, you'll realize that all past identities were nothing but an illusion. Enjoy the illusion, while it lasts...

Now before you comment, just to throw it out there, I'm not suggesting that you should treat every date like an interview or an interrogation, these are just questions to throw in from time to time to learn more about your partner and see how compatible your values and your outlooks on life are. Secondly, I acknowledge that sometimes being with someone who is different than you can inspire a more interesting relationship, and you don't have to agree 100% on every single question. Obviously overall chemistry is the most important.

If its going to happen, it'll happen naturally.

@Martin123 Interesting, never thought about it that way! You have a unique perspective on things.

@Martin123 Let me clarify... I'm not treating a relationship like a checklist, like if they don't check off all the boxes on the list, then I can't be with them. On the contrary, I'm asking for questions to discover more about your partner and accept them for who they are + grow with them. Questions are not the only way to do this, as you said just by spending time with one another many questions will be answered naturally. What I don't like though, is when you said that the questions you ask reveal your own insecurities, demands and past scars. That's simply untrue. If the dynamic of a relationship is truly free and open, you won't jump to the conclusion that the motives of the question are toxic. It's like when you ask someone for information and they say "Why do you want to know?" "If you don't tell me why you want to know, I won't tell you.". It makes you feel like that person must suspect the worst of you, and it makes you less willing to be intimate with that person. Granted, anyone can refuse to give information for any reason, but it's best if they're honest and just say it rather than tell you "I don't want to talk about it." when they really mean "I don't want to talk about it with you." So overall, openness and honesty is the best policy.

It's a bit harder to find profundity in this style compared to others since it's not as obvious. But if you can see the profundity and beauty of all things, all stages, including all types of music, and you begin to love this music just as you love your own style, you will begin to appreciate the beauty of all creativity at once, and expand your joy of art as a whole tenfold.

Something seems off about this "Miracle Awakening". Whereas other previous awakenings were inspiring and Love-filled, this one felt "off". To reject all knowledge outside yourself is quite dangerous, the groundwork for self-deception. Listen to what you've said before, no one knows it all, and no one possibly could know it all. Always be most suspicious of your own mind, especially when it tells you that not only are you the only one who knows Truth, but you're the only one capable of knowing Truth. Through non-duality we know that knowledge is free flowing, all people have access to Infinite Intelligence, if only they wish to tune in. Not to mention, viewing spirituality as this sort of zero sum game or like sports where genetics play a big part of your success and if you're not "gifted", anything less than taking psychedelics 100s of times will not lead you to the "highest states" just doesn't resonate. Listen to what you've said before: "Psychedelics can be a powerful tool but they are by far not the only tool", Leo do you not believe this anymore? During your Hawaii retreat you said the downsides of depending on psychedelics, please go back and watch that video, because there's reason for concern. If Self-Love truly is the highest teaching in the universe, how could you be so cynical of humanity? How could you think so little of them? That over 99% of them are not capable of seeing what you've seen? I know in my heart that through God all things are possible, and through Love and Consciousness work all people are capable of discovering the truth about themselves and reach the highest states possible.

I am a big fan of pop culture. I love to explore what is mainstream, what is underground, what is traditional, and what is seen as progressive in any given culture, and how that differs from others. I can go on deep rabbit holes such as the music culture of NYC in the 1990s, the film culture of Hollywood in the 1970s, or even use the Internet Wayback Machine to view old internet culture. These deep dives put me in a very specific time and place, and every era has a certain energy to it. We're in a very special time where we can explore all these cultures with just the click of the mouse. I don't think many people realize how powerful the internet truly is, used productively. Being as passionate as I am about this, I wanted to make some comments on the recent blog post: "The Big Picture of Global Politics" Globalism is a positive thing in many ways, but it isn't without its sacrifices, namely the homogenization of culture. Appealing to all audiences ends up appealing to no one. This is why if you ask people what the most powerful experience they had with art or culture was, it probably wasn't the #1 single or the highest grossing film or a New York Times Bestseller or a tourist attraction (although it sometimes could be). It was more likely a song from a niche subgenre that not many know about but they strongly resonated with, a strange film they found browsing by accident, an old book that their Grandmother had on her dusty bookshelf, or a vacation to small village in France with its own little quirks. Homogenized art lacks a strong creative voice. If you study all the greatest creative movements across all mediums, you'll find that they were all very insular, in the sense that it was a small group that influenced each other and did something really unique and special. Globalism has no culture. It has no context or history. Preserving American culture is important, not because it defines any one person's identity or we should cling to it, but because we should inherently strive to protect the purity of individual perspectives. We have to be able to have these cultures in place, and be able to use them to unify us, but at the same time I think keeping cultures pure is a positive thing as well. In the best case scenario, cultures can co-mingle and create new cultures. But this is of course considering that corporate interests don't get involved. Don't get me wrong, I do believe that anyone, regardless of their ethnicity, gender or background, should be able to participate in any culture they wish. All that's required is that they keep the mindset of that culture intact. Because at its core, outside of time, place and context, culture is an energy. It's a mindset. It's something very specific yet extremely powerful. And it's best left alone, so it can allow itself to flourish. Pop/global culture is good, but it's only one culture, and I hope that one day it is not the only one...

He's one of my favorite musicians, watched many interviews and followed him through the years, and at the moment I'd say he's Stage Blue through and through. Occasionally he'll fall into Stage Red thinking (Yeezus), during his lower periods, but at the moment he's in a healthy version of Stage Blue. He was so close to being Green last year (Ye, Kids See Ghosts), but now the dogmatic religious thinking patterns from his College Dropout days are having a backlash. I think he's more artistically developed than he is self-actualized. He's a brilliant artist, powerful speaker, and a really bright guy, but it's obvious he's got a lot of growth to do. Edit: Just forgot to add that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is like the epitome of Stage Orange, like a pure Orange album