Consilience

Exactly! You don't exist! Which is why you could only be the completely spontaneous moment by moment birth and death, expansion and contraction, yin and yang of creation itself! You are literally creating the universe because you aren't creating shit!

What she’s defining as consciousness would not be how someone like Peter Ralston defines consciousness and certainly not Leo. She says verbatim “consciousness is separation.” Yet goes on to describe how there’s actually no separation, hence defining this “no separation” the same way Ralston or Leo may describe “consciousness.” Ralston uses the word consciousness or being to describe the that which is totally indescribable. How could you reconcile the surface level discrepancies between this video and Ralston? By recognizing it’s all a word game. There’s no objective vocabulary with this stuff so you really have to read between the lines when listening or learning from different sources.

Who am I is THIS. But what am I?

Shikantaza fosho. Literally just jump straight to the end of the deconstructive path lol.

Great stuff above. What I find interesting is that deconstruction happens at so many levels, insanely subtle levels. The more one can deconstruct hidden mind patterns, attachments, distortions, the more one can see clearly into the nature of both the relative and absolute. I remember reading about the “uncognized mind” in Peter Ralston’s The Book of Not Knowing and having no idea what the dude was talking about. Well as it turns out, this uncognized mind is a web of supra-subtle beliefs, attachments, thoughts, views, orientations about reality, that are so subtle our default state of mind is incapable of seeing them clearly. As one cultivates a powerful mind through spiritual practice, one starts to bring more and more consciousness these unconscious cognitions - this awakening into relative and absolute domains of mind is deconstructive by default. When these are clearly seen, their relativity and “arbitrariality” is seen as well. Eventually, this place of total deconstruction is the only fertile ground for authentic construction of self is possible. Thus, if one’s goal is to self actualize, a process of powerful construction, the only way to fully embody this would be through a total deconstruction. And even then it may not be enough. The habits of mind are one of the most powerful forces in nature. These habits ARE literally life!

Full blown Awakening into Love after watching it... I think watching the preceding episodes helps build the payoff.

Agreed!

Yes the same thing would definitely happen eventually. I'm not disputing that. What I'm saying is that there will be a biased against any major contradictions or new discoveries because of the way survival works at the individual and collective level. People's biases right now will be that these UFO's don't contradict any of our current paradigms of science or technology and therefore, it would be shattering if we were to discover something like an object of significant mass can suddenly travel well beyond the speed of light. We already know objects can travel beyond the speed of light from QM - quantum entanglement has shown this long ago. The hard part would be accepting an object of significant mass can. Don't forget that even Einstein had trouble accepting the implications of quantum mechanics. "God does not play with dice." He wrote to one of the fathers of QM, Max Born.

Because if Aliens were actually visiting Earth, it would mean they're able to travel faster than the speed of light. There are more mainstream assumptions in science besides the idea that matter and energy are all that exist. Yet taking this single example, faster than light speed travel - there is no room in our current paradigm of spacetime that would allow an object of significant mass to travel beyond the speed of light. In other words, if Aliens were indeed visiting, these UFO's would necessarily need to be using a technology that takes advantage of forces, laws, or discoveries that are outside of our current paradigm of reality. And even if not strictly outside of our paradigm, something that is beyond our conception of our paradigm that would more likely fall into "woo woo" territory by most rationalists, atheists, and scientists. Also consider the fact that even if an object of significant mass were to travel at the speed of light, this is still absurdly slow for traveling across the cosmos. A quick google search shows that the nearest star system, the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, is around 25,000 light years away. The NEAREST. If there are legitimate Aliens, they are using technology that is taking advantage of discoveries we currently have no conception of. There could also be potential facets to UFO technology besides the fact that they would need to have faster than light speed travel that challenge our mainstream view of reality though. Wouldn't know for sure unless we had access to said craft.

Disagree. The mainstream scientific materialist paradigm would be deeply shattered if this was indeed some sort of extraterrestrial technology. Their entire paradigm of reality would come under question. Don't forget the depth of how far an ego or collective ego will go to keep its survival strategy and orientation alive. This type of shattering would be a form of psychological death, something the ego is very much in the game of preventing. Moreover, the most meta-POV on this topic would be to admit you don't know both ways. You don't know whether they're aliens, or whether they're not. We'll just see what happens as more information comes out over time.

Tbh I don't understand this in the context of my above reply haha. Yes Rob Burbea's teachings on enlightenment are great, allow I don't consider them to be a complete picture, necessarily. In fact, we could say they're TOO complete... Or something. But this is the case with any and every teacher Yes the needing is in and of itself is no longer needing. Satisfaction is derived not out of a gaining, or a perspective of any kind. We might say satisfaction is just the actuality of our direct experience.

Reread your quote. It has ’nothing to do with,’ in and of itself, a gaining of any kind. But something is certainly gained with enlightenment. True, genuine, authentic happiness is ONLY possible if one knows first and foremost what is real and what is false. And beyond the fact that enlightenment carries with it the possibility of true happiness, what is gained is the recognition of what is true. Through a total deconstruction, the only authentic construction of reality, precisely and literally nothing at all, is seen to be primordially perfect and self-validating as true. There is a big danger with framing it as “gaining “ something though, but damn sometimes a fish can’t live in fresh water. Sometimes that salt water is needed.

Whoa... when I read “Splitting U.F.O.” in the thread title somehow I wasn’t imaging it would actually split like that. That’s fucking wild. Even if it’s not aliens how would a craft be able to do that with that much symmetry and precision?

Christopher Bache wrote a book called LSD and The Mind of The Universe detailing his experiences mega dosing LSD. 500-700ug range. Really fascinating book.

Thank you for the advice everyone. Going on ahead and taking them.

I know this question wasn't directed at me, but a really amazing meditation teacher named Shinzen Young developed a mindfulness based meditation technique that uses noting and labeling. I've personally found it to be extremely effective for untangling and loosening the grip of background stress, emotional dysregulation, and being able to drop into a very powerful states of mindfulness. It's got a really great synergy with stereotypical meditation techniques like anapanasati (mindful breathing/watching the breath sensations) or self inquiry. What's even better is that the technique is extremely easy to practice even as you're bopping around living life. It takes a bit to build up momentum, but once you find a groove with the technique, it really starts to take a life of its own. Here's a link for instructions: https://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SeeHearFeelIntroduction_ver1.8.pdf

That's awesome man Was your spirit guide physical, like a tree, or something non-physical? Was the guide encouraging you to commit more to meditation or something?

Some sort of error with the quoting feature. Let me fix my bad haha

Expecting Leo to be on the level of Christ is a misunderstanding of the role Leo should play in your life. Actualized.org is not a religion, Leo is not a spiritual master nor claims to be; he shares insights that either resonate or don't. Actualized.org should be one of many, MANY, sources of information you're learning from. So yes, the teachings of Christianity can play an intimate role with facilitating awakenings, but so can Zen, Theravada, Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Advaita, Islam, Judaism, Daoism, etc. The mistake would be to think Christianity is suddenly THE ANSWER because you've had a few awakenings. Oh I completely agree Christ is way more powerful than what's typically on this forum, but if you're creating a duality out of you and Christ, out of God and World, you misunderstand God, you misunderstand Christ. God is this moment, God is this forum, God is the source of your soul, YOU are God, the emptiness out of which experience is constantly arising and passing into moment by moment is God, the experience that arises out of and passes back into emptiness is God. To think Jesus is somehow your savior is to mistakenly believe there is someone to be saved. You are no one. Jesus was no one. You are the whole of reality pretending it is someone that may or may not be saved. Heaven is this present moment. Heaven and Earth are one in the same. When the Buddha became enlightened under the Bodhi tree he realized Heaven. All mystical traditions point towards the same truth brother. I only say all this to say... Just don't let yourself fall into the illusions of contemporary Christianity. You are God. You are Jesus. Just because you don't resonate with Leo, that does not mean he is dangerous or that we need saving from Jesus. I was outside meditating today staring into the sky. My heart spontaneously exploded in ecstatic compassion for the suffering of all beings and I weeped for the grace, salvation, and perfection of the world. There was only God and not once did Christ cross my mind. He is not needed, only your own direct experience of what you are. Much love man.

You can but seeing emptiness, no self, God, etc., does not require a quiet mind. A quiet mind helps to see clearly into the nature of reality, but a permanent state of no mind is not the goal or a necessity for Awakening. Speaking from experience chasing after a silent mind and finally seeing the futility.

Why all the jesus talk? You realize you’re christ right?

*gets b*tch slapped by a Zen Stick* u rite tho

Lmao. Yes congrats everyone and thank you as well

God doesn't get bored. The mind get's bored. Therefore, God gets bored. The universe was not created out a boredom. That's an incredibly human centric projection to place on The Infinite.

I wouldn't say it's normal, but everyone's experience is different. I would make the claim that there are changes happening in your mind, but your sensory clarity, the sensitivity towards your mind and the transparency of the surface level of mind to the depths of mind hasn't cleared enough for you to be able to accurately discern what those changes are and what's actually happening experientially. The changes can be insanely subtle. Sometimes after meditating, it literally feels like nothing at all has happened. Even for experienced meditators. However again, I would make the claim this is not the case and if you had a more highly trained mindfulness ability, you'd be able to detect these incredibly subtle shifts in mind patterns. If you really wanted to feel something, again sit for 4 hours without moving and you'd 100% feel the mind reacting to the practice. So it's not about meditation not creating a change. The changes will eventually be felt if pressed hard enough. If you expose yourself to enough of the stimulus, you would feel an effect whether positive or negative. Ultimately I have no clue if your ego/mind/body/sense of self would resonate with meditation. From what I've observed, most people don't, but this does not mean most people shouldn't practice. It is my belief that most people should. Even for someone like myself whom I consider to be pretty serious with my practice, I still struggle regularly. The human mind is not designed to sit in its own presence. Most people, especially for the first 3-5 years, are going to be grinding away with this practice. But if you seek out good teachers, techniques, and are playful, experimentive, curious, and have a vision of what mastering meditation actually does for the mind, you will make a change and at some point the changes start to become exponential. If you can't sit down for an hour and focus on the breath for the full 60 minutes, then work to train your mind until you can and I will PROMISE you, you will not feel "identical to normality" at the end of all of the work it takes to have that level of attention stability. Normality is running around, tensing up and turning away from painful experiences, reacting to our emotions, being bored and addicted to various dopamine sources, and generally working to manage an immense amount of unconscious background suffering all while acting out unconscious survival patterns and agendas. The normalitly 99% of humanity walks around with is utter insanity and dysfunctionality . 60 minutes per day for 6 months will give you a good idea of whether this path is for you or not. If after those 6 months you still feel nothing, yeah fuck it. What I did when I first began was a 60 minute sits broken out into six 10 minute segments. Id do one technique for 10 minutes, a second technique for 10 minutes, a third technique for 10 minutes and then repeated that cycle. 1 Hour meditation session: 0-10 mins - technique 1 10-20 mins - technique 2 20-30 mins - technique 3 30-40 mins - technique 1 40-50 mins - technique 2 50-60 mins - technique 3 The variety helped me start to get a feel for how different techniques do different things and kept the boredom from being overbearing. Maybe you could do something similar to help with it not feeling so ineffective. Last thing... Don't worry about meditation creating immediate changes anyways. Just let experience do whatever it does in that session. If that means feeling normal for 30 minutes, then do that. Experience is always shifting. Meditation is just slowly cultivating new channels.