Consilience

Wow yeah very subtle dynamic at play here... thank you for pointing this out and sharing ??

Yes you can. In fact, much of my resistance to embodying truth has come from creating shadow elements out of parts of my ego. Which ultimately stemmed from a lack of self acceptance and self love, because I wasn’t accepting and loving all parts of the psyche, there was a shadow being created. Im still working through this. You have to recognize the illusory and self deceptive nature of your ego without turning it into a shadow, that’s the challenge.

Id stay openminded to the possibility that Truth may not be found through logic.

I can’t explain why exactly, but the longer I do this work, the more I feel that 1 individual has so much more influence than we ever give ourselves credit for. You affect life in an infinite amount of ways, and maybe the effect will never be as “big” or obvious as MLK, somehow it feels like this doesn’t matter. Your life, your actualization, your journey towards Truth, is supremely important both individually, collectively, and cosmically. Evolution can’t skip steps, there must be many, many, many micro level amounts of change before a ginormous leap in collective consciousness takes place. All life and all of reality is interconnected. It’s one giant butterfly effect. No idea if this words resonate or spark inspiration. Either way, my meanderings into consciousness have lead me to this position, that all lives are infinitely important and are all playing a role in something much bigger. The key takeaway - your individual journey is a necessary step for the evolution of humanity, treat your life as such despite how the events may or may not play out. Basically focus on your awakening and actualization and let life unfold how it will.

You’re welcome And yes absolutely. Meditation is a close second. Meditation helps me embody insights, contemplation is what helps me get them in the first place. @RevoCulture you’re welcome, Im glad!

The 6 principles of contemplation discussed at Peter Ralston’s ENB workshop: Focus: You keep your attention on the question at hand. If the mind wanders, bring it back again and again, don’t let up your questioning. Intent: Actually intend to become directly conscious of what you’re questioning. Don’t let yourself ask, but in the back of your mind put off becoming conscious for a later point in time. Intend to do it NOW. Now is the only time and way you can do it anyways. Openness: Be open to whatever truth may be. Enter contemplation without predisposition or opinion, contemplate from a space of pure not knowing and total openness to what is. Truly open yourself up to possibility and be ready for anything. Presence: Bring yourself into the practice. Be present with the practice. Tap into existential nowness and be with the question. Observe the question from the position of real presence, as this is the most authentic mode to question and contemplate. How does your question and topic at hand exist right now? Clarity: Clearly understand what your questioning. For example, are you contemplating who you are or what you are? Notice the distinction. Clearly define what you’re trying to grasp! If you don’t, attention and mind will wander at subtle levels. Possibility: Actually hold it as a possibility to become directly conscious of your question. Often we unconsciously hold that we cant become conscious or we hold the position that it requires x amount of effort and y amount of time. Don’t let yourself take this belief on. Truly hold the possibility that you can become conscious. Tbh I don't usually formally contemplate these days, Im more focused on embodying the many insights Ive had on my journey thus far but this outline as a technique has worked very well for me. I had a pretty big awakening experience at the workshop using these principles and since then keep these in mind as a probe and question. These also apply for contemplating while on psychedelics which is an absurdly powerful combo.

The youtube videos Ive see going over this are overwhelmingly pro Bernie. I don’t think Ive seen one pro warren comment. It also appears that Bernie’s poll numbers are actually on the rise since this hole situation went down.

Yes but it’s pointing to something existentially true that helps the op understand simulation theory. All claims with language are existentially false but some claims hold more value than others - more value if you start with the goal of trying to understand reality.

@Eph75 Thank you

OK. As long as you see how your point is existentially false, have fun with the mental masturbation.

What your calling a “simulation” is made of the same metaphysical substance as the hypothetical “reality” creating this proposed simulation. This is what simulation theorists can’t see and fundamentally the false axiom simulation theory rests on. As such, you can become conscious of the fact that there is no such metaphysical duality as “simulation” and “reality.” It’s all one. If you want to know what reality is, you have to go deeper and see past this mind constructed duality. From a very authentic perspective, this duality isn’t even a possibility - alas, this is what you need to become conscious of.

A question for you in response to your rant - what is Free Will?

From a certain perspective yes. From a certain perspective no. You’ll need to contemplate this for yourself until it’s understood. Psychedelics help haha

Boom. Cant get much more concise than this ??

Yes. You’ve got to detach yourself from them. And by detach, I mean feel their pain, feel their presence, be with the pain you feel, and let it go. As counter intuitive as this sounds, you’re creating a shadow out of your family and their level of consciousness. You’re judging them as bad and self actualization as good. Drop this dynamic, drop this duality. In order to continue your journey you’re going to have to face the existential truth that everything your family is and everything going on is perfection, there’s nothing wrong with it. Only until you can start accepting your family will you be able to get out of this rut. Again, drop this duality that self actualization is somehow better or superior to the dynamic of your family. Accept that your family is walking a different path and on a different journey and they are no less deserving of your love and compassion as anyone else. This advice DOES NOT MEAN you start letting your family walk all over you. It doesn’t mean you start conforming to their habits and behaviors. It doesn’t mean you cower if they try to bully you out of your journey. And It doesn’t mean you have to start spending all your free time with them. It simply means accepting them and acknowledging it’s okay. It’s okay. They’re okay. As long as they are not physically, emotionally, or mentally abusing you through directed action and speech, it’a your responsibility to let go. If they are abusing you, well that’s another matter and Im not qualified to give advice. Regardless, you’ll need to keep doing the basics even while living with them: - meditation (1 hour every day) - contemplation - exercise - nutrition - sleep - reading - introspection - etc. Let your presence in the household be one of humility, meaning don’t go around shoving this work in their face, but don’t hide it either. Set an example, if they’re genuinely interested, they’ll ask. You’d be surprised how one person can affect the dynamics of the collective consciousness. Be a kind, loving, fearless energy for your family. These next 7 months are an amazing opportunity for growth and learning if you let it be. I wish you well on your journey. ❤️

This is awesome! ?

Been recently going through a transformation with weed too... I too “struggled” with daily use but during my usage, I didnt feel struggle, I fucking loved getting high. I loved the expanded sense of awareness, the heightened perception, the creative thoughts, the subconscious mind bubbling up into consciousness... And tbh I still love weed. It feels like my mind is designed to respond extremely well to weed. But what’s finally kicked my daily use was quitting for 45 days straight all while keeping up a persistent meditation schedule. Through meditation, I started getting really good at keeping tabs on how my mind was doing. Meditation, particularly the method I use, focuses on staying aware of the mind itself, whether it feels dull, unfocused, foggy, etc., or whether it feels sharp, focused, and unified. So what happened was that during my hiatus with weed, I started observing how much suffering I was putting myself through with daily use and how damaging it was for my mind. If you look at my profile I made a thread outlining all the benefits I observed from a 30 day break. For me, it wasnt until I was able to REALLY observe the obsessive clinging my mind had to weed, the amount of suffering I put myself through, and how much better my mind felt without weed was I able to give it up. And I was only able to truly see this from my meditation training. Somehow I just haven't been able to see the damage until very recently. Ive tripped on psychedelics and they’ve given me pretty strong indications I need to quit the daily use but I never integrated those lessons. Truly I had to see the “high” of sobriety before I could give up the high of weed, and Ive only been able to tap into this natural high from meditation. I do 1 hour per day of a formal sit. Basically, I had to see the damage and find a better high than the high from weed, and I found this through meditating. Unfortunately, your journey will be different than mine so idk if this will work. However I understand where you're at with weed, it’s such a bittersweet substance, ally, and enemy. Good luck on your journey, and as cliche as this may sound, never underestimate your willpower. If you truly want to quit, you will find a way despite your past failures.

No you are not doing it wrong. This is precisely correct. This meditation system is about allowing the mind to train itself. Bringing your attention back to the breath is mind. Getting distracted in the first place is the mind too. You’ll notice that the mind is both the source of focus and the source of being un-focused. So don’t over think it or second guess yourself. This method is, at its core, about the mind training itself so that the intention of stable focus is the intention that actually manifests. A key existential insight - you aren’t the one training the mind, again the mind is training itself. Pretty spooky but fascinating hehe

@Matteo Something similar yes. In the book, the object of focus is the breath at the nostrils. And really, the minimum he recommends is 45 minutes. I do 1 hour per day and noticed an immediate improvement within 1 week. In the book, he characterizes 10 stages of meditation practice, I progressed through stages 1-4 very quickly due to my prior meditation experience, 5 was about 1.5 months and Ive been at stage 6 for around 2.5 months but starting to see glimpses into 7/8. I suspect the later stages will take a good bit of time to manifest. Essentially at first, your goal is to pick a meditation object, the breath is a nice one, and hold your attention there. The moment you see your mind has wandered, acknowledge this “aha!” moment and then gently return to the breath. You want to get really good at noticing when you’ve lost focus, getting good at having ‘aha’ moments. Eventually you’ll get so good at noticing that you’ll be aware in the moment of your attention shifting away, which is the goal. As your attention gets more stable, feelings of pleasure, happiness, and joy begin to bubble up. You’ll also become much more effective at contemplation and get better at tripping on psychedelics, better in the sense that you’re able to contemplate more deeply and handle challenging experiences with more equanimity and acceptance. The book has more techniques outlined as you progress through the stages that will help you along your journey. Again, this has been my experience.

If you want an actually effective meditation approach look into samatha practice outlined in The Mind Illuminated. It directly works towards transforming your mind, perceptions, and emotional system. Ive seen enormous results from practicing so far and look forward to continuing it in the years to come. Typically meditation alone doesnt do much. This samatha practice starts by working to stabilize your attention span. Only until your mind can actually stay focused for extended periods of time do the true benefits of meditation start to unfold. So after you’ve worked towards this stabilization process, you work towards increasing mindfulness, basically increasing the potency of your perception. This has massive carry over into everyday life a life starts to become much more vitalized, it’s like your conscious is being sensitized. Eventually as your mind becomes unified (a process I dont care to write up about) you begin to have the ability to generate pleasure, happiness, and joy during your meditation with ease, which makes the sits incredible. Eventually these pleasurable, happy, joyful qualities start to permeate into life off the cushion. Once your mind has achieved this state of samatha, your ability to contemplate and introspect has dramatically increased. In my experience, this approach to meditation has made everyday life feel like Im micro dosing psychedelics, or have a light buzz from weed without the mental fog. Bad habits have been falling away, good habits are spontaneously arising. Im not trying to overstate the benefits but this has been my experience. If you want to learn how to truly, consistently transform the mind, get the book, follow the steps outlined.

How much meditation do you do? How stable is your attention span? Are you working out? Diet? How much sleep? Do you spend time in nature? Do you have powerful friendships? How often are you fapping/masturbating? Do you know what happiness is existentially? Odd questions maybe but each of these can play a huge role. These were just off the top of my head.

Thank you for sharing this with the forum

Ive found mushrooms to be more challenging than LSD. Interesting ?

No reply to my comment? Also funny you post a video of Adyashanti considering he teaches meditation aka a practice. And again JUST TO BE CLEAR - there is truth to what you’re getting at here with your post. I acknowledge and see this. The dogma, however, is your ego.