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Everything posted by jbram2002
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Of course! Feel free to make me regret it by making me think
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Full-time work as a steel detailer. Most people don't know what that is. When an owner wants a building, they hire an architect and engineer to design it, as well as a General Contractor (GC) to build it. The GC hires out their trades (plumbing, electrical, steel, etc) to subcontractors. We work for steel fabricators who work for the GC. The fabricators need to build every piece of steel in the building, and it's our job to interpret the engineer's drawings and show them how to do that. We need to provide a size for and locate every hole, bolt, weld, and piece of steel on the project. I use a 3D modeling system to create the model, then the system translates the 3D model into 2D drawings for plan views, beam and column details, and all the little pieces that connect everything. After we detail the project, it gets sent to the engineer for approval, then we clean up the approval comments and send the drawings via PDF to our customer, along with bolt lists, part quantities and sizes, and a bunch of other fun stuff (like machining files such as CNC data). I really enjoy the 3D modeling parts of the job, especially watching something get built from the ground up. We also sometimes have to do some actual engineering work (all the engineering is supposed to be checked by a licensed engineer though). I went to college for structural engineering, so that's always a bit refreshing. There's a lot of social aspects as well, such as dealing with customers who are usually in stressful situations and trying to make things better for them or their shops. There are also some good opportunities to practice mindfulness, such as when a mistake is made and the fabricator is yelling and swearing at you and your job is to figure out who actually made the mistake.
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We definitely do see what we want to see in a lot of things. Some people have a hard time figuring out what their ego wants them to see vs what they specifically want to see. As for whether my beliefs are mine... Depends on your definition of self. I've done a lot of self-examination and purged my beliefs, rebuilding them from the ground up. I'm also definitely willing to accept that some of my beliefs are wrong. But I still hold them. As for beliefs about things I haven't experienced, I think we all do this to some degree. We have beliefs about how astronauts float in zero-G, although most of us haven't actually experienced it (and most people have only seen inaccurate films about it as well). Our imaginations can come up with any belief we set them to. It helps us shape our interpretation of the world around us. I'm a firm believer of don't knock it until you try it, but my one big exception on this are things that could be harmful far more often than helpful. Drugs fall into that category quite often, especially illegal ones. So, with no desire to try illegal psychedelics, or even to try them if they were legalized, I form my own opinions about them. It's hard to trust the opinion of someone who does them constantly (like Leo) as his opinions might be biased around protecting his ability to continue to do them, or around projecting the positive aspects more than negative in order to feel justified. It would be like asking an alcoholic about their opinion on whether whiskey is good to drink or not.
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@tsuki Not being someone who has read Thomas nearly as much as the "canonical" scripture, I don't have any outside interpretation of this. I'll share my initial thought on this. A lot of Jesus' parables where he said "whoever has ears to hear should hear" are either extremely important or extremely simple truths. I'm curious about the context of this parable, but my guess is that it doesn't have much context. I think the interpretation might be along these lines: Casting your net into the sea will net you a lot of things. These things might be ideas, objects, luxuries, friends, or really anything that could be measured along good to best. The beauty of a parable like this is how widely it can be interpreted. For example, you could apply this to dating or stocks or ideals surrounding nonduality. The fisherman found a lot of options in his net. Most of these options are valuable, but not very valuable. They are little fish. Back then, a fisherman could still sell these little fish, but it would probably be a hassle to do so, and the profit would be minimal. Fisherman also tend to have limited space on their boats, and if they fill it full of little fish, they won't have room for bigger ones. The fisherman chose the largest fish and kept it, while releasing the others. He chose the best option after examining what he had. In dating, this is choosing your spouse from the options available. In stocks, it's carefully perusing your options and picking the best one. In idealism, it's looking at all the various options and throwing away the parts that are confusing or dangerous to your mindset while keeping the best ones. But in a lot of things, choosing one option means throwing away the others. In dating, if you choose the big fish, you don't want to be sampling the other fish on the side. You want to go all in on your choice. The fisherman decided it would either be too much of a hassle to deal with the extra fish, or perhaps that he wouldn't have room for more and better catches if he was greedy and kept the little fish to himself. Maybe he realized that it was better to put the fish back and let them grow so more opportunities would arise later. In stocks, you have a limited amount of income to spend, so you can't put money in all of the options out there. You need to pick and choose the best ones and throw away the others. Sometimes those opportunities will be better later, so it might be a good idea to let them mature for a while and re-examine later. This is a really interesting parable (as most of Jesus' parables tend to be) that can be interpreted in a large number of ways. I think the simplest interpretation might just be "choose the best option for you and throw away the rest." Edit: I looked it up to see if I could find context, but alas, Thomas is literally a book of parables with almost no context on all of them. I did find an alternate interpretation that might be useful as well (says the same thing but in different words):
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I believe this is an important question that only you really can answer. A few things to consider: How would you feel about a woman getting a boob job? How would you feel about a woman who had breast cancer getting cosmetic surgery to restore her former appearance? How would you feel about this woman getting cosmetic surgery to enhance her former appearance? How would you feel about a woman getting a boob job simply to attract more guys? How would you feel about a woman getting a boob job because that's more attractive to herself and she wants to be the best version of herself that she can be? Your answers will likely vary between these questions. Take them and apply them to your own motivations. You also mentioned that you're a long ways down the course of surgery. Keep in mind that you can withdraw from surgery at any point until they put you under. You are under no obligations. If you think it is wrong, withdraw. If you think it is fine, then go for it without regrets or hesitation. Simply put all of you behind your decision, own it, and accept it. I certainly won't judge you for it.
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I'll have to watch this later
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@DrewNows Having never taken any sort of psychedelic (and having no desire to), my personal belief is that you will see what you want to see. Not your surface thoughts, but those deeper down. It probably takes ahold of what you want and makes it more visual. So a person who is more receptive to enlightenment might see things that make them believe they are experiencing enlightenment, but all of that was already within them. They're simply shortcutting and avoiding the difficult part of figuring it out themselves. Similarly, a person in a dark state of mind may see some very dark things they don't wish on anyone. I've seen research suggesting psychedelics can be useful for addiction and other issues, but I would prefer that mind-altering drugs remain illegal for the average person. If it's licensed through a physician, that's a completely different thing altogether. @Bill W Don't worry about diluting my journal. It's all our stuff. Also, I rarely use it anyways, so if something is helpful for you to say, I want you to feel open. I think it's important to realize what is helpful to you and what isn't. Nonduality helps people in a lot of ways, but perhaps it's not something you need to focus on right now. In my opinion, a lot of it is rhetorical anyways (and intentionally doesn't make sense so you're forced to think about it more). The short version is that God is a part of everyone. This gets further shortened down to "I am God." This later gets translated to "Since I am God and you are God, I am you." Another way of looking at it is that you and I both share a lot of things in common. There's a mirror whenever we look at someone that shows us ourselves. That's basically the simple version of it where I am right now. I don't really feel like I am all that is God, but rather that God exists within me and within everyone, even the most evil person. I have much in common with so many people that it is often better to treat them like myself. This helps me be less frustrated with others for exhibiting the same flaws I have. Definitely see this in a lot of people. I know some people get all mixed up when viewing nonduality. They lose all sense of ethos, morality, ego, other, responsibility, and a whole bunch of other things... but not in a positive all-encompassing way. More like in an actual loss. If A = B and B = C, therefore A = C and the consequences of B no longer exist. It can get very dangerous if a person is unable to remain grounded.
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@solr I think most people are judgmental of others. You said higher tiers shouldn't be judgmental of lower ones, but your examples are of Green people judging (probably) lower tiers. Almost everyone I know would look at a Stage Brown individual as nearly primitive in their ideals... in a negative way. Being judgmental is just something people are. My personal belief is that we should try to examine these judgments and realize that they are generalisms and not entirely accurate, and also try to avoid judging. But we still judge others, even when we don't want to. Keep in mind that Spiral Dynamics are not explicitly measuring how enlightened or awakened one is, although the higher tiers tend to give a more holistic view that we generally lump in with enlightenment. They are simply measuring what tier a person's social development is at. No tier is "better" than the others. A higher tier can still experience judgmental attitudes. A lower tier individual might be more awakened than a higher one as well. I also believe we can be of varying stages when looking at specific beliefs (I know a lot of guys that are very Stage Brown in terms of sexual maturity). A lot of people get annoyed at elitists. But keep in mind what exactly you are getting frustrated at. You're annoyed at their elitism, but aren't you exhibiting the same elitism towards them by thinking you're better than them because you don't do X, Y, Z? You feel they force their opinions on others (you), but what about that bothers you? Do you retaliate by forcing your own opinion back on them? You're under no obligation to accept their opinions as fact, or even really to deal with them. You can be vegan and never interact with another vegan. You can be a social activist and find networks of people that share both your ideals and your methods. Or you can avoid social activism entirely. The short story is that you should search within for the thing that bothers you about them. Usually it tends to be a flaw you see in yourself. I always heard the most frustrating phrase growing up: "when you point your finger at others, you have three fingers pointing back at you." It annoyed me because No, I was talking about them, not me! But a lot of what annoys us about others can be found within, sometimes hiding under a different name. It's a good idea to identify those things, fix them within ourselves first, and then continue on. Eventually, you'll find they trigger you less and less as you see yourself in them less and less. It also might be a good idea to disassociate your ego from veganism and environmental consciousness. You might be annoyed that these people are representing "you" and "your ideals" in a way you disagree with. But they aren't representing you. They're representing their own ideals, and you share some similar beliefs. That isn't what makes you you, however. I hope this was helpful <3
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@DrewNows Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Nonduality helps us realize that you and I are the same. We go through the same problems. My problems are your problems and vice versa. Helping me is the same as helping you etc.
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I'm of the opinion that it's likely impossible or extremely unlikely to reach true enlightenment on this plane of existence, but there are several stages of awakening one can reach. I feel like there's always another stage. Someone who claims to have reached enlightenment is usually proclaiming a very egoic statement: that they are better than all the others who have tried and failed to do so. That egotism is thus a trap and a folly, plunging them down from the level of awakening they have attained. I'm also of the theory (untested, I'll admit) that shortcuts such as psychedelics might be temporarily useful, but in the long term, are extremely damaging to one's personal development. Claiming that the use of mind-altering drugs was the reason why one reached enlightenment makes me highly skeptical that the person even has a basic understanding of enlightenment. Sure, if you submerge yourself in an artificially altered state for days or weeks or months, it will feel permanent. But I can't imagine that's healthy for either your physical or mental self. I'd challenge anyone who uses psychedelics as part of their enlightenment procedures to abstain from using them for a long period of time (perhaps years) and achieve the same or more pure states without them. But then, I've only reached the first stage of awakening myself, if that. What do I know? Edit: I should probably add that I didn't write my previous post to bash on anyone or anyone's ideals. I'm just feeling very blase at the moment about a lot of the things here.
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@Bill W In this forum, I think claiming to not be enlightened would make you a minority
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I've been getting a feeling that nothing on this forum even matters. Every day, there are dozens of posts about senseless, meaningless topics. A guy is crying because he got jerked off by a trans woman. Leo says we need to do 40 years of 5-meo in order to experience enlightenment (how old is Leo again?). People are arguing about whether you need to do hardcore practices in order to be enlightened or not. It doesn't matter. None of this is enlightenment. If you think enlightenment is in a pill or in practices, you're still in a dream. They might be able to help you get close to seeing what it can be, but those are not enlightenment. I see a lot of people who have gone through a single awakened moment and believe they are fully enlightened, yet their every word denies this possibility. I'm certainly not enlightened either, but at least I'm able to say it. And to point out when I'm being egoic, like in this and my previous statement. It's getting a little tiring. Stuff I'm working on for me: Being a bit more selfish... I've isolated myself too much in order to be available at any point in time. I need to be able to say no when I want, or to be busy in my own life. I need a life outside of just work and family as well. It's actually very difficult to do this. My ego identifies with selflessness, and it's almost painful at times to deny that. Health stuff. It's ongoing. It sucks. It's not going to get better, and I need to be okay with that. No one ever said it would be easy. Motivation. In general... motivation is very low on a lot of things. Basically everything. Feeling like a lot of things don't matter, but I still need to do them. Work is a big one. Went to a job site a while back and felt borderline incompetent. Was not a good feeling. I still did my job though. My place is in front of a computer, not in the field, but I can be content wherever I'm needed. Boss is being hypocritical in a lot of ways. He says it's hard to get work done when people aren't in the office. I requested a day at home because my wife has a doctor's appointment and I need to watch the kids. He was upset because my coworker has been working from home nearly 40% of the time consistently for the past several months and he can't say no. Boss has been in the office an average of an hour or two a day for the past three months. But I'm the one who's a problem when I was in the field recently (for work) and ask for a single day at home. Not sure if this is egoic of me to complain... or if that's even a negative thing. Not sure how to meld the Law of Attraction to make this a positive. Emotions are very neutral right now. I'm not sad or depressed, but I'm not happy either. I just am. I would almost rather be blissfully ignorant.
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This sounds like exactly the sort of thing that should be in the Journals section of the forum, as opposed to "Meditation, Consciousness, Enlightenment, Spirituality." I encourage you to start a journal there and actively consider feedback you receive to be as or more relevant than your own opinions or strongly-held beliefs.
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jbram2002 replied to Shaun's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
I think the first step would be to stop considering it as wage slavery and taking control of your own life and finances instead of feeling like someone else controls it. This might require you to sacrifice a little more than you feel you're willing to, or just focusing on saving a bit more. However, there are plenty of awakened minds that started with little money. As long as you are not overly concerned about your basic survival needs, you can move beyond financial constraints. -
@Raphael The best advice I can give to you is to start your business while working for your current job. Get yourself situated. Build a portfolio. Get a customer or two. Once you feel like you can support yourself to a level you are comfortable with (this might include cutting some luxuries), then quit your current job. Quitting without having something to fall back on might end up biting you later on. Keep in mind that owning a business is a ton of work, more so than working for another company. You also should research how your country handles taxes, whether there are reasons why you shouldn't start your own company, and whether there's a market for your particular brand. Another option might be to consider moving to a first-world country where you feel your time is being appropriately awarded, but this is a much larger step. You could also request a raise. Sometimes companies simply don't give people raises if they aren't requested. If you're truly that valuable to your company, they may be willing to pay more to keep you around.
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I feel like replying to a post made in a closed topic. I'm not sure this is really helpful to myself or not, and as such, maybe I shouldn't post it. But I feel like a lot of people get this idea incorrect. Here's the post: This post is talking about a theoretical 90% tax rate. Previously (1950s), the United States had a tax rate about this high on the top income earners in the country. A lot of people (generally conservative thinkers) believe that lowering taxes as much as possible is a good thing, and taxation to this amount is an unfathomable and unconscionable extreme. Another point of view might be that our country is significantly in debt, and we should strive to rid ourselves of debt while making those who can afford it pay a higher percent of the burden than those who cannot. Instead of arguing over which ideal is better, I'm going to look closer at what a 90% tax rate means. Let's assume someone has to pay taxes on $1 million earned income. To look at how one would currently pay taxes on this (assuming there are no deductions or credits beyond this $1M), we should look at tax brackets as defined in the US. Currently, we have several tax brackets up to a maximum of 37% for income over $510,300. Clearly, since $1M is over $510k, we should pay 37%, or $370,000 in taxes. Right? Wrong. Tax brackets don't work like that. Instead, we pay taxes individually at each level. There's a lot of complicated stuff in taxes including AMT, EITC, child tax credits, income types, and a few other things that we're going to ignore. If you want to learn more, feel free to look here. The short story is that we pay the following: 10% on income up to $9.7k 12% between $9,700 and $39,475 22% between $39,475 and $84,200 24% between $84,200 and $160,725 32% between $160,725 and $204,100 35% between $204,100 and $510,300 37% over $510,300 For our theoretical $1M, this ends up being $334,987.50 once you do all the math. This is about 33% of your total income pre-taxes. This number would normally be further reduced in a whole bunch of ways. Most millionaires pay an effective tax rate far below 30%. Let's look at a theoretical world where the tax rate above $510,300 jumped from 37% straight to 90% (this would be highly unlikely as there would normally be a gradient). In that case, your taxes would increase to $594,528.50 which is an effective tax rate of just under 60%. You are still able to use the $400k that you take home after taxes. Again, keep in mind that this number would typically be drastically reduced through deductions and other loopholes, or we are assuming that this $1M is after all deductions. In short, people are scared to see that 90% tax rate number. They think why even bother making more money if it's going to be taxed at a higher rate? If I jump to a higher bracket, then I'm going to take home less than if I'm at a lower bracket. This is simply untrue. If you'd like to read more about the American progressive tax system, feel free to read here. Now, no one is seriously proposing a 90% tax rate right now. The closest serious proposal is a 70% tax rate on those making over $10M/yr from Representative Ocasio-Cortez. You can read more about it from Forbes here.
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No need to apologize. You had good insight, even if the source was misplaced.
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A scam is intentionally misleading someone for your own personal gain. When you go into a store, the prices are listed at a value that people are willing to pay. Some of these prices are even regulated in some areas, like the cost of a gallon (4 liters) of milk in my state. If I want to sell you a used piano, and you are buying a used piano, it is incumbent upon you, the buyer, to vet the item and ensure it is free from any defects you don't wish to pay for. That might mean stopping by and playing the piano to get its feel, tonal quality, whether any keys are missing or broken, etc. Similarly with used cars; that's why we test drive. People rarely buy a used item without thoroughly inspecting them first. In fact, it's recommended to do the same with new items, which is why we test drive new cars, inspect new houses, and check our fruit for bruises in the supermarket. Trading is a different question altogether. If I want to trade a specific good of mine for that of yours, we both need to agree on an equitable exchange. For example, I have carrots in my farm and you need them, so you're willing to trade your potatoes that I need. We could go to the local market and see that carrots sell for $0.90/lb and potatoes cost $0.40/lb, then have an approximate ratio of value for them. Or I can say that one of your potatoes is worth two of my carrots, and trade that way. Let's say you're in desperate need of carrots and have no use for potatoes for some reason. In that case, I might increase the value of my carrots since demand has increased, and I might charge you 1 potato per carrot. Alternately, you might have a potato famine and it was far more difficult for you to harvest potatoes this year, decreasing supply. In that cast, you might charge me 4 carrots per potato. This is all basic supply vs demand, not scamming. When you're looking at the value of an item, realize that most places that resell an item mark it up by about 100%. This is to cover the cost of transportation (if applicable), overhead like electricity, wages for employees, etc. If I read that the wholesale price of potatoes is 20 cents per pound, I can't simply go to the supermarket and demand my 20 cent potatoes. They have to make ends meet and make a profit as well. They are providing not only the goods I purchase but also the convenience of not having to grow or forage for them myself. Here's where the line gets blurred: A department store is selling their clothing at $60 per item, but they know they can make enough profit by selling for $20 per item. So they generally have their item at $60, but often put it on sale at 50% off. A customer walks in and sees the sale price and thinks that they're getting it for a steal. In reality, they are paying $30 when the store would make plenty of profit at $20. The store is scamming its customers into thinking they are getting better value than they are. It's incumbent on the customer to decide if it's a good idea to continue to shop there, or if the store's competition is good enough. You also have the assumption that the seller does not care about the buyer. In a store, you need your customers to return. Thus, you definitely care about your customers' opinions on the items they buy, or they'll buy from somewhere else. That's why you have customer service desks at any major store, and why stores advertise their low prices or promise to beat competitor prices. Yes, the business only cares about their bottom line, but in order to get a good bottom line, you have to service your clients' needs. If you're a one-time seller, then this value might be less in your mind. You don't need them to return. However, there are laws about fraudulent sales, and you could get fined or potentially worse if you intentionally defraud a customer. This is usually enough reason to make cons and scams less frequent, but obviously, some still happen. The last thing I'll say is that you should never look at a trade as a zero-sum game. A zero-sum game means that anything that is positive for you is negative for me. So if you're happy, then I lose. This is the wrong way to look at a trade. In a good trade, both sides sacrifice things they don't need as much in order to gain things that they desire. Both sides should come up positive in a good trade. I'm not going to trade you my carrots if I need them to survive and I have no use for potatoes. I'm not going to a department store and buying every random toy my kid wants because I value my money higher than those toys. In a good trade, even if one side feels like they made out like a bandit, it's still not a scam if the other side is happy too.
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It's more that I want to hear others' views on it unclouded by my interpretation. I'm not sure if I have guilt about playing games... just about the amount of time it takes to do so. Mandy really doesn't like me taking time for gaming, although she's been gracious enough to let me continue my D&D games for several years. It's pretty hard to find time during the day for anything else, and when I try, I usually get yelled at. That particular statement that you're replying to was a bit more tongue-in-cheek than actual guilt though. Looking at my childhood with games, I'm not sure if I felt any guilt over the games I played. My parents were rather restrictive on both the types of games played (no Pokemon, no fighting games including Smash Bros, nothing rated M) and limited the time more than I liked, but they never shamed me for it. I never really felt shame for gaming until much later as people continue to say how gaming is for children (it's not) and that adults playing games is immature.
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I had an interesting dream this morning. I'm not sure what it means, if anything, but for some reason it's stuck with me when most of my dreams go away. The dream was set in a D&D setting, which probably is saying that I play it too much ... but I'll try to present it as I remember it and its original form. My party and I were stranded someplace. We were rescued by a group of natives, and they took us in, fed us, and taught us how to take care of ourselves in an unknown land. They had this special tool that they used in their food preparation. I can't remember all the details, but the land seemed aquatic in nature, and I believe this tool was used on shellfish. Finally, we were able to leave, and I talked to the head of the tribe, an old kind lady. I asked her if I could have one of the tools, and she said yes but it cost 800 gold. I said I couldn't afford that , so she offered to sell me a broken one for 100 gold. I had a tinker's kit with me, so I knew I could affects the broken tool , so I accepted and handed her the 100 gold . She then handed me back 99 gold. When I asked why, she said your gold is like copper to us. For some reason then, I wrapped her in a big hug and began to cry. That's when I woke up. I have some of my own interpretations on this, but I'm interested to hear what everyone else might think before I say them.
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I made this video 8 years ago mostly as a satirical way to roast some douchebag online. However, I think most of it still applies.
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@DrewNows Hey, no worries! I haven't really had much of a chance to sit down and digest what you wrote yet, although it's been on my mind most of the day. I always appreciate advice coming from a positive place, even if I don't always follow that advice. I think once I figure this out, I may no longer need this place as much, if that makes sense? Also, the "I'm enlightened" quote was definitely not directed at you. We both just thought it was funny after she said it.
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Mandy says I need to post this video that I made over 8 years ago about what it means to be a man.
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Words of wisdom from my wife ten minutes ago: "I'm enlightened, you're not. Shut up."
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jbram2002 replied to tecladocasio's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
It's pretty clear to see there's a variety of levels of awakening, both among the members of this forum and among the masters. There is no "there" to reach. We can only continue to stride forward. Saying you have "reached" enlightenment and therefore have nowhere further to go is the pinnacle of ego. Edit: The flip side is that what he's saying is basically what Yoda said in Star Wars. "Do, or do not. There is no try." There's no almost. You either are doing it, or you are not.