Petals

sorry, this is off topic. @Leo Gura indexing the blog would make the blog so much easier to navigate and old posts easier to find. there are many old posts that I want to return to but I either don't know the title anymore (so I can't do a search) or the internal and google search don't give me what I was looking for. and you would have an overview over all the posts instead of having to scroll through all the posts to know which one is where. just on the sidebar: 'year', unfold/enfold via click -> 'months', unfold/enfold via click -> 'post titles' that would be great.

@FlyingLotus I don't know what to write. Thank You very much!!! this is very very helpful!

sorry if this has been shared before, but the man says it might save the world, so it can't hurt (irony). this is just funny, but if it works I am all for it.

is there some way to understand this without having had a psychedelic experience? for me, what I call a 'chair' is nothing apart from perception/consciousness. when nobody observes it, then it is not a 'chair', is it?

@Leo Gura I think one idea in Kastrup's metaphysics is that God does not know what he is doing in the sense of what is called 'meta-cognition' - as an example in my personal case: I am holding a cup and I KNOW that I am holding a cup. so God does not have this self-reflective introspective awareness of what it is doing and therefore also no 'plan'. that self-reflective introspective awareness comes only into action via us, i.e. our specific (human) consciousness/mind that is segregated from mind-at-large. all this reminds me of when you said sth like this: 'if you do not realize God, it will not know itself to be God. God can only realize itself as God through you.' do you see a connection here? does God not have any introspective self-reflective awareness except through us? does God have no plan (however that may look)?

@tatsumaru I use a timer with a gong sound halfway through and at the end. I tried not using a timer for a while because I thought 'isn't it weird that I want to reach timelessness in time?'. but the thing is my mind needs an orientation and if doesn't have that, then it will wander here and there and will do what it wants, becoming lazy, wondering when it will be over, etc.. So I recommend using some sort of timer or clock to give the mind an orientation. And don't take minutia so seriously, choose what suits you. PS: I am assuming this but what are you more likely to find in a (traditional) meditation hall - a gong or a clock?

@NoN-RaTiOnAL thanks for sharing! I have a question - did you read The Book of Not Knowing?

@Mjolnir well, I haven't read through all the answers but I am giving you a very simple answer that might be one piece in your puzzle and that is - take a vitamin D supplement. I am not saying that this is a magic pill but it has made quite a difference for me. where do you live? do you get enough sun? take one in gelatine form or in oil form because it needs fat to be absorbed. take a vitamin K2 supplement at the same tame, they go together. always with the main meal of the day. vitamin D needs magnesium to work, do you get enough of that? I currently take 5000 IU vitamin D per day which is above the recommended highest intake in the US as far as I know but I don't think you can cause harm as long as you don't go much higher. mainstream medicine is quite behind on this topic I think and we will see the recommended dose rise over the next years which is also already happening. so give it a try. and of course do your research first.

I have to say I really have no clue about these things but have you read the account of David Hawkins visiting hell? I can't know if this is correct but I assume that if hell realms are real, then a truly sincere wish to be saved will bring help to you. Just thinking about it in terms of the dualistic nature of reality, if there are realms and beings that bad and dark, there must also be realms and beings that are good and full of light to the same degree, and these could help you if you truly wish.

Please @Leo Gura answer @AdeptusPsychonautica. Maybe you have overlooked his message on this forum or you have already had contact via mail. I'm just trying to make sure that he doesn't feel ignored here.

one question concerning the youtube iOS app. I find it annoying that in the downloads section (or in all playlists for that matter) the autoplay function is turned on and there doesn't seem to be a way to turn it off. do you have any advice? is it only me who is annoyed by this?

Björk - The Gate, watch the video I wouldn't really call this song pop, but Björk is pop(ular).

I really can't say much because I haven't read his books, but I recommend reading the 1-star-reviews of his book 'Sapiens'. e.g.: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/0062316095/R2EYZ3KK8Y3QHE?ref=pf_vv_at_pdctrvw_srp

is it not intuitively right to think that all love contains an element of sacrifice / losing sth? what kind of love is it in which you do not lose sth - it is no love at all because it does not affect you. since Leo says that God is Love, the question is - what does God lose in his Love, what does he sacrifice, how is God affected? I think Leo has not talked about it, but somehow intuition says that there must be 'real-world consequences' of God's Love. What do you think? And, @Leo Gura, did you ever experience in your trips that 'God is sacrificing himself/itself / something of himself/itself'?

@Leo Gura how about Bernardo Kastrup? He is interviewed by channels much smaller than Actualized.org. He has his PhDs but is not dependent on academia for his money or reputation. In fact, he criticizes academia quite a lot. He is an advocator of idealism, he's open to psychedelics, etc. I think he is a very good fit (if you think about an interview at all).

go to the youtube channel. there is much more to explore.

Make no mistake, when it comes to Consciousness/spirituality Jourdain is one of the most remarkable beings to have lived in the West.

@Zigzag Idiot Thank you! I am going to have a look at AH Almaas. One other almost funny aspect is that G is about attaining some kind of individualized immortality whereas Hinduism/Vedanta is trying to avoid just that. But I get the sense that there is some kind of significance to the term 'self-remembering', that it has levels to it that are hard to understand from below a certain level of development. Maybe on a higher level it is somewhere near 'enlightenment' or 'self-realisation'. This may be a book that can give some clarity on all the different teachings and traditions.https://www.amazon.com/Womans-Gurdjieff-Maharshi-Krishnamurti-Anandamayi/dp/1879514079 but I haven't bought it yet.

@Zigzag Idiot I saw you in the Ralston book thread. I often thought that Ralston is sometimes somewhat 'Gurdjieffian' if I may say so. I was just thinking - with all these other teachings around, where does one put Gurdjieff? One can't help but try to fit teachings into some scheme. So Ralston is ultimately about understanding that the self is a conceptual fabrication and thereby going beyond it and realizing your 'true nature'. But Gurdjieff is not about that. What do you think when I say that Gurdjieff is not about Ultimate Truth as is Ralston but about self-development, self-mastery, ego-development, maybe ego-transcendence (plus a lot of 'science' and cosmology)? Isn't it interesting that he contradicts the 'highest teachings'? G says we should forge our individuality while Buddhism is about 'no-self' and Hindu masters say that the individuality is due to false identification. G says we should have 'will', while Christians or bhaktas proclaim 'Thy Will be done'. G says we should be able to 'do' while Hindu sages say that taking yourself to be the doer is bondage. In short, I get the sense that G is not about the Absolute but about the relative, not about Being but about Becoming? How plausible is it that he never heard about Advaita Vedanta or didn't care about it? What to make of G and all this? What do you think about this? Maybe I am wrong in my assessment. It would be nice to read what you think. (But that's also so appealing about G. He doesn't say 'it's all illusion, get over it'. He sees a purpose to life on earth which is embedded in an overall cosmic evolution/involution.) (ps.: I am not at all an expert in G's teachings, I mostly just read Lee van Laer's blog which I like.)

I have found this site if one wants to read the whole Commentaries: https://selfdefinition.org/gurdjieff/maurice-nicoll-directory/ On it there are also some of his other books.

a beautiful piece of writing: https://thewordfoundation.org/hlib/early-editorials/Christ.html

I heard Shinzen Young once say that he has a thyroid condition and if he doesn't take his medication he is unable to think, literally. so he tried it out to see whether the equanimity and deep happiness continue. and they did continue. now, this is not directly dementia, but it seems appropriate to mention here.

https://www.jgbennett.org/chapter-4-mow/ J.G. Bennet on Divine Love and the (surprising) role of Judas.

seems like Murray Stein's Jung's Map of the Soul is well liked as an intro. or if you want to read Jung himself e.g. The Essential Jung by Anthony Storr.

maybe you should first ask yourself why you have written this post. whatever we tell you is basically useless. you can't devise a way to a 'place' you don't know. who is it that wants mahasamadhi?