Apparition of Jack

@randomguy123 Keep in mind that chaos isn't necessarily a bad thing though. The only reason you exist (in the relative sense) is because your father and mother met chaotically (i.e. unplanned, unexpectedly, randomly) and the two had kids together. At no point did your father say "I will plan to meet randomguy123's mum at exactly 2.43pm on 28/05/1990 whom I will fall in love with and have kids with", he just met your mother chaotically one day and the connection that led to you was born. Chaos is one of the most fundamental principles required for the universe to function. The problem is just that the ego-mind tends to skew towards craving order (predictability, routine, stasis, etc.) and so the idea of chaos gets demonised and shunned by a lot of people, without them realising just how much of their own existence (as well as the rest of existence) is reliant upon it.

I'm trying to think of any spiritual teachers I know that teach something like this, and I can't come up with any. Just about everyone I've come across that uses the terminology of Divine Masculine/Feminine always emphasises their interdependence and reliance on one another. To embrace masculinity you need to embrace femininity / vice versa and all that. I'm trying to be respectful here, but this honestly sounds like more of your own projection more than anything else.

@Parththakkar12 Well then what standard do you measure the Divine Masculine by? What does the Divine Masculine mean to you?

Why is that?

Politics doesn't just have to be about the world "out there." It's not like "politics" only exists inside Washington, the UN and Wall Street (although obviously these things have a big influence.) Every little thing can (and dare I say is) political, from the food we eat, to the music we listen to, to the way we think about the world, and so on. If you want to start thinking about politics and what it means for our lives, you could start by just investigating your own life - what sort of things are you engaged in that have political outcomes or that politics can affect? Some examples might be: - Do you have any disabled relatives who need welfare from the government? - Do you have any friends struggling with mental health / sexuality / racism / identity issues? - Do you feel inspired every time you see someone driving a Tesla instead of a fossil fuel car? - Do you want people to take self-actualisation and spirituality more seriously? - Do you take issue with some of the messages being put out by music or movies? - Do you think we should be eating less meat? Or more meat? Maybe better meat? - Do you like exposing yourself to art/music/ideas from different cultures? - Do you find yourself being stressed out from too much work (or perhaps feeling disengaged by too little or too meaningless work?) All of these plus countless others are deeply political issues, and they all relate intimately to your own life. When you read a news article that makes you think "gosh this is all so tiresome", just remember that these events are only the most radical manifestations of countless little mundane experiences that everyone, including you, goes through every single day. When a union group pushes for a raise in the minimum wage, that's not just some "politically-minded people with some ideas doing politics", it's the logical result of thousands upon thousands of minimum wage workers who struggle to feed their kids, pay rent, pay for medical costs etc., all realising in their own lives that "Hang on, maybe my life doesn't have to be the way it is. Maybe there's an avenue to change this that could directly benefit me, and those around me." What are the things in your own life that could be improved and changed for the better? What things are you passionate about that you feel other people would benefit from? And don't think that politics necessarily has to be "nasty" or "cynical" either. In fact I would almost say that if done well, politics should be inspiring, creative, wholesome and unifying. And lastly, there's no one "correct" way to do politics and to be engaged. I personally keep engaged just through reading the news and sharing my opinion with those around me / people online, but you could be engaged by starting an art therapy course, or teaching kids mindfulness, or even just reaching out to a friend dealing with some issues and lending support. The key thing to keep in mind in any of these though is that you understand that your actions have political impacts (good impacts, mind you) and that you're doing these things consciously with the goal of bettering humanity, not just your own personal enjoyment. The sky's the limit.

Zzen seems to be mired in stage Orange rationality at the expense of Green/Turquoise post-rationality. Orange rationality can serve a person well up to a certain point, but if one is serious about realising existential Truth and really unraveling the mysteries of reality it very quickly develops some serious limitations. Still, I wish this Zzen fellow good luck in his journeys.

I'm looking for a video Leo released relatively recently (last ~6 months or so) in which he gets people to stop and saying something like "I am a devil, I am the cause of all the corruption in the world" and so on. I might be the "How Corruption Works" one but I'm not sure exactly. I ask instead of try and find it myself because I don't want to sit through 20+ hours of his videos just to find the one that I'm looking for. Anyone know the one?

Something I had never consciously considered, but now makes sense that I’m aware of it. Thanks for the advice. My heart goes out to Kobe, his daughter, his family and everyone else affected. A sad time for everyone

@Dylan Page I made this graph to illustrate why voting is important: Out of all the scenarios, the only one where not voting still benefits you is when they win regardless of your disengagement, but even that still has political ramifications as you can see. In all scenarios voting provides more advantages than not voting. Even voting when your candidate loses is still preferable to not voting when your candidate loses.

@tenta Some elections are won by about 50 or 60 votes. And these aren't just minor local elections, these can be state elections or even federal elections where a few states that are won by 50 or 60 votes are enough to flip the outcome. Voting 100% matters. There has never been a time in a democratic system where voting doesn't matter. Besides, you declaring your intention to vote to friends and family will inspire some of them to vote too, which might inspire more to vote, and so on. Think bigger picture. Think more conscious. Think more self-less. Voting matters.

This is an interesting thread because it sort of applies to something I've been thinking about in my own life. As I've been questioning the male/female distinction, I've been doing things like imagining myself as a woman, imagining what it's like to have sex as a woman, etc and the results have been surprising. I've found that just by contemplating what it's like to be female, I've become more ingrained into and accepting of my male dimension. I kind of get the impression that a problem that a lot of young guys have - especially guys of the incel, MGTOW, alt-right etc. variety - are dealing with an inability to accept the feminine dimension of life (vulnerability, expressiveness, creativity, etc.), which is what causes them to become so frustrated and confused about how to handle life. If you're told that the solution to your problems is entirely masculine solutions - more work, more strength, more knowledge - whilst ignoring the feminine solutions - doing art, being open and vulnerable with others, being OK with uncertainty - then the problems those feminine solutions could solve don't get solved, and instead you end up dealing with all sorts of psychological haywire. I truly feel that being open to and embracing the feminine dimension of life is something all men could benefit from, especially in Western societies that downplay the need for the feminine.

@ginger28 Interesting video. Blue is a necessary part of the Spiral.

@Bno I'm trying to be as respectful as I can, but I still feel the need to point that it feels like you're too attached to the idea that Russian interference in the US elections means that the Russians were hoping that the new president would do everything 100% in Russia's favour, which really isn't what their goal was. To be fair, it can be easy to think this when everyone acts like Putin is some sort of "4D chess mastermind" who is pulling the strings in a hundred different ways, but I really think this is giving him too much credit. Putin is an unhealthy stage Red dictator, which is still a rather unconscious level of being to be at, and unconscious levels of being lead to unconscious outcomes. When Putin orders his government to create chaos in other nations through things like election manipulation, he's not thinking about the long-term wellbeing of a conscious, prosperous Russian society. Instead he's thinking about "protecting Russia at all costs" against real or, more likely, imagined threats, using very underhanded and very unconscious tactics to do so, so it's no surprise if these tactics came back to bite him in the ass down the road. Russia meddling with the US election in order to sow division within the US isn't mutually exclusive with the US taking actions that hurt Russian interests. You have to get more nuanced about these things and view them from a SD perspective. Besides, having a weak, divided America - even one that is threatening war with Iran and refusing to lift sanctions - still benefits Russia in other areas, because they can use that domestic chaos to distract the US from putting up any resistance against aggressive Russian moves elsewhere, which is what the Russian government has been doing. Have you noticed how US criticism of Russia's involvement in the Ukraine has all but gone silent since Trump got elected? Another thing I've noticed in your worldview is that it seems to rely on some very strong assumptions, which you would probably do well to explore and question. Some of these assumptions are things like: - "Neoliberalism is morally evil and everyone who engages in neoliberal policies cannot promote healthy policies elsewhere" - "Hillary Clinton is irredeemably corrupt" - "Impeaching Trump is mutually exclusive with supporting Trump's war bills" And so on. Now don't get me wrong, I am not a fan of neoliberalism in the slightest, nor do I personally like Hillary Clinton, but the point is that these are the assumptions you are operating under, and ones that break down once you bring more nuance to your analysis. Obama was a standard "Third Way" neoliberal Democrat, and yet he pulled US troops out of Iraq and passed the first guaranteed-coverage healthcare bill in US history. Bill Clinton was likewise, and yet he invested heavily in education, helped Israel and Palestine sign the Oslo accords, created the first maternity leave style policy in the US and did much to protect American national parks. The point is - while the neoliberal establishment might be corrupt in its structure, that doesn't prevent individual politicians who operate under this framework for passing actual good legislation, despite their problematic policies elsewhere. In the age of constant internet outrage it can be very easy to forget the fact that politics is, still, the art of compromise (a lesson I have had to learn personally), so taking totalising stances like "a neoliberal politician can never pass conscious legislation" is counter-productive and unhelpful. And finally, of course I am not saying this to defend neoliberalism or intervernionism or anything like that. Neoliberalism still has to go, and in the new Green political system that is emerging with Bernie's movement neoliberal ideas are going to come under increasing scrutiny in the coming years. But that doesn't prevent us from approaching the existing conditions critically and with nuance, and seeing what are the best tools we have available today - which may have emerged from the neoliberal paradigm itself - to help dismantle this power structure and put a more conscious, holistic one in its place.

A lot more goes into running an effective charity than just handing out cash to victims. You need logistics, you need to make sure the money is being spent on the right things, you need to make sure you’re paying for long-term problems not just short-term problems and so on. This recent attack on the charities smells like nothing more than a way to deflect blame for inaction on the bushfire crisis to charities that really shouldn’t be the ones to be doing the government’s job in the first place. Also Sky News is trash. It’s the Fox News of Australia.

@Bno Let me ask you something Bno... what evidence would convince you that there was Russian interference in the 2016 election and that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia? What does this evidence look like to you?

It sounds like your question is whether you should get the loan or not - everything else you've figured out (direction in life, career choice, place you want to move, etc.), and now it's just a matter of actually manifesting them in the real world. I'm no expert at all on personal finances or loans or anything like that, so don't take this as professional advice, but it sounds like your intuition is right and trying to stay where you are and slowly etch out enough cash to move will only hold you back in the long term, compared to if you took the loan and dived right in. Yes, repayments are a bitch, and I understand the desire to not be shackled with debt, but at this point either option is going to involve some degree of suffering (monotony of staying where you are and putting your life on hold vs. moving to a new city but having to pay back a loan.) The only question is which suffering will you prefer? And to me it sounds like the repayments will be the lesser burden to suffer, because even though you'll have to make sure you pay them back every month for a couple of years, the psychological rejuvenation of being in a new place, meeting new people, seeing new sites will be the motivation you need to stick with it and put up with the repayments. Besides, it'll help you get your degree quicker, which'll ultimately improve your money prospects down the line. The alternative is to stay where you are and save up enough cash to get there yourself, but this has its own set of risks as you might be made redundant, you might get stuck in a rut as you say, and so on. Leo talks about following your intuition when trying to create your life purpose, and this may be one of those times you have to listen to it. This is just my two cents anyway. I'd like to see others' replies because I don't really have much experience with these things and maybe some others have.

@Bno I don't know what to say dude. Your concerns have like 30% truth to them but then 70% hair splitting. Yes, it might make sense for progressive voices not to go after Tulsi Gabbard too hard if they want her supporters to vote for Bernie, but she is such an obscure and unknown figure in the first place that making sure her supporters are on board with Bernie is like a British war cabinet minister worrying about if British communists were on board in the fight against the Hitler when he invaded Poland in 1939. It's just so low on the list of things that could be worried about at such a time when so many other resources are at their disposal. If you're a devoted Tulsi supporter, so be it, but just from my perspective to yours, she's really not that big of a deal, and Green progressive causes could be much better served by focusing on spreading information about Bernie's policies, making sure reactionaries and corporate centirsts don't control the conversation, and so on. I am trying to be respectful here, I still agree with like 90% of what you say, I just wish you could see things from a bigger perspective.

Most education systems around the world are basically the complete opposite of what they should be in terms of creating healthy, conscious people. I would say that easily 90-95% of what you learn in school is lost effort, and in fact can set yourself up for failure in the future as you try to adjust your school conditioning with realities that don’t match them. If education was optimal, it would include things like being taught yoga/meditation, proper nutrition, how to set up a business, critical thinking, self-actualisation, how to channel your creativity, and so on. Most of the stuff we learn about maths, history, etc is mostly pointless save for the few students who end up going to specialise in these subjects, and even then these topics are straightforward enough that if you’re serious about learning them then a healthy young adult can pick them up quickly at higher education. Like, who here can say that they have genuinely retained and benefited from the majority of what they learnt at school? Sure basic writing and math skills (like grammar and multiplication) are important, but you’ve basically mastered these by the time you’re a teenager anyway. I’d say the most benefit that people derive from the current education system is simply how to socialise and get along with other people, but that would happen anyway if you put a bunch of kids together no matter what the content they’re learning is. Also the way in which most topics of taught is complete nonsense either - rote learning from books basically causes you to forget all information. (Seriously, I learnt more French in just a few months of private study than I did in 10 years of French lessons at school because the process was actually engaging and hands-on, and wasn’t just repeating phrases from a book.) Kids have to be engaged and encouraged to learn in their own ways, not assessed by arbitrary tests that teach you very little other than how to play the game of making limited facts sound good to the correct people.) In a hundred years time we’re going to look back at the way we teach kids today the same way we currently look back on how medieval people practiced medicine.

@Bno Dude, EVERYONE is a hypocrite. EVERYONE. Even Bernie Sanders is a hypocrite. The point is not to demand ideological purity. The point is to demand the best possible outcome with the tools we have to us. If you demanded that everyone you ally with never do anything underhanded or hypocritical in their lifetime, you'd be left with exactly 0 allies.

@tenta This man is such a grifter

When even a stage Orange MSNBC pundit is saying Bernie will likely be the one to win in Iowa, you know the direction the winds are blowing. The biggest threat to his nomination is the Biden voters who like Bernie's ideas but still think he's "too unelectable" because of a misplaced fear of the socialist label, since there’s a lot of them and they’d need convincing if Bernie is to have a shot at the nom. But it can be done. At this stage Warren isn't a player IMO. As people interested in consciousness and collective awakening, I think it's important that we support Bernie Sanders and do everything we can (within reason) to help seize this opportunity and move America up towards Green.

Spirituality and mental health can be co-opted by capitalist forces to avoid tackling the underlying issues that are causing social malaise, yes. I see it fairly often with certain New Age people, who use New Age teachings - as cool as they are - as more or less a simple crutch to help them deal with financial / health / family etc. stress, rather than to truly self-actualise and reach the highest states of consciousness. This is why I think it's important to have a focus on "public works" and being engaged with the world even while you're self-actualising. The conditions you live in affect just how high you - and those around you - are able to go, so it's silly to think that by just getting the right yoga technique down or sorting through your own trauma can you resolve the collective issues that are preventing you from manifesting a truly glorious life.

@Buba You can be attracted to both men and women. It's not like there's a rule that says you have to pick one or the other, lol. You might prefer the softness of a woman one day and the masculine energy of a man the next day.

@Leo Gura For what it's worth, learning about the double-slit experiment in year 11 physics is the first time I truly had my mind blown and started to question the nature of reality, so there's that

@purerogue My apologies, I didn’t read correctly. My point still stands though, acknowledging the suffering that is unique to minorities doesn’t somehow discredit the suffering of white people.No one in their right mind would say that your friends stories are unimportant just because minorities suffer in a different way. Put it this way - you might have a friend who becomes paralysed and has to live in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but then have another friend who has to live in a wheelchair and is diagnosed with cancer. Would you then say your first friend’s suffering is unimportant? Would you stop caring about that friend? Of course not. You would still care deeply about them and do whatever you could for them. They are still in a terrible situation relative to most healthy people, and will have a lot of trials as a result. But you would also acknowledge the suffering of your second friend, including the suffering unique to him. Your ability to care about different people isn’t limited to “how bad” they have it - compassion is also an unlimited resource.