Mason Riggle

It might help if you were to view the stages along the spiral as different, but no better or worse. As Leo explained it in a video in a similar manner: There is nothing 'wrong' with second graders because they are in second grade and not in 5th grade. 2nd grade isn't a 'lower' stage in the sense that it's worse than 5th grade.. it's perfectly fine to be in 2nd grade, and wouldn't make sense to 'look down on' 2nd graders for not being in 5th grade yet. Be careful not to be judgmental of any stage.

I would say that 'ego' is the notion that there is a separate 'you', which exists separate from everything it itself considers 'not me'... personality is the particular fashion in which this notion manifests and the characteristics of the manifestation. For example.. if trees could suddenly think, the way you and I can.. it might come under the spell of imagining that there is a specific part of itself called 'I' which is responsible for doing all of the things trees do.. this 'thought' would in actuality just be another thing that the whole tree is doing... like growing leaves or bark.. this is ego.. The quality and characteristics of all of the thoughts being produced by the tree in general would be it's 'personality'.

@Synchronicity Ethan, nice to meet me, as you. "I am not trying to sell you on this idea in the sense of converting you to it, I want you to play with it. I want you to think of its possibilities, I am not trying to prove it. I am just putting it forward as a possibility of life to think about. So then, let’s suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream you wanted to dream, and that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time, or any length of time you wanted to have. And you would, naturally, as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure you could conceive. And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each you would say “Well that was pretty great. But now let’s have a surprise, let’s have a dream which isn’t under control, where something is gonna happen to me that I don’t know what it's gonna be." And you would dig that and would come out of that and you would say “Wow that was a close shave, wasn’t it?”. Then you would get more and more adventurous and you would make further- and further-out gambles what you would dream. And finally, you would dream where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today. That would be within the infinite multiplicity of choices you would have. Of playing that you weren't God, because the whole nature of the godhead, according to this idea, is to play that he is not. So in this idea then, everybody is fundamentally the ultimate reality, not God in a politically kingly sense, but god in the sense of being the self, the deep-down basic whatever there is. And you are all that, only you are pretending you are not." from The Dream of Life, by Alan Watts.

@zeroISinfinity yes, but this seems confused in the video.. he discusses 'other people's perceptions' (asking others about the existence of pink elephants and using the consensus of their perceptions to evaluate the validity of our own, as if there is a 'their perception' vs. 'our own' perception).. he's still creating this duality with his words.

@Farnaby yes, and why discuss the validity of the 'perception of others' if there are no 'others'.. just like there's no room.. if my perception of all you reading this were removed, what of all of you?

@Farnaby Push a mug across your desk.. did it physically move? How else did that happen, if not with your mind?

Vampire Weekend - This Life Baby, I know death probably hasn't happened yet 'Cause I don't remember living life before this And darling, our disease is the same one as the trees Unaware that they've been living in a forest You've been cheating on, cheating on me I've been cheating on, cheating on you You've been cheating on me But I've been cheating through this life And all its suffering Oh Christ, am I good for nothing? This life and all its suffering

@PenguinPablo Perhaps.. perhaps.

"Why u tryna sound smart, poetic and enlightened?" @AlphaAbundance hint.. it's the same reason you are. Why are you here trying to enlighten us with your bullshit???

^this.. @korbes I can relate.. I used to be a lot like that.. for me, the starting point that really was the catalyst for self love/acceptance, was exploring the idea of who "I" was.. who is it that wants acceptance? Turns out there is no 'me'.. it was ego all along..

@Western Buddha perhaps you are getting too caught up in the ideas that 1) there is a 'you' who makes decisions.. and 2) there are 'decisions'.. Are you able to take the perspective that 'thoughts' (and therefor your choices) merely arise into awareness.. the same way a tree grows it's leaves.. it grows them this way and that, but there is no 'tree' inside the tree 'deciding' which way to grow them, yet it still does this. Also remember that 'being indecisive' is still 'doing something' which wasn't 'your choice'.. you had no problem 'choosing' to 'be indecisive'? you see?

I've watched dozens of Leos videos. I've never felt pressured to purchase anything or to join any club or idolize him in any way. He actually warns against this sometimes. I've never even felt pressured to 'believe' anything he says in his videos. My thoughts too. I wasn't surprised to read this.

@Western Buddha I think the point is that you both of your points of view of the past are valid. It's okay to not know your point of view, because it's all relative. You literally can not make a 'wrong' decision, because 'wrong' is only a perspective which you hold.

Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.” The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”

@Western Buddha Have you ever heard the story of the Chinese Farmer?

You are not controlling the storm. And you are not caught up in it. You are the storm. - Sam Harris

@DocHoliday I liked where you were going with this.. in describing what it's 'not like'.. and it struck me to think about what would be a good way to describe it.. or try to... I think it's more like when you learn some concept that wasn't getting through before.. like when you were little and learning math, and perhaps you understood why 2 + 2 equals 4.. because adding is pretty simple for a child to get.. you put things with other things and count them all.. but the concept of multiplication is more difficult to grasp at first.. but when you get it.. you never go back to not getting it.. and yet, you don't have to keep 'getting it' to have it.. it's also no longer something you seek to get, because you have it.. yet you still have your concepts of addition, which still make sense. But you can also forget and lose concepts if you don't use them or 'embody them'.. it's possible also, to perform complex math without really understanding the complex concepts that allow you to do so, by getting the basics on an intellectual level.. for example.. you can know that Pi is about 3.14 and use that to calculate the surface area of a table without really understanding why Pi is 3.14, and how that number gets you the Area when you multiply it by the diameter.

I want to share here a strange experience I had yesterday. I'm not really sure it qualifies as a true 'enlightenment' experience, or perhaps just some epiphany, but it was exhilarating regardless. I have been a seeker of truth as long as I remember. I was raised without religion. My 'self-actualization' or 'awakening' journey really only began in earnest relatively recently (the last several weeks/months) but it was triggered about 10 years ago by a divorce and depression, which kind of forced me to come to terms with a ton of denial. Anyhow, yesterday I had to meet with a guy to disconnect the internet at a business I operate. He seemed charismatic, but not overly self conscious or intelligent. He was almost sloppy in his appearance, work boots, long hair under a hat. I was very busy, but after finishing the job he came to do, he struck up a conversation with me about our phones and technology, and I commented about how crazy things might be in 10 or even just 5 years.. and how crazy things are now compared to only 5 or 10 years ago.. at first he seemed eager to bring up topics typically surrounded by conspiracy theory, Google building Quantum computers to access alternate realities, Giants, other beings breeding with humans.. and normally I would dismiss this type of person and discussion and go about my day, but for some reason I decided to engage with him, and listen to what he had to say, from the perspective that he was also me, who is actually God. After listening for a while, I began to really hear what he was trying to say, knowing his words could never say it. It started to become sort of effortless to see where he was falling into duality traps, some of which I attempted to point out, but I had this overwhelming sensation of the futility of telling him, who was really me, where my 'thinking' was limited... The conversation got deeper, into the nature of God and reality, and I could tell he was struggling to grasp some of the non dualistic notions I was presenting, but then at one point, this energy or something kind of entered me, and I couldn't help but smile bigger and bigger as all the pieces of the puzzle kind of came together and I fully realized that I am God, and of course everything is occurring for me to experience myself, and I was showing this to myself through him, who was also me. In the height (peak) of this experience which lasted about 3 to 5 minutes.. I saw all of reality as my dream, which was like a painting, and I had the brush, and if only I could let go of my own neurotic questioning about how to paint, I could paint whatever infinite dream I wish.. and then we were back. and I still understood that this 'stranger', who I had talked to for only about an hour, had shown me something through myself, which I was also showing him, and he thanked me so much for the conversation and seemed truly inspired to go paint his own dream..

It's a little tricky. Words can be traps. If something is being 'experienced', it is real, even if the experience is an illusion.. the illusion is still 'real'.. Can you experience what 'your life' was like before you were 'born'? That is 'non-existence'.. it doesn't 'exist for you' because it 'doesn't exist for you.'..

@Alex bliss It's tricky. How comfortable are you with paradox? It's like a 'shift in perspective' more than 'finding out the answer'.. Take for example, the question of the chicken and the egg.. which came first?. Well, if you remain trapped in the perspective that one must have come before the other, you will dwell on this question forever without answer, but one day, if it occurs to you to consider it deeply, you may realize that they evolved together.. the answer is 'neither and both'.. and this shift in your perspective from 'one or the other' to 'both and neither' will simply remove your question about 'which one came first'.. the question ceases to make sense.

@Alex bliss can you decide to 'sincerely seek' any sooner than you will?

@Alex bliss like anything, it's a paradox.. a mind fuck. If I showed you a picture, with some hidden objects in the image.. consider how you would go about 'finding the hidden images'.. consider what that process is like.. The location of a hidden object would 'occur to you' precisely 'if and when' it does, and you can not 'find it' any sooner than you 'find it'. Of course, it helps if you are looking.. you may never notice them otherwise.

@Alex bliss Hmmm.. I think it would be similar to the difference to being asleep, and being awake.. when you are asleep, and dreaming, you do not realize you are dreaming.. when you are 'awake'.. you realize you are actually dreaming.

@Alex bliss many people often wonder what they will gain from enlightenment, but it's more about what you lose.. the neurotic questions, the fear, your anxieties..

“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” Zen proverb