Lento

You're welcome ☺️? This is what's really important in my opinion. You're always in the present moment ?

@Leo Gura We don't necessarily have to agree. It probably depends on how each of us defines enlightenment. I believe that no statement is an absolute fact, but always merely a pointer ?

@Javfly33 Whatever you consider a legitimate proof, I don't.

@EddieEddie1995 I suggest reading Jed Mckenna's Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing.

@Commodent Wow! Good for you.

Who said we can never prove the existence of other perspectives?! I definitely can. The evidence is loud and clear to me. The question is: Are you and others willing to let go of your standards of proof and use mine? (P.S. Don't take spirituality or any of its explanations literally. They're mere pointers. People usually don't realise that and then they never follow the pointers, but rather they start worshipping them). You aren't alone. You aren't one. And yet, you are.

Yes. It has nothing to do with your stage of cognitive development. Hell, even dogs are enlightened. But it depends on your definition of enlightenment.

Of course, belief is a core component of spirituality, just like any other intellectual system. Keep in mind that most of Leo's audience are rationalists who are sensitive to religion and its accessories, and are programmed to trust direct experience as the only way to verify facts, because they are programmed to be skeptical objective scientists, or at least that's what they think of themselves. 'No beliefs required' is just a marketing strategy, unless Leo himself is unaware of this obvious fact, which I highly doubt.

Welcome home ?

Happens to me too. Sometimes I get an exaggerated feeling of positive energy and emotions, with heightened awareness when I listen to music while reading the lyrics. But then I start clinging to that state, and it starts to go away. I guess gifts feel best when they come out of nowhere.

@outlandish The illusion doesn't go away when I stop breathing ??

Probably just a misunderstanding on my part. But I don't think spirituality is just a gum that you chew and then spit out. I think growth happens by integrating, and adding more. It's true, you don't need knowledge to be conscious, and yet, you do need knowledge to be conscious. It's paradoxical, but it is what it is. I am trying (have just created a journal for this purpose) not to attach myself to a certain limiting point of view. Besides, reality is always moving and changing, and we need to stay up-to-date. We can't live with the knowledge we'd learned in the past alone. We need to always allow new things and ideas to flow.

It has nothing to do with the breath per se. It's just an optical illusion created by making two images appear and then disappear constantly one after the other. The dots are not moving. But they appear to be moving in two directions, because they are symmetrical. Here are the screenshots showing the trick: Sorry for ruining this breathing exercise for you guys ?

Judgement = value

I've been contemplating.. How could I not see it before?! It's all about balance! Aim for balance.

I always sucked at being social, and I didn't care. But now, I am trying to become a successful leader, at least of my own life. And as a leader, one needs to have some superior qualities, such as: confidence, determination, hard-work, strength, skill, integrity, patience, and so on... which I have been working on for quite a while now. Another part of leadership is how all of that will be interpreted by others and how to make the most out of it. Or in other words, the other part of leadership is learning how to communicate your inner self with others effectively (setting the right vibes). Yesterday, I was talking to a friend about being polite, and I am, generally speaking, a very polite person. She told me that being always polite usually translates as having low self-esteem. I was like duh! How could I not be able to see that before?! So, I am working on compiling a list of how very little gestures/behaviours get interpreted by other people. I am mainly concerned about the extents of having good virtues, like being very nice and so on, but anything else would be great and appreciated as well. Here's my list so far: (these equations are not necessarily true, but I noticed myself and others usually view other people through them, mostly unconsciously). Too much polite = low self-esteem Showing some opposite quality after receiving a feedback = confusing and weird Too much attention/care = neediness, low self-esteem Too much intelligence = I can act stupid and rely on you to think for me Too much patience = I can do all kinds of stupid shit and you will not kick my ass Too much workaholic = I can sit back and watch all the work, including my own, getting done Too much clear and direct in communication = not interesting, give some room for creativity Too much creative = the guy's on cloud nine Too much nice on the approach = go away, I want to earn you as much as you want to earn me Too much respect = what do they want from me? I am important, I can act like a jerk So, basically that's the list. I don't think these are universal rules for how every communication gets interpreted, but I believe that it can be useful to be aware of the existence of such things. I don't know if this communication has given you the vibe of a teacher but I'm honestly posting this with the intention of learning. I would like to hear from you what you think about my list, how you think it can be enhanced, and what you can add to it. And like I mentioned we don't exclusively want examples for the good virtues, or their extents. We also want the neutral, the bad, and everything. I hope this will be a good thread. Thank you ?

Well, obviously it's just a general advice. It certainly does not work in all technical cases. However, I do believe that changing the way your external environment is structured can change the way you internally think and talk to your self. After all, external vs. internal is a duality, and change doesn't only occur on one side of the spectrum. So, maybe try changing your outside if you can't seem to be able to change your inside. You know, a killer counter-intuitive move.

With more awareness and going meta. Change the structure, and then the content will change automatically.

Heart chackra opening, don't worry. You're alright.

Go do something else. You don't have to do anything for her or for anyone else. You're still under the spell of the status quo of the nice guy.

@Leo Gura I could say the exact same thing about you, Leo. It's a game, and I'm not a player. You're not truly spiritual until you've questioned spirituality to death.

Exactly. And your statement is a projection as well. You project your desire to know the truth on what you call direct experience and you contrast it with beliefs which you consider falsehood. You're trying to escape metaphysics while you can't, unless you think you can. You believe that you have escaped 'falsehood', while there actually never was such a thing. The ultimate trick and self-deception. It goes even deeper than this, because what you dismiss and devalue as mere projection is all you have of reality. Projection is how we interact with and interpret reality. Just because the spiritual people consider projections inferior and invalid does not make them so. In fact, believing that without questioning would actually be a dogma. Again, what's wrong with dogma? Continue this contemplation on your own if you want. I don't need to know. This knowledge (at least that's how it seems to me at the moment) has no practical value for me or others, except for the ones who need (or think they need) to know. This clinging to metaphysics can be a distraction from following what's important. But maybe that's just me, everyone has their own unique path.

That's a belief ?

Geez! It doesn't matter what you like or dislike. Do you want the truth? Set your biases and dogmas aside.

@Bill W I agree with you, and would like to hint at another layer of deception, in accordance to your point: so we have the duality belief vs. direct experience, who determines which is truer? Leo and these guys say that direct experience is true, but on the other hand, Jesus and other figures said that beliefs are true. The conclusion I've come to is that it doesn't really matter. You're never gonna reach the truth without having to make up stories. So, whether it's your direct experience or beliefs, they're all still self-deception according to Leo's paradigm. But then again, is the self-deception concept even true, or just a part Leo's paradigm? But then again, is this skepticism that I'm practising right here true, or just a part of my own paradigm, which I've picked from my environment including Leo and other people? You see where this is going, strange-loops within strange-loops within strange-loops to infinity. And in non-duality, everything is interconnected, so eventually it's not possible to have a direct experience without beliefs, and it's not possible to have beliefs without a direct experience. You can't separate the two. In complete nonduality, the direct experience of Jesus equals the direct experience of no one, and so everyone is Jesus as well. It'd then be the same thing to believe Jesus or to have his direct experience experienced once again from another point of view and then interpret it some other way. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone. But these people here preach non-duality while not actually grasping what it is. I am very careful around them. Be careful. Thanks.