silene

Thanks for the recommendation, it sounds a great book and I'm happy that it's helped you so much! As well as the explanations, does it have a practical side, advice or exercises in how to make this progress?

Putting it another way, can you find which part of you isn't awake right now? How about your foot, your hand, your blood, your feelings? When I try this experiment I find only my thought which isn't awake. Why? Because it's the only part of me trying not to be itself, but abstractly pointing to something else outside.

We can't help being selfish to begin with, it's our survival mechanism, so spirituality is about using the self to transcend itself. We all start from where we're at and progress from there. Self-inquiry works like that doesn't it? We either see that there's no self, or our self expands to encompass everything. Same thing really. "Should I feel guilty" wow this is a deep question! Can you even choose your own feelings like that, or are your feelings creating your thoughts? What's the feeling behind this question? Maybe we were taught that selfishness = bad and selflessness = good. If your meditation is growing you and helping you find truth then why should you feel guilty? The whole community benefits from that imo. But you're still allowed to have some fun and let your hair down too although it seems you're becoming more refined in what feels like fun.

Hi, I can't find the blog post video (it may help if you can direct me to it), but at a guess I'd suggest you try a bit more support under the cushion to lift you up a couple of inches or so. I was taught when sitting cross legged to keep my hips higher up than my knees to create a tripod effect with both knees on the floor. How long do you want to sit for? 30 mins sitting still is good, why not give yourself a break and move posture so you can continue and keep comfortable for the rest of the session?

Hi, what does S.A.E. stand for? Also what was it like when you 'woke up sort of speak'? I'm so happy for you but curious why you waited a year to share this with us. Have you been integrating it into your life perhaps?

mon 1jun20. Extract of one of my previous postings (15may20) copied here: https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/48901-the-homosexual-talk-about-society-and-rights/?page=2 "In my experience of race, nowadays it is always self-selected with surveys and the like, you choose which 'race' you belong to from a list of tick boxes. The attempt to find biological evidence of race was a feature of the eugenics movement of the 20th century which was suspect to begin with and degenerated completely with the Nazis. In theory, now you can belong to whichever racial group you choose, or none (as I do). I have made a decision recently to refrain from assuming anyone else's racial identity without the other person stating it for themselves. " Racial identity like all others I see to be relative, a product of circumstances, I want to start a campaign for a 'none' racial identity in the census. I especially take issue with the options put before me of white or black. There's a story about Peter Ustinov when asked about his colour at the border security (I think it was in South Africa). He said 'pink' which is not what they wanted - people should fit into one of the government pigeon holes not just make up their own category - even if it's much more accurate. I'm like that, there is no such thing as white or black skin, just varying shades of brown. Looking at it this way emphasises the relativity of skin colour (and by extension racial identity) and may help to bring us together; calling ourselves black or white is pushing us apart into opposites. What happens to mixed race people in that scenario? Barak Obama for instance is still sometimes described as 'black' when his father was 'black' and his mother 'white' so perhaps he could be called 'grey'. But I'll not do that, as I said earlier, race should be self-identified. This issue is once again a hot topic in the news over the death of a man from police restraint methods. I'm currently reading 'The Zen Doctrine of No Mind' by DT Suzuki. The historical quotes about Hui-neng and others take a little getting used to; I have read about and practiced Zen before, but it has a certain style which I need to tune into, rather like reading Shakespeare or something from a different time or culture. But DT Suzuki's commentary (published in 1949) is easier going for me as an essentially 20th century person. One key phrase which keeps recurring is 'seeing into your self-nature' as the essence of Zen. Isn't this comparable to self-inquiry? Although Zen is a relatively pure path, it is still quite conservative - eg preferring to cling to Japanese culture and traditional anecdotes from hundreds of years ago - nothing wrong with that if it's what you want, but I am English and don't see the need to put on a veneer of Japaneseness for the sake of spirituality. The tomatoes are progressing, I took these pics yesterday (day 71 or 10 weeks old). They've started flowering and side-shooting during May (they're outdoors), also we have strawberries ripening already which is a record in my memory.

@Nak Khid helpful research, thanks for the explanations, I'd suspected there were different types of solipsism and this fleshes it out. Half the intellectual effort is defining things clearly.

@Nak Khid "would Spira agree with this statement "everything is imaginary" ?" Do you? If so, then who is doing the imagining? An imaginary mind? I find statements about "everything" impossible to understand logically, because of the self-reference. But maybe that's your point

I see a kind of trinity in this forum sometimes: the Absolute Truth, the relative truth, and a third, nameless mode which includes both others. It's hard to see it all, so people create images and myths such the Christian Trinity, to have something a bit easier to grasp. But believing in this is to miss the point.

Out of interest, what are the similarities you can see? I don't have any agenda on this, but it just stood out as a strong statement in your post (most of which I agree with by the way).

Hi @ZubPrem do you have a personal interest in this, do you follow either of these paths? If your interest is for historical truth, then remember that neither Jesus nor Mohammed wrote their own books, and we can't be certain of the mindsets of the actual authors. But if you're up for a bit of creative interpretation, how about this? These sayings can be seen as a little test of your state of consciousness. From the absolute pov, we are all one so the universe itself is the one begotten child of God. The absolute teaching is timeless and eternal. From the relative pov, we are separate so there's lots of arguments about who comes first & last etc. Teachings are contextual and timebound so need constant renewal.

@BjarkeT thanks, patreon's a good way to support the community too. I was just wondering if anyone knows the YT business model, do the channel owners get a cut based on ads actually watched? I'm guessing that YT monitor when ads are watched vs skipped. That could be a 'free' way to provide a little extra support also. However, I understand that this may all be shrouded in commercial secrecy, companies don't always like to say where their money goes.

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question, but it's my best guess. I normally watch actualized.org's videos on youtube, which have adverts, mostly for self help & online business startup type things. They have an option to skip them, but if they're short I will leave them on - with volume on low - because I assume (rightly or wrongly) that actualized will benefit from a cut of the advertising income. However, youtube seems to think I'm a sucker for this type of thing because the adverts are getting longer - even up to 30 minutes sometimes! Is actualized getting any benefit from the ads which it would lose if I skip them? If it helps then I don't mind leaving them on in the background.

@TDW1995 If that's the only thought you're having, you're doing much better than me, good job my thoughts are private Seriously though, while there is a good discussion to be had about awareness vs physical matter (the mind-body problem), but when meditating I just try to let go whenever I notice I'm taken off into thought. I also practice several methods to complement each other: this 'resting in Being' meditation benefits from some basic concentration practice too, it helps me with keeping focussed. I used to struggle too with the phrase 'aware of awareness', (it sounds like you have two types of awareness with one observing the other) until I read Diana Winston's book recently (The Little Book of Being) where she describes moving from being aware of objects (like individual chairs, tables, walls, trees, whatever) to having a single field of awareness without our cognition dividing it up. I don't really like the phrase 'aware of awareness' so avoid it myself but understand that other people like it.

@TDW1995 I find it easier to let go of this narrative (essentially the subject-object duality) by meditating in darkness, when the idea of a body with awareness is replaced by a simple stream of phenomena which are self-aware: calling them sounds, feelings etc is already saying too much. But different techniques work for different folks.

For a philosophical introduction to this subject, you could try the Wikipedia article on Idealism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/idealism

In my experience of race, nowadays it is always self-selected with surveys and the like, you choose which 'race' you belong to from a list of tick boxes. The attempt to find biological evidence of race was a feature of the eugenics movement of the 20th century which was suspect to begin with and degenerated completely with the Nazis. In theory, now you can belong to whichever racial group you choose, or none (as I do). I have made a decision recently to refrain from assuming anyone else's racial identity without the other person stating it for themselves. Having gone on that tangent, I'll try and return to the topic. @annonnimm32 "So, again, those who answered, do you think lgbt people are being treated fair in the world? Do they have more rights than non lgbt people, what more or less right do they need, when does a country ( what it needs to do ) feel suited to grant lgbt laws in a manner that no one feels more or less privileged? Do we need lgbt laws in general? Why? Why not? This is the debate" I don't have a broad enough knowledge of this issue to give a good global answer, but I do think LGBTQ+ (is that the current acronym?) rights vary so much around the world the simple answer is probably NO, they aren't treated fairly on average, there's large parts of the world where they are discriminated and persecuted, treated as second class citizens compared to straights and celibates. In my own country, UK, there have been some big improvements legally but not all sections of the community have kept pace with this; we have plenty of stage blue citizens with private attitudes supporting discrimination. Culture changes slowly, law is necessary as a last resort but it's a blunt instrument. There needs to be a range of other factors such as changes in education, personal contact between people (to experience that the demonised group are in fact normal people), positive and truthful representation in the media etc. Ideally we should be moving towards a place where the persecuted group becomes less 'other' and more 'part of us' ie regular members of the community with the same rights and responsibilities as anyone else. But this takes time, not everyone is capable of this level of progress in consciousness.

@Verdesbird Me too, freedom of religion is vital, Christians aren't forced into any sort of marriage if they don't want to (wait - nobody else is either). But IMO religion is a private matter, so why not allow consenting adults the choice to get married or not, according to our own values, rather than the government deciding for us? That way conservatives can be conservative and liberals can be liberal.

@The Don why is marriage only between man & woman? Surely it's a human creation so it can be whatever we want it to be?

Right vs Left is a simplification which has created an IMO unhelpful tendency to identify with, and pigeonhole ourselves into, a binary (or tertiary if you include Liberal) tribal politics. As an alternative can we focus on the actual policies themselves, examine the impacts and funding. Then go with the candidates with the closest match rather than labels and brands like Right or Left. Trouble is, elections often focus more on personalities rather than policy. Both are important but it needs a balance.

By coincidence I also did the first of a 30 day yoga series today (Yoga With Adriene on youtube but probably different to yours), I was intending to search for a Kriya Yoga channel for a beginner's introduction, but instead was drawn to Adriene's channel which I've used before when suffering with back ache. Thanks for your commentary on the yoga, describing the subtleties of the attention to mental & physical aspects, it sounds awesome. I'm considering whether to do the full 30 days, but will start with this week and see how I get on.

I usually meditate at night, before bed, but today I had some spare time in the afternoon so I did 30 mins. The difference was I was aware of the daylight, my more actively thinking mind, and also the amount of caffeine in my system. I'm realising that I take too much caffeine and it's making me hyped up when I need to be more chilled. Reducing caffeine is one of my new year resolutions so I'm looking at ways to do that. I like tea & coffee so don't want to stop altogether, perhaps by having a time limit, 2 or 3 pm for my last cup, then have herb teas like my favourites camomile and fennel. I'm having a mini crisis over Actualized's increasing tendency towards the use of psychedelics as a spiritual practice. Not just Leo but among the MCES forum too which is one of the ones I mostly visit (others are the Journals, SEGP and SEP. I've usually kept out of threads about psychedelics as it's not my path, respecting other people's choices (within the law of course) and not wishing to get involved in heated debates about it. But the centre of gravity seems to be shifting, and I am waiting to see if Leo keeps to his decision in the 'Outrageous Experiments' video to stay off his psychedelics. I'm thinking there are (in simple terms) two strands to spirituality: moral/emotional development (Leo calls it emotional mastery) and mysticism (like nondual experiences). Psychs appear to give a fast track to mysticism, but I'm not convinced they help so much with the moral/emotional side. Maybe I'm wrong as I've never tried psychs but it appears to me they can give an unbalanced approach if practiced by themself. I'm probably a bit puritanical, it all means I'm content with a slower path to mysticism if it means I'm also progressing on the emotional/moral side too. So I stick with things like meditation, yoga, nature & gardening. This all means I'm debating whether to pause as an active forum member and just focus on my journal, giving more time to the other spiritual forums I belong to. Or will I stay here as a voice for non-drug mysticism. Maybe I will be labelled as unawakened etc, but then again I shouldn't predict people's reaction. Tomato plants Friday 24-apr-20 (day 34). I potted onto separate pots, but only had room for 6 indoors, the rest are in the mini-greenhouse outside (and are smaller than these). Today (Sunday 25 April) I moved these 6 plants to join the others, as they are now getting big and leggy. It's a waiting game (and guessing game) now for the last frost of Spring, which would kill them off if they aren't protected. I usually plant outdoors mid-late May.

Good progress I never tried using a syringe to water plants, a sprayer I would use for misting plants which need moist leaves. Gardening is such a diverse thing! I have bad soil too, my garden is basically a few inches of soil chucked by the builders on top of the foundations of an old road. I spend more time improving the soil than looking after plants (picking out stones and putting in compost). Trying to think long term - good soil is so valuable, gives good roots and therefore good plants. The important deep parts are often unseen.

There's likely to be problems in countries with declining birth rates, also poor countries which have high birth rates have their own problems, shortages of doctors, access to technology, education etc. So far, (some of) the richer countries have responded with immigration, which itself has led to a backlash from conservatives. It's good to be educating ourselves about social problems and discussing possible solutions, but from my understanding of history there's never been a golden age without some endemic issues. Life moves on and if there is a decline at the moment it won't last forever, there will be future generations with different life values to ours.

@louhad " I think I have a pretty good idea of what spirituality looks like in the feminine stages(Purple, Blue, Green, Turquoise), but I am wondering what spirituality looks like in the masculine stages(red, orange, yellow)." I hadn't looked at SD in masculine/feminine terms before, that's an interesting perspective. "and now, my spirituality is pretty green" ... "I am having trouble conceptualizing how a stage blue monk for example who is prejudice against gay people can realize oneness. " Your stage green perspective could explain this, green sees life through its more liberal lens; when you can conceptualise this apparent paradox it's a sign you're moving into yellow