WonderSeeker

Rampant commercialism and materialism. Small integrity, big profit. This has gotta create a serious cognitive dissonance for some repubs. I could see libertarians maybe being cool with her, but I don't know about those who ID as traditionalists.

Hey, I'm sorry that you receive this crap and that it affects your emotional stability. How are 'they' actually 'attacking' your character? I know this isn't what you want to read, but I think the quoted line is the perfect thing to contemplate right now. I get the feeling, by reading your post and past ones similar to it, that you want Leo/mods to take action, and they probably will to the extent that they can. But I think you can also balance that with some self-reflection as well, so that trolls bother you less in the future. Trolls aren't worth your time. Forget them. Only focus on the comments that are conducive to your goals/desires. Your mind is a wonder.

True, the more lenses you look at an issue from, the better the assessment will be. You'll know which levers to pull to get a better outcome.

The problem here is that both spiritual and psychological approaches are, in a sense, right. However, each approach is right in a different way. If we take development into account (i.e., psychology), then we can look at a person and see where they are at. Ken Wilber once said "Spirituality is the highest level of any developmental line." If that's true, then spirituality will only work for those people who have developed to a point where they are ready for it. Until then, psychological approaches may be most appropriate. Once a healthy sense of self has been developed, the self can be transcended. At least, I believe that's how it works for most people. @Preety_India Ever heard of the phrase "spiritual bypassing"?

What counts as 'wrong' and as 'Karma' are up to you. Though if you want to survive, you have to play the same game that the rest of society is playing. You can either do this unconsciously, by believing that 'wrong' and 'Karma' exist. Or you can do this consciously, by understanding that 'wrong' is relative and 'Karma' is a false proof of some divine fate. And if you do this consciously, you have the choice to be good or not. Choose wisely! It just is. Ever taken LSD? The answer is implicit. First, accept your confusion. There's going to need to be a lot of that if you want answers. Next, take action. Meditate, contemplate, etc. Be prepared to suffer for the truth.

@Tim R Ayyye don't spoil the surprise

@Swarnim Make it fun. Validate her interest by encouraging her. Your sister sounds lovely.

@vedame Just do what's in front of you. Carve out time to nurture yourself, whatever that is for you. About 5 years ago, I found out that my ex had been cheating on me. It broke my heart. I had zero self-esteem. (It was my first relationship and I fell into the naive trap that it would 'be forever.') So for me, I got "pissed off for greatness" and did what I was passionate about, and that transformed me. Coping is fine, but you deserve to thrive too. Good luck!

@Eternal Unity Uncover the insights for yourself. Practice spirituality hard for about 1-2 years. During that time, the notion of free will will become less and less true for you. At first, that will be shocking and super unsettling. You might get a feeling of heartache, like I did. But then you'll accept it and laugh about it. It's kind of like breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, except you're just breaking up with an idea.

Straight up. Get the vax and get out there. Start small. Just practice getting in 'the flow' with women. Then take it to the next level. That's what I'm doing. You can do it too. You need a paradigm swing.

@Joyful Silence Interesting idea. I'd market it more broadly as a 'spiritual' app, and then have options for your bio like... Spiritual type A) Fundamentalist B) New Age C) Mystical Gender A) Male B) Female C) Non-bianary D) God (lol) Stuff like that. Give people options or you'll only have 10 people using the app and they will all be from this forum!

@LastThursday Thank you for the advice, I seriously needed that. It's funny how easy it is to build a logic of "If I meditate, use binaural beats, and do breath-work, X-times per week, then I'll become God." Then you crash and burn. I'll give myself a whole month away from all of it. @BlackMaze I do run, and it feels awesome. Haven't gone in about a week though. Good reminder! @karkaore Always the best way to be! Thanks~

Hi all. Normally I avoid posting about spiritual 'troubles,' because I usually assume that it's normal suffering that comes with the path, and that I can resolve it myself. But this time I can really use some pointers. Anything is appreciated. I've been getting bogged-down with deep existential realities lately. I feel a great sense of dread for having chosen this path. Even though I am wiser, and more loving toward others, all of this is taking a serious toll on me. Here are some concrete examples: I am pacing around aimlessly, forgetting what I'm even doing in life all of the time. Doing every-day survival stuff is difficult. Over half of the time I walk into a room and forget why I even did so in the first place. I feel very confused and turbulent, as if I have low-grade dementia. My mind is perpetually in existensial-questioning mode, such that I'm having trouble reading books or working on pet-projects, which I genuinely want to focus on. I just feel a great sense of not-knowing with everything. I feel like I'm on the brink of enlightenment, but there's still that last bit of resistance which is causing a lot of doubt and internal pain. I feel like I want to let out emotions, but nothing is arising. I feel dead inside. My heart feels like it's rotting. My intuition tells me that I'm just tired and need to get more rest. I'm a graduate student, so that's already enough business to take care of. I just began a 2-week break from meditation, since beginning the habit 14 months ago. I'm not really sure what else to do. I'm planning for a psychedelic trip soon to 'reset' my mind and experience love, because I feel like I've been having trouble with that dimension as of late. ~

@Rajneeshpuram No end, only game.

This is my first day trying nootropics. I bought from Double Wood Supplements and took the following with my morning smoothie: 300mg Alpha-GPC , 200mg L-theanine, 200mg Sulbutiamine, and 300mg Uridine. Overall the results have been awesome: smooth cognition, sharp memory, and relaxation. However, I noticed jitters and a faster heart-beat on the come-up. Some small jitters remain after 4 hours. Have any other users experienced these side-effects with this stack? Maybe took too much for the first time? Thank you!!

@Meditationdude A fantastic sign that you're doing the work!

You're right, technically the political spectrum is an unbroken continuum. Unfortunately nobody has the ability to speak in non dual terms. Knowing that, you can still use labels like 'right' and 'left,' but in a more conscious way. As long as you know how you're using language, then you're in good shape. Be careful not to generalize. A more accurate way to frame this is that the right is arguing for free speech only if it's about what they value. Their worldview is losing its collective hold, and that's threatening to most conservatives. On the left, people are arguing for higher-conscious values to be fair. The problem is that they fail to recognize that forcing others into their value system doesn't work.

Survival interdependence or octopus devilry?

You mean like this? http://www.fungifun.org/fanaticus/liqueu~1.htm

@SirVladimir Understood. Do you employ this insight as a strategy for deliberately editing your works when you think you've finished? For example, say you finish a writing draft. Do you then take two weeks off, doing something totally unrelated (e.g., drawing mind maps), and then come back to the draft and clean/dress it up to make it more robust? I'm asking, because I'm beginning to write my first ever book/booklet, and I want to make sure that I don't fall into some silly creative-rut. Much love & keep on keeping on, fellow creator! ~

In the city I'm currently living, people are generally pretty green, being eco-conscious and ready to protest something at a moment's notice. However, we have a pretty serious and subtle problem that nobody talks about, which I call "unintended litter." I live in a very windy city, and every Wednesday when people take out their garbage to the curb (in these open bins), the wind topples the bins over and blows the trash all over the place. Although there are implications this brings for the quality of the ecosystem at large (this city borders a large lake which is already polluted), there is a meta-problem to consider: "Whose responsibility is it to clean up?" (At the root, everybody living in this city is responsible for this, because it's a process-related issue. The way we dispose trash is not in congruence with the weather we receive, and therefore not in congruence with what we value: a clean habitat for ourselves and wildlife.) The problem is, how do we get people to become aware and take responsibility so that we can create a better process, as well as clean up what has already been dumped? I've called our mayor's office but haven't heard anything back yet. Even though activism is strong in this city, I have always thought that holding up signs doesn't really do anything to solve any problems. I want to work on a creative solution, but am having trouble creating the right mindset to most effectively get this problem solved. On the one hand, I think it would be cool to design a new process through the creative process. On the other, I want to see if I can work with local government and the I think that so few of us on this forum want to get involved in societal issues, as we are preoccupied with our own development. In a way, I understand that strategy, because the more developed you are, the more effective you can be at solving problems, therefore raising the consciousness of others. However, I think more strongly that the old saying of "chewing bubble gum and walking too" has a place here. What do you think about approaching societal issues such as this one? Looking for inspiration.

Nice post. Can you elaborate more on what you mean by a 'logical/efficiency-driven environment' as opposed to spending time on a project? I'm probably misunderstanding what you mean, but a logical environment sounds tiresome and unbalanced for the mind.

@Swarnim The duality collapse between "being on a psychedelic trip" and normal, mundane life. You can become conscious of the fact that you are literally tripping right now, as you read this, even if you did not pop any mushrooms. I first noticed this while experimenting with psychedelics. I would take say 100ug of LSD. I'd then spend the next hour trying to figure out where the border between tripping and not tripping lie. Now, being a scientist I know that neuroscientists would say, "Well technically it's when x-chemical first hits the 5-HT2A receptor in the brain." But of course, that's different from personal experience; none of us experience receptors or anything like that. You've got to feel for it. What you'll find through experience that it is impossible to tell when you actually start to trip. Sure, you'll start to become conscious of certain feelings. Aha! You cannot, however, distinguish between feelings that were "caused" by the psychedelic versus those you would have had otherwise. I like to describe this "not-knowing of when it starts" experience as an invisible sheet being slowly draped over your head. It feels like something that was there all along, yet you can't remember how it got there or when. More recently, I've been having visual hallucinations, where objects will seemingly 'pop' or 'rise up' into existence when I turn my head to look at them. Also, I've been noticing 'tracers,' which are common when one takes a psychedelic. All of this is sober by the way. At this point, it clicked at an even deeper level that "holy mind-fuck," this trip never ends (or began)!! You are always tripping.

@aurum The used materials that are getting blown around are recyclables (I should have worded that more accurately). But you're right; we dispose of waste far more than we renew and recycle. Would you say that using more reusable personal containers for things like food and hygiene products could be part of the alternative? Many people don't want to sacrifice convenience, but I don't see many other solutions yet. If everybody understood this, ...

@Elevated Agreed. One of the biggest bottlenecks to moving up is shadow material. Fixing the lower will allow the higher to flow in more naturally. Trying to move up with the lower in shambles is like trying to crawl out of a trench during a bloody war!