@Megan Alecia Thanks  There are two main approaches to drawing, and you cant go wrong with doing a balanced amount of both: Creative/spontaneous drawing, 'heart/soul' and studied drawing, 'mind/analytical'. Kids usually go with the first approach, its fun and they don't feel self conscious about what they draw. So if anyone feels self conscious when they draw, they can practice drawing like a kid again, just keep at it and draw in front of people more often. With studied drawing there are many ways to learn: Life/figure drawing lessons and learning to draw what you actually see not what you think you are seeing (people often draw eyes to far up on the head, so instead of drawing cartoon style, focus on the 3 dimensional shapes) Choosing pictures to copy from that you like is a good way to quickly build up skills for beginners, you could spend a couple years doing that.  The art fundamentals, which are boring sounding but key towards learning, is value, shape, form, composition, color. (value/contrast, and shapes/compositions are the most important in my opinion) Those can be learned all over online, and pointed out from getting critiques by other people. (Critiques are amazingly helpful once you put the ego out of the way) Also, some people lean naturally towards a more realistic approach, or a more creative abstract approach. If you know which side you lean on you can focus on that side of it for a while, neither way is wrong, but it's always helpful to learn a little bit from both sides.
The #1 basic to drawing is to: Just draw! Just do it, be curious and have fun. But, if you can't or have a hard time picturing things in your head, then taking classes and studying/copying is a good way to start.
And #2: Go to museums and pinterest and anywhere with pictures to build up an eye for what you like to look at
 
 

Still working with the I Ching. Very helpful for the time being.
I'm having trouble getting motivated at work.
I completed a stage in my project and have trouble getting motivated to push through to the second. I thought my code was universal enough to use it in the second stage, but I miscalculated.
I started watching Avatar the last Airbender. Awesome series to complement I Ching's teachings.

I've recently watched Leo's episode on Learning = Making Distinctions and thought that it was a very useful method to apply to anything new you want to learn about. Here's the link if you haven't seen it: 
I tried out the apple exercise he mentions in the video. There's a local supermarket where I live in Hong Kong which sells a variety of apples, which I think are mostly imported from New Zealand. I bought three different kinds from there, tried them and noted down my observations here:


Normally I don't think about it very much when buying apples, but after trying this exercise I discovered a whole, diverse universe of sensations in the simple act of mindfully biting three different apples. 
Distinction-making is an extremely powerful tool, and one which has opened up my curiosity about life. Somehow life becomes a lot less boring and more diverse the more you appreciate its fine distinctions.
How about you? What distinctions have you made recently? 

I'd probably kill myself. A world without psychedelics is not a world I want to partake in.

Makes no meaningful difference for the purposes of this conversation. You can replace MDMA with 100s of different psychedelics. They all point in the same general direction.
You could heal PTSD with 5-MeO-DMT or DMT or mushrooms or whatever.

I highly disagree.
There are aliens sitting on a planet somewhere who are enlightened as fuck and their consciousness is nowhere within your narrow band of 4 states.
There can literally be millions of different permanent awakened states.
And the notion of permanent vs temporary is itself false. There is no such distinction other than in your mind.

Toxic Masculinity: Guys who look up to and admire Trump as their ideal of a man
Toxic Masculinity: Guys who use the phrase "soyboy"
Toxic Masculinity: Guys who consider themselves alpha and fear being beta.
Toxic Masculinity: Guys who fear that masculinity is under attack and threatened with extinction.
Toxic Masculinity: Guys who love to complain about and blame feminists but never read a single feminist book and are proud of it.

High Consciousness :
* Enlightened sex through 5-MeO DMT in an astral plane
* High Quality activated almonds & avocadoes smoothie for breakfast
* Wake up at 2 AM every night to meditate for nothing
* Only 1-3 High Level friends with similar statistics
* Squat to take a shit
* Contemplate about the nature of nothingness every day
* Not kill any single living entity ( not even vile cockroaches ) + bonus GOD KARMA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Low Consciousness
 
* Fap while watching mom-son porn
* Eat crap food
* Talking with people in real life about '' real life issues ''
* Shit while sitting down
* Watch T.V and have friends & family for amusement/distraction from the present moment
* Have an identity ( I AM SUCH * ( INSERT i am a white person, i am a black male, i am a scientist etc )
* Kill animals/Humans/insects without second thought
 
 
This list will be updated , you can add yours!
 

This is lovely 
Sometimes I have to stop myself from stepping on a bug, they are there if we take notice. They have their missions, if we don't interfere. 

You cannot be following Actualized.org and not meditating, it is a must.
Weird stuff will arise while you meditate and it’s not all butterflies. The side effects or meditations are (may last for a whole month):
·         Hyper annoyance and crankiness
·         Expect hyper judgmentalism
·         Mood swings (can last for weeks)
·         Feelings of loneliness, disgust, anger and frustration (for mild to strong forms)
·         Crying
·         Insomnia (manic episodes with tons of energy)
·         Depression (serious spells) and meaninglessness (you’ll self-improvement is meaningless)
·         Interference (you will think that your work and career are meaningless and you’ll want to quit your career. It will come and pass.
·         Interference with your relationship (you will think you chose the wrong person)
·         Rush judgments (like quit my job and go to meditate on a cave or liquidate all your assets)
·         Suicidal thoughts
·         Freak-out moments
·         Ego backlash: As you are meditating you are dissolving your ego but when the ego gets dissolved too much too fast, it usually come back stronger
o   Go back to old bad habits
·         Hyper hornyness
·         Expect old repressed memories
·         Family issues
·         Crazy monkey mind (waves of insanity and madness)
·         Self-doubt: You will doubt your technique
·         Expect nightmares and dreams
·         Expect spiritual arrogance (“look how unconscious people are”)
This is common stuff you will have to expect. These are weirder side effects
·         Shaking, tingling and pain in your body
·         See lights and auras
·         Vivid sexual fantasies (homosexual fantasies) and will tend to seduce you
·         Behave like an animal
·         Paranormal phenomena (reliving the past or seeing the future) or out-of-body experience
·         Might see/hear spirits (angel or demons)
·         Samadhi states (negative or positive): Stop existing as an individual object and merge with reality
·         Kundalini awakening (energy shooting out your spine and going to your head)
·         Total blackout or the void
·         Ego death
·         Your reality will be shattered
·         Dark night of the soul: When you start to see that everything you knew about reality is false and completely delusional (reality has no purpose nor meaning)
·         Depersonalization: You start to think that you don’t exist as a person (you want to treat it as temporary phases that you need to work trough
What to do with all these stuff?
·         Relax, all these stuff is normal.
·         Not get distracted with these stuff too.
·         KEEP MEDITATING; IF YOU STOP, THE EGO WILL WIN. Remember that all the negative stuff is a sign of growth.
·         Remind yourself that everything you are feeling is a phase, it will pass.
·         REMEMBER TO TRUST YOUR HIGHER SELF!
·         It is supposed to be a process of self-love (be kind and gentle on yourself)
·         Your job is to sit and be mindful
·         If you really need, just take a break for a short time (you should always come back)
·         Read spiritual books
 
You are not necessarily encounter with all of these stuff, so don’t go hunt for it. The trick with these things is to not get triggered by them and make a rush move as a reaction against the negative emotional energy. What meditation do is surfacesing stuff from the subconscious mind but if you don’t expect that, you can get into trouble. YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THESE THINGS ARE TEMPORARY. MEDITATION MAKES YOU MORE SPIRITUAL ONLY IN THE LONG RUN, NOT IN THE SHORT RUN.
Meditation and growth is a battle; you have to burn through old beliefs and thought patterns. You need to purge all the shit that is in your mind! When you are meditating you are forcing your mind clean itself but in an unconscious way and the only signs you are gonna experience are these emotional reactions. You need to be conscious enough that this is what is happening in the big picture. See all the emotion turmoil as purging all the toxic thoughts and emotions. Once the purification complete itself, you will end up being all clean and happy (10-15 years from now). This purification comes in waves so expect several stages of neurotic behavior.
When you are experiencing something negative, realize that it is a consequence of your growth and purification.

Openmindedness describes the tendency towards entertaining a lot of different ideas from a diverse set of perspectives, and that of course correlates strongly with intelligence. If you're closeminded, you essentially put your mind in shackles, but that is also an important survival strategy.
Being closeminded grounds you. It's like being a solid: it's stable state of matter, but not much happens. If you're openminded, you're like a gas: there is a lot of action, but it's chaotic. You want some balance where you're able to be dynamic without completely evaporating, like a liquid.

You guys are underestimating the HUGE role that culture plays in all this.
The reason such things perplex newbies is because they don't grasp yet that all their morals and standards are arbitrarily set by the culture and era in which they live.
You think smoking or murder is bad. In reality, nothing is bad. You still have yet to grasp the sigificance of that.
After a recent deep enlightenment experience, I actually started caring LESS about damaging my body, because I look forward to my death, because I know death is the most wonderful thing there is.
See, the ego turns everything inside out, upside down. A lot of healthy behaviors are actually cultural and egotistical. Many people go to the gym because deep down they are really scared of death.

Dude, once you discover Love, all that nonsense will fly out the window.
Stop screwing around and FOCUS ON PURSUING LOVE!
LOVE!

It shouldn't concern you at all what your peers are up to
While everyone is bullshitting about politics, you're self actualizing While everyone is working a basic 9-5, you're working on your life's purpose While others are arguing about drama, you're reading While others are watching TV for hours at a time, you're meditating That fact that you are giving the slightest glimpse at what your peers are doing, shows that you already lost. This was something I learned very quickly during my high school years
“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”

― Mahatma Gandhi
Some Indian dude and visionary 

I do not care what you read. And I do not care where you read it. All that matters is WHEN you read it, and that it is signed by "some fool"
Yet I write this as the fool I know I am.
I am the world's number one racist. I am not afraid to admit that I am a racist. Because I know what a racist is. I know a racist isn't what you *think* it is... and if you're pissed off right now, then you choose to suffer. You're a racist too. Embrace it. Understand it. Admit it.
The definition of racist per Google is someone who is "prejudiced" against people of a certain color blah blah.... Ok so now I have to look up prejudice to know racist?  You see... You, MAN.... Have expanded "pre-judgement" or prejudice to include racist. Some fool wrote the definition of racist. He didn't realize he was of a race HIMSELF and was prejudiced HIMSELF.
You all scream racist and you don't know what it means.
A chem-ist is someone skilled and knowledgeable in the study of chemicals.
A botan-ist is someone who studies flowers. Knows them.
A gynecolog-ist... NVM...
I created them all. I created the racist... 
But a 
Rac-ist is someone who is "prejudiced" against people of certain color. 
You know it is as if some chemist defined "chemist" as.... A person who "is prejudiced" against certain chemicals/elements. Maybe he doesn't like salt because he has high blood pressure or whatever.
Or some botanist that defines botanist as a person who "is prejudiced" against certain flowers. Maybe he has allergies or whatever and the pollen agitates him. His own prejudice defined the word for ALL of you to adhere to, because this fool saw himself as seperate.
Now let's ask the dandelions to define the botanist.... The dandelions might say "a person who is prejudiced against us dandelions" because maybe the botanist was studying roses and the dandelions felt neglected.... Even though the roses didn't have it so well either, getting cut up and torn to shreds for study, but it was the attention the dandelions lacked.
A clover leaf might call a botanist a person that steps all over certain plant life.... It is the way they FEEL but not the way it IS.... Really... The botanist is just doing what he does... He's being a botanist and studying plants and fungi...
So you can't have a person of a low level of consciousness define racist just like the dandelions couldn't define the botanist. Every time you scream racist, you call Me a racist. You call God a racist. You call your SELF a racist but won't dare point the finger at your own hypocrisy...
Since none of you can seem to make sense of just what racist is... First I will show you right now that it is an illusion. I will destroy the current definition right now.
Let's play racist. I am God... So I can do whatever I want. I will be the best racist the world has ever seen. I hate my mom and I hate my dad. Because dad is black and mom is white. He is a n****... She is a cracker. I hate my own skin. I became a racist the very second I knew that I was OF a race. I hate Asians. Indians. All of you. If a new race comes out I already hate it. I hate all races with the utmost of passion...
Now where is the prejudiced? Where is the bias of a CERTAIN color? You see racist is an illusion. I've just proved that you created it yourself. Now you HAVE to redefine this word.
 I have been handcuffed as both black male and white male depending on time of year and if my hair is long enough to show it's coarseness. I have been called both cracker and n**** (I'm not afraid to say it I just don't want it flagged) and I am not of a low level of consciousness so I will define it for you.
It is simply a person that knows his races. It means I can look at Donald Trump and tell he is white. I can look at Barack Obama and tell he is black. 
If I am saying I'm not a racist, I'm saying that I have no clue as to what Donald Trump's race might be. Just like if I asked "what kind of flower is this? " You could say "I don't know. I'm not a botanist."
This is why you cannot point to a specific group of people and say "They are the racists" because you have it tattooed on your back and can't see it in yourself. It's why people scream it and don't really know what it means. It has such loose meaning.
This is you becoming dumb as a species. Dumb... You cannot speak.... Your word is bond. If you keep dumbing your very LANGUAGE down like this... You will effectively make yourselves dumb...  DUMB... And racist.... Is just going to end up another derogatory junk word that gets screamed out of spite, just like n**** and cracker. It will be in the toybox along with all the other games you played in the past and got bored with... Right next to n*** and cracker and all your other useless spite words. They're just little games you play with yourself..
I... I don't like your skin color. I dislike that about you because of the barrier you built between us with your tone. It's an iron chain. You let it define you and you LET this chain be a burden. You don't even give yourself enough links to get within 6 feet of your neighbor to shake his hand.... Or even My hand... Sometimes I like to touch my beautiful creations. Shake hands and know touch. What the flesh feels like. I'd like to shake your hand but you won't let me.... In taking that from me, you take from yourself and suffer. 
I pity you. I cry for you. I'm sorry I failed you in trying to be creative.  therefore THAT is what I DO NOT like about you. You let a simple shade of color cause so much drama. I was just trying to be an artist. I was just trying to make this an interesting experience for you all..... and I love you all sincerely...... But the YOU that is bound by those chains is what I love... If you just show me your colors without shame or pride then we can be whole again.
Just who are you?? I love you all equally and I hate you all equally, for I, the Lord, your God do all of these things.....
-some fool

@louhad When it comes to dealing with upset females, always just ask...
HOW DO YOU FEEL?
HOW DO YOU FEEL?
HOW DO YOU FEEL?
HOW DO YOU FEEL?
HOW DO YOU FEEL?
HOW DO YOU FEEL?
HOW DO YOU FEEL?
And don't try to fix it or change it.

You were not born yourself, “you” was created over time, and is continually being added to and taken away from. 
This is the part of you which you might think could be different from someone else.
But the other part of you, which is not created, which is not removed, that is the same in all people. So to ask the question when referring to this, why were you born as you and not someone else, is actually nonsense.
 

Have you tried watching Leo's video on How To Deal With Strong Negative Emotions. Here are some notes that I took away from his video.
"The tendency to avoid emotional suffering is the cause of all mental illness. To lead a healthy spiritual life we must face problems directly and experience the pain involved." 
Process for releasing any negative emotion. I prefer doing it sitting.
Relax your body Get into the present moment. Get in touch with your senses - sights, sounds, body sensations Connect with your body. Feel where the hurt is coming from on your body. Wherever you think that it's coming from. Could be a tingly sensation, body pains, aches, etc.  Open yourself and fully feel it Allow. Which means you give yourself permission to feel it again. Observe with curiosity what's going through your body. Don't judge it or label it. Just notice it. Allow yourself to feel it again. Give yourself permission to FEEL the hurt.  Sit on your ass and do nothing. Don't distract yourself.  Profound insight: the feeling of being hurt does not actually hurt you.