Ryan R

Member
 View profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    71

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Ryan R

  1. Posted

    "The Axis Mundi: Sacred Sites Where Heaven Meets Earth.

    What do Mount Fuji in Japanese culture, the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, Mecca in Islam, and the Black Hills for the Sioux all have in common? They are all examples of a belief in the axis mundi – a perceived center of the world, where Heaven and Earth are connected. This concept is also known by other names, including the ‘world tree’, the ‘world pillar’, and the ‘cosmic axis’."

    The-Axis-Mundi.jpg

    An example of The World Tree, aka The Tree of Life

    FujiSunriseKawaguchiko2025WP.jpg

    Mount Fuji in Japan.

    Yggdrasil.jpg

    Yggdrasil, The World Ash of the Norse

    Da_Vinci_Vitruve_Luc_Viatour.jpg

    Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man represented a symbolic and mathematical exploration of the human form as world axis.

    https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/axis-mundi-sacred-sites-where-heaven-meets-earth-009464

    https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Axis_Mundi

    https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Axis_mundi

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_mundi

  2. Posted

    The Red and Black Star of the American Friends Service Committee (aka The Peace and Social Witness Star) of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and the closest thing unprogrammed Conservative (Traditional), Liberal, and Nontheist Quakers (all of whom practice the symbolism of no symbolism) have to an (un)official symbol:

    qs3.jpgAFSC_Logos.jpg

    https://www.afsc.org/story/red-and-black-star

    https://smudgyguide.net/quaker-star-badge/

     

  4. Posted

    13 hours ago, Preety_India said:

     

    We need more disclaimers that the teachings here do not promote suicide.

    So a person who connects such teachings to suicide will think twice about it 

    It's extremely irresponsible to take the teachings out of context and blame the suicide on these teachings.

    More warnings in videos and constant disclaimers around these teachings from both Leo and mods 

    For example when someone gives spiritual advice please put disclaimers in paranthesis that it shouldn't be used to cause body harm. This way the blame is not on the forum and the person won't associate such advice with suicide plans.

     

    I second all of these great ideas.

  5. Posted

    On 5/21/2021 at 4:17 AM, Leo Gura said:

     

    Well done. Thanks for this Leo. You made it abundantly clear to critics and those with suicidal ideation alike that this work has nothing to do with harming the body and everything to do with living the good life. You did this without compromising the integrity of the teachings of the Absolute as well. Very direct yet heartfelt, thoroughly, and artfully explained. 

    With the addition of this video to the catalog that truly does contain other cautionary episodes and warnings of traps in many videos, and with your commitment to have even more explicit warnings and disclaimers especially in the advanced work, surely any reasonable person would now be satisfied with the level of care and precaution being taken. As for the unreasonable people, well, haters gonna hate as they say and I concur there simply is no way to completely fool-proof these teachings.

    For the record I love and appreciate mostly everything about Actualized.org. Unlike many it seems, I even like your style, but to be fair I think that's mostly because it's alot like mine was and sometimes still is.

    For a guy just sharing his spiritual journey and philosophical insights on YouTube you are a fine communicator and a great teacher. The improvement in these aspects is clear from your early videos to present. Awesomely profound awakenings and deep wisdom you have down, but if I could offer you any advice it would be to approach your communication and teachings skills as you do awakenings in regards to how you continue to push for progress.

    Don't be satisfied with your current level of instructional ability. Become an ever better communicator and teacher. Sure, you are good to great now, but that's not mastery. In the game a being a masterful spiritual teacher the ability to effectively communicate the teachings is arguably more important than the extreme depths of the teachings themselves because most of those you teach will never work and sacrifice to reach such extreme depths of understanding to be actual God-realized Sages. Basically, superb instructional ability is at least half the job, and it's a very learnable mundane skill set. Some further honing of your communication skills will also go far in aiding you in future interviews, dialogs, and possible debates if you engage in such.

    I look forward to seeing you grow and mature in embodying your teachings and becoming a leader. The world needs more God-realized Sages in leadership. Here's to Being Good Philosopher Kings :)

  6. Posted

    4 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

    Do not fearmonger and spread toxic ideas.

    We are here discussing this issue so people can get closure. This thread is not a license for run hog-wild with crazy ideas. Nobody is here to kill themselves and nothing in these teachings is about that.

    This idea that anything whatsoever in these teachings is even remotely close to suicide needs to end right now. There is no such confusion in the mind of any reasonable or sane person. Please stop spreading such rumors.

    Well said and will do. Take care All :)

  7. Posted

    From what I'm gathering it is unclear to mostly everyone here that with this gentleman's death this community has just entered a kind of dangerzone of becoming a hotbed for suicide contagion. That he did it with so much grace, and because timeless nondual truth has little bad to say about suicide, and because this forum as a place of spiritual exploration and communication is full of diverse people contemplating death (as they should be) including a fair number of emotionally unstable folks, we are ripe for a suicide cluster.

    If you don't know what I'm talking about please google "suicide cluster", "suicide contagion", and "the Werther effect". Sadly, we see this in high-schools all too often. There we can attempt to control the much more manageable environment and offer clinical help to everyone, and still multiple impressionable confused young people take thier lives. There is little chance of halting it here.


    In short folks, this may be the beginning of the end of the forum. The days and weeks to come will tell. It will only take one more, and then there will be a few more. Investigations, lawsuits, all manor of demonization of this work, and a general complete shitshow will follow... Love peace but prepare for war ?

  8. Posted

    15 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

    Showing compassion and understanding to the deceased is not glorification of suicide. 

    Glorification would be if people did not feel sorry or if they cheered such an act and encouraged others to do the same.

    However I didn't see that on the thread. Most people expressed regret that it happened. I don't see this as glorification but condemnation and disappointment expressed in a compassionate way.

     

    I'm not about to take the time to find it all and quote it, but there has been just a bit of shall I say an overly positive response in some posts in regards to this good man's suicide IMHO. Even if I'm completely wrong about that others looking for justification and encouragement to take their own lives may well read what you or I see as compassion as glorification. 

    I read new posts in this forum daily by people toying with the idea to seriously contemplating to truly considering suicide. As I've said, it is an organic part of spiritual development work. In addition self-help and spiritual work draws distraught suicidal people in the first place. This forum if full to the brim of those with death, ego death, and bodily death on their mind.

    I'm willing to be a bit of an asshole and say slightly offensive things if it means keeping even one person reading this thread from thinking suicide is the answer to their worldly and/or spiritual challenges. 

    It's not personal to you, the deceased, his loved ones, or anyone.

  9. Posted

    12 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

    As I told Connor Murphy when he was trying to tell me that I was afraid of his crazy antics, I told him to make a distinction between fear and caution.

    If some self-help book tells you to be fearless, does that mean you should disable the break peddle in your car?

    You see how easy it is to take an innocent piece of advice such as: "Be fearless" and twist it into: "So I should never use the break peddle and never use condoms."

    It's very hard to make advice that fool-proof.

    I hear ya Leo. I normally draw the distinction between being fearless and reckless. If courage or fearlessness causes one to completely abandon all concern for consequences then it is at least also, if not completely, stupidity. As with mostly everything finding balance by wisdom and right judgment is the key to being appropriately fearless, but you know that.

  11. Posted

    7 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

    We actually don't know this.

    Maybe it was lack of fear. If one completely ignores all fear, and all caution, there is little stopping you from jumping off a bridge.

    Fear is there for a reason: to keep you alive.

    This is of course correct, but if we tell all of these nice seekers this some of both the fearless and the fragile ones may go throw themselves off bridges and such. People be impressionable and crazy you know, lol :)

  12. Posted

    The fact of the matter is that the contemplation of suicide simply goes with the territory of spiritual development. It is a challenge that most every serious seeker must wrestle with and transcend, and some will face it long-term and/or repeatedly; and some will fail to win Freedom without falling bodily by their own hand. This is the case in all awakening work in every tradition and type of teaching. Absolute Life is what we aspire to and to become One with it we must face relative death. To well understand that this is Not a Call or a Cause to Commit Suicide even in the darkest night of the soul when it is very tempting is why a strong disciplined mind must be developed before undertaking hard-core spiritual practices of any sort, including with psychedelics.

    It is important that everyone here recognize that the path to enlightenment is both beautifully light and dark. It is strewn with the dead in traps that can bind and snare and kill you too both metaphorically and literally. Learn well the lesson SoonHei died to teach us.
    His death must be firmly condemned least we risk it being glorified and worse case scenario such death becomes a theme here. It gives me no pleasure to say he was a deluded fool, a victim of his own spiritualized ego, and it ended his life out of pure fear disguised as lofty spirituality. Know that for a minor turn of fate it could have happened to any of us. Those who Know know it did happen to us. It is loss. It is pain. It is grief and hardship and remorse. Be wise. Learn from this mistake and don't repeat it.

  13. Posted

    @Muhammad Jawad

    My condolences to you and all those who loved and were loved by Sunny.

    You doing alright mentally and emotionally all things considered Muhammad? See the thing is when our "best and only friend" kills themselves sometimes we are next in line.

    Are you having any suicidal thoughts? Do you have a support system, family, a therapist, or clergy you can turn to? If not, and even if so, maybe seek out a local suicide prevention phone number wherever in the world you are. If you have even a hint of seriously contemplating suicide after this crisis and tragedy of Sunny's, please get help and talk to someone immediately. It is not weakness to have such thoughts nor to seek help. It is courageous to be self honest and seek assistance in preserving life.

  14. Posted

    3 hours ago, SQAAD said:

    @Ryan R

    His position is that it's not accurate to call God any names whatsoever because of non-duality and because every concept collapses.

    But i disagree with him. Let's imagine that God is just pure ''white'' .  I understand that ''white'' gets all its meaning from everything that is non-white. White is constrasted against everything that is non-white.

    Nevertheless i think that in my scenario where God is just 'white' it would be appropriate to call him 'white'. The color would remain the same no matter how we called it. We could call it whatever but the color of God would not change.

    Same is for intelligence. Intelligence is all there is. It is like height. We can say that we lack height (we're short) or have too much height (we're tall) but still height is the case.

    I could not get him to agree with me on that. It seems to me that he doesn't really appreciate what God is.. 

    @SQAAD

    I read you are from an Athens. If you and your friend are from The Athens then surely you are familiar with the "Logos" of the ancient Greek and less ancient Christian worlds. This divine reason or logic responsible for the creation and continuity of the cosmos that is at One in all relative reality even as it monistically transcends relative reality, the Logos is active as spirit and reason always in the Now, the Absolute Intelligence of the Universe, the Mind that is and of God.


    It's a brilliant, useful, and truthful concept this divine Logos that I largely subscribe to. It is a concept that exists in a similar fashion in various wisdom traditions as philosophy or theology from many diverse cultures, yet it is always a concept when I venture from Being It into expressing It.


    I could spend a long human lifetime, a hundred Earth years, studying and describing the Intelligence of God and yet I would not begin to do it justice. Will my descriptions be wholly accurate? No, of course not. Will my descriptions be more accurate than if I completely denied the Logos altogether? Yes, and only slightly so considering the impossibility of describing Infinite Intelligence from a seemingly limited form in limited space-time.


    So you see your friend is arguably correct in an asinine semantics word-games sort of  way, but clearly incorrect from the Awareness of Being the Logos. Again, this really is not complicated. Is the creature your friend imagines himself to be intelligent to any degree? If yes then he has direct cognition (also intelligence, and now we are going meta as well), qualitative emperical evidence, the best standard of proof personally available to him, for the existence of the Intelligence of God regardless of how he chooses to label it.

  15. Posted

    @SQAAD

    I've had this talk many times because while God is seldom mentioned in some of my circles I insist to my friends that the Universe is Intelligent. A claim to which they often scoff. Then I simply ask them if they consider themselves at all intelligent. They never fail to answer yes and that makes my point and concludes the argument.

    Incidentally this is an excellent way to drive the point home and open great conversation with rational materialists as to how they are the Universe and not separate from it as they so often surprisingly have never before considered. 

    Your non-dual friend should have at least some concept that he is God, the Universe, You, Albert Einstein, and every intelligent agent that ever seemingly lived, and If he believes himself to be at all intelligent, that Intelligence is the (terribly dumbed down in his case, lol) Intelligence of God on evident display. 

  16. Posted

    @fopylo

    8 hours ago, fopylo said:

     

    This still doesn't explain why would he post on his blog letting all of us know he is watching porn. Isn't he trying to fix this problem? Even more importantly, which could shift perspective - does it seem like he considers it a problem (the healer's wound) ? If no then what you said doesn't mean anything

    Dude, if you cannot find the absolute divine Beauty expressed through beautiful human forms then you likely cannot find it anywhere. If coitus and depictions of coitus, acts of "making love", acts as powerful as two becoming one in procreation, the art of two intensely becoming one in ecstacy, if this is what you project evil upon, demonize, and get hung up on, brother, you have alot of work to do. :)

  17. Posted

    It's now been approximately 68 hours since I received the second round of the Pfizer vaccine. I'm happy to report my body has experienced next to no symptoms whatsoever from this second shot. The first round, while very tolerable, was far worse in the way it caused stiffness, aching, and fatigue. I detect ever so slight similar symptoms from this second round, but they are not even 1/20th as bad. Once again no arm soreness at all (arm soreness is the most commonly reported symptom I've observed reported). From what I've gathered my experience is uncharacteristic in that if most people experience side effects at all the worse symptoms are from the second round rather than the first.

    Anyhow, this is my report. I hope it is helpful. 

  19. Posted · Edited by Ryan R
    Ryan need git words write fixed as is not are.

    In my humble opinion Leo is exceedingly patient and kind. He deals with more fools in a day than many teachers deal with in a lifetime. I imagine it's only the distance provided by cyberspace and his ability to functionality turn the fools off at will that keeps him from just retiring to a remote retreat for years. Thousands of people ask him the same ignorant questions over and over while all kinds of naysayers, trolls, and grifters use him for their selfish egoic fulfillment. He said in that survival video not long ago that people thanking and praising him was counterproductive for his ego dissolution. Well, all the abuse and nonsense he endures must then be quite beneficial to the opposite effect so at least there is that benefit. He displays great tolerance for dumbassery, and I admire and pity him at the same time for this.

    Leo is kind because as an agent of Truth he has the integrity to not bullshit us... much, lol. He is one of the most blatantly honest and forthright nondual teachers I've encountered. It takes balls to openly make the claims he makes on such a scale on a public platform. Many a teacher wouldn't do it at all and if they did they would purposely hide behind cryptic riddles, half truths, and pay walls that could weed out many of the fools. Actualized.org is the gift that keeps on freely giving and so many are so ungrateful for it. 

    Anyone that thinks Leo is "mean" or somesuch just needs to grow up, but then to facilitate that is his intention. I just wish he could reach through the screen and hit like half his audience with a stick :)

  20. Posted

    3 hours ago, Striving for more said:

    Aluminum : Mentioned in ACC guide as toxic heavy metal

    I use roll on anti pesrpirant, so I have been rubbing aluminum on to my armpits twice a day?

    Why is this legal?

    What is a natural deoderant & anti persperant. 

    I've been happily using Arm and Hammer Essentials for years. It's aluminum, parabens, phthalates, colorants, and animal by-product free. It comes in unscented (if you can find it) and a considerable variety of scents all from essential plant oils and extracts. The stick is sodium stearate, glycols, and water based; aka gentle moisturizer soap. This "deoderant" is actually dry use moisturizer soap scented with essential oils and with some baking soda thrown in. Be aware it is water soluble and while it works great all day in a climate controlled to warm environment, if you are laboring in the hot sun or going for a run the stuff basically melts off.

    Besides working well except when getting really wet, the best things about it is it's readily available at most drugstores and superstores (Walmart has a limited scent selection but the cheapest price around here at $2.50) and it's Very affordable compared to it's healthy "natural" and "organic" competitors. 

    If you go looking for it be sure you get "Essentials" as Arm and Hammer also makes normal metals filled less healthy deoderants.

  21. Posted

    @HereToLearn

    It's funny, over the years when I have discussed awakening and enlightenment with people, friends and family even who know me well, one of their first inclinations is nearly always to ask about miracle working and "magic". So many on this forum and mostly everywhere this work is taught or touched upon are hung up on such things as well. Apparently a main draw for the ego to engage in spiritual development is this kind of turning crap into gold, making the body immortal, and good old levitation, etc.

    The wild thing is I can neither confirm nor deny the foolishness of such ambitions. Many years ago after my first major awakening my motto was "anything is possible, but many things are improbable in our collective objective reality". Some years later I gave up the concept of our collective objective reality along with any hopes of my legitimate knowledge of probabilities of seeming phenomenon, so now it's just, "anything is possible". Best wishes in getting your "Admin" privileges, but do remember in the relative world You have a body perfectly capable of serving Creation. 

    Great sensitivity to the suffering of others is a phase. It's fine, a healthy component of development even, so long as you don't get stuck in it. Don't overshoot on this axis and get stuck in the other direction of "Others don't exist, so why even care" either. Find a balance between the Absolute and relative world that fits You as a human Being. You will likely go through other phases were "nothing matters :(", "it's all just an illusion :(", and other attempted negative spins on Truth by the selfish egoic "I'm God almighty so bow before me and my uncanny ability to not give two shits!" ideology. Don't get stuck half-assing enlightenment (becoming a Zen Devil or a Wild Fox) or thinking you're done when you haven't even really begun. 

    Do stick with your inclination for Love. It will serve You well through the ups and downs of your personal and spiritual journey. 

    Take care :)

  22. Posted · Edited by Ryan R
    Edited for simple spelling errors because awakening doesn't completely remedy dyslexia.

    @HereToLearn

    The basic Stoic teaching on this is:

    1. Take nothing personal, not praise and accomplishment nor insult and injury, and certainly not the suffering of yourself or others.
    2. Have only compassionate sympathy (defined here as feeling "for", ie attention listening helping and comforting for the suffering), but not empathy (defined here as feeling "with", ie crying screaming breaking down with the suffering), for All including yourself.

    3. To have empathy is to add suffering, Your own, to the world. To have sympathy is to subtract suffering, Your own and seemingly others, from the world.

    For my part I draw a clear distinction between suffering seemingly of others observable in my own direct area of bodily influence (like witnessing a painful trauma of someone next to me) vs remote images and stories (like seeing a tragedy reported on the news or the mind's imagining poverty or slavery a world away, etc.). For suffering in my direct area of influence I grant All considerable sympathy in the moment. I generally take no seemingly remote suffering seriously enough for more than slight sympathy.

    This distinction is because I can give of myself to those in my immediate bodily area of influence in that moment. Remote suffering is outside my actionable influence in the moment, but if within awareness it is  therefore still in my ability to judge or label it as I see fit, including to not judge or label it at all. This does not mean I do not note it or that I do not care, but seeming suffering in the media or only in conventional imagination cannot cause me suffering when immediate in my face suffering cannot cause me suffering when even my own "personal" suffering cannot really cause me suffering. I have at most only sympathy in all circumstances and sympathy is suffering free.

    And that is the long and short of it my friend: to what degree you find best serves you stop projecting suffering period, and you will cease to experience most or even all suffering. Do not feel with the suffering world, but for the suffering world, and focus only on what you can seemingly control in the moment not to suffer from the suffering of others, but to be a balm for the suffering. 

    How? For starters realize that quality comedy is often authored by tragedy. Gallows humor (a dark disgustingly fun humor) is possessed, largely as a coping mechanism, by those who deal professionally with extreme suffering all day (ER staff, paramedics, cops, funeral home staff, fire departments, etc). Focus on thinking creativly outside the box of the box's box to find the up side of anything that gets you down, and when that fails, find the funny in the painful, perverse, and downright depressing. Use gallows humor or even a transcendent version of it (some might say Life is divine comedy, Nothing but a joke.... man plans and God laughs, etc.) and stop taking suffering so seriously.

    Lastly, contrary to, or for an easier journey in conjunction with, all the wise scheming above please know you can embrace suffering to the point of empathizing ego to death if you can take the pain. You can transcend yourself and suffering can be transformed as/by/in Love. How? Start by watching lots of Actualized.org videos and actually take the action steps prescribed therein. Keep growing past all this suffering is causing me suffering stuff then transcend these ideas altogether. 

  23. Posted

    6 hours ago, SASAM said:

     

    @Leo Gura

    Still trying to figure out how viruses are real when brains are not.

    Not trying to be a 'hoaxer'; just joined this forum to exchange with people who were trying to understand the ultimate verities of life; who were interested in deep metaphysical truth. I would've thought a convo like this would be a bit different here.

    @SASAM Have you watched Leo's most recent blog post titled "Sherlock Holmes' Brain"? It may help clarify what all this "brains aren't real" stuff is about.

    I understand your perspective. I too see fear as a primary motivator for mostly everyone in regards to mostly everything, and most definitely in relation to this pandemic. This is obvious. And yes, "society" is hypocritical at large because we are all hypocrites to some degree. So what?? I too put little trust in most modern western medicine, yet I understand it has it's place. Just because science locked in the materialist paradiem is narrow-minded and shortsighted does not mean it's completely useless, especially when we operate in the material world with things like disease and the science and technology that surround disease prevention. 

    If I found thoughts coming to me as you post here, the first thing I would do is examine these thoughts for logical fallacies. I would conclude that points on carcinogenic meats and infant circumcision are red herrings because neither of these deal with infectious disease. If I painfully cut my children and feed them bacon it won't in any remotely direct way set off a chain of events that maims or kills even a single one of my other friends, family, or neighbors. 

    Fear! They are all so afraid, of death, of loss, of lockdowns, they are all so afraid of fear itself!... But what am I afraid of? What does my seeing of so much fear say about the thoughts I am experiencing?

    Hypocrites all!... But can I find my own hypocracy?

    I would conclude that I am afraid of these Covid-19 vaccines. I would conclude that my own hypocracy lies in my making all these convoluted excuses including trumpeting "Freedom!" out of nothing more or less than fear. I hypocritically regurgitate "brains aren't real" to justify why viruses aren't real and therefore "i" shouldn't get vaccinated, all the while failing to realized that neither i nor vaccines are "real". I take my personal selfish self and my personal selfish rights oh-so-seriously, but viruses aren't real because brains aren't, and my personal selfish self finds all this delusion very convenient and comforting. Prehaps the next time I get a bill I will simply tell the payee neither they nor my bill are real! Wow, I can use this methodology to get out of work, tickets, severe life-threatening injuries, and most everything!... Oh wait, that's right, I'm a selfish deluded fearful hypocrite without a brain, and somehow I confused this with embodying God-consciousness. Oh well, that's Life :) Lessons lived, lessons learned.

    ....

    That's something like how my own self examination might go. For the record I wasn't thrilled to get vaccinated but I did it anyway out of care for Creation and humanity. I wasn't afraid, but I understand how some could be. I do care for freedom, including the freedom of people to opt out from vaccinations for any reason they see fit, but that doesn't mean I think highly of such egoic fearful selfishness.