BlueOak

Just make sure you get a wide selection of vegetables and don't overcook them. Steam them so more of what you need still exists. If you can eat the occasional raw vegetable do it, if not get some salads too. If you are going to fry all your veg, grill or overcook them then yes I imagine that is where people get into problems.

I am a vegan bodybuilder that finds it hard to keep his weight down when I am not doing three or four days of exercise a week. I am living proof you can be both a bodybuilder, or fat, and a vegan. Its mostly down to how many carbs you have and portion size. I have been extremely thin when I was detoxing and on a raw diet, back to the weight I was as a teen training for my blackbelt, but I was in good health. My aim is to go back to my raw diet at some point, with the usual vegan protein supplement and maybe some tweaking to it. However I can also guarantee I get much less sick than I did as a meat-eater, and my overall appearance makes me look about 10 years younger than I am, more when I am on raw foods. I should add I've been a vegan, with a wide vegetable intake, since 2011 ish. So plenty of experiential evidence from my own life.

If you are going to put stupid statements like that into a message and send it to thousands of people that often have no connection to you, you have to accept you are going to trigger emotions and responses. They may be having a bad day, had bad experiences which would trigger that, they don't know you well enough to know you are joking, or what your intent was, etc. Its not like you are sitting at home with friends or at a bar, joking around with people that know you well. He's working for a newspaper that's entire business and image are created through words, and he's just cost the paper some money. So his boss suspended him for being dumb. Outside of that it's all he said she said identity politics. Yes she's obviously had an emotional response to this, maybe some guy treated her like dirt and this has brought up some emotion related to it, we don't know. That's the point on internet platforms, you are reaching many eyes in so many different walks of life and states of mind, you have to expect all kinds of responses and consider what you type in public roles. It just so happened it was someone he worked with, and perhaps for all we know has a history with, responded which made the situation more difficult for him. As to what I thought, it was a stupid joke and bipolar disorder or sexuality is not a fun thing to joke about, neither needs to be in comedy to make yourselves feel good.

I want to counter my own point above to you give both sides of it: Should you talk about obvious frivolous lies and give them energy, or leave them. I used to always say leave them. Leaving them doesn't waste your time/focus which could be used on something productive, but it does isolate people into their own reality bubbles more, so when you do interact with them there is more division and friction. I suppose there has to be a middle ground where it's worth a word, then to be left alone.

There was a time spirituality was more loving certainly and in the race for authenticity we've changed what spirituality is. Being more loving is in part being more open-minded. Not agreement, people mix this up, but open to listen. If you want to see that reflected in your own reality start being more loving yourself. I love how authentic Leo and modern spirituality have become because I can practically use more conscious knowledge in my everyday life. I want spiritually to reflect more love (open-mindedness) back as well. Leo has recently done a few videos on love which I am grateful for, I've yet to watch the latest one but I plan to soon. I tried to generate the feeling of gratitude now which is easy, love is harder but I got a few seconds of it. Which now means that reflects in the reality around me from this conversation.

Every interaction changes society, even this one. So don't think anything is completely hopeless. I listed a few methods like minimalism moving us away from materialism slowly, and I would add the various websites trying to offer news as a summary of all channels to prevent division as well to that. There is a helpful website that rates media bias for example, these things are in their infancy still but they weren't there at all last decade. A more positive way to look at it might be, that change isn't easy, and if you are a progressive your job isn't meant to be easy. You are pushing a tide or ahead of the wave as it were. At the moment the pendulum of liberal to authoritarian is still swinging to authoritarian, though Russia's authoritarian vs democratic war, and the backlash to the abortion laws in America have thankfully halted that a bit. For large-scale change, I would say Oeaohoo sums it up well. If you can work out how to get people to care as much about a large issue like the environment as they do personality politics, what someone is wearing, what words they used, etc. Then you've gone a long way to facilitating what you want. Politics is entirely focused on anything that doesn't cost billionaires money. Any issue can be debated that doesn't cost a cent/penny. It can be serious like racism/abortion or it can be frivolous like clothing/wordplay, because none of that matters to a billionaire's bottom line. A favorite of the system is to build politicians up and rip them down, because again none of that matters to a billionaire, and if you are engaged in that drama outside of an immediate election you are completely wasting your time. Power is where power is, and protesting politicians is like appealing to middle management for a change, when it's in the hands of the billionaires calling the shots. Though the second you actually begin to protest billionaires or their interests, you find yourself shut down quicker than you can blink, banned off youtube/google etc. Laws are specifically in place to shield them. When I was making too many waves, I got some attention like that and plenty of people have been banned or harassed for the same. The power they wield over the population is only growing as the wealth gap does, because money is power for the most part in western societies. Funnily, there are many people who want to defend billionaires and defend this power gap. You have to get past that wall before you can even address the issue itself of getting people to care about something other than instant gratification.

The figurehead has to reflect what society expects or accepts else there is civil unrest. So while I could say a country's leadership is inverted from my perspective, if the people there accept that governance then I would be giving myself fully to my own bias. By changing what people accept or expect you change what leadership they will have. There is always a greater perspective to have, and I will always expand mine. I assign meaning to what you say and then react to myself. Everything is contained within the mind, and the mind itself is a concept of consciousness. So there is only consciousness that is shaped and changed by every interaction by every person on earth. When it is time and I've learned what I need to, that definition will improve again. Gratitude for the discussion and your time/energy it was interesting to interact with a different and conscious perspective. All the best. @Oeaohoo

Here: Daily interactions can initiate social change, just two people speaking or interacting refines it. Many movements are entirely benign, they just tend to be slower and so harder to spot or see the contrast. Material reasons are not necessarily bad either, if people miss all the more subtle reasons, material reasons are then brought into focus. Pyramids imply status over others to me and maybe that's my bias. When governance is separated from financial wealth or benefits aside from just doing their best for the people they are governing, it's no different from any job. Whereas with kings you had wealth power, titles, land etc. Money was the same thing in a more accessible form. It was accessible until the wealth gap became pronounced to separate people from power so completely. On an ideal council, you would get a job to do, that should be entirely divorced from any excess material benefit for doing it. Regular pay like everyone gets, and that's it. In the modern-day they are suppressed far beyond what they ever were before. They are also very comfortable and comfort is enough for most people. The value systems of materialism are geared toward things, as long as people have things they have happiness. What can be done? The minimalist movement helps, things are no longer the basis for existence. So do people trying to build small housing or live simpler lifestyles. Conversely expanding us to be a multi-planetary species, because it would give us collectively something other than materialism to focus on. Raising consciousness awareness helps. Deprogramming words like cult or extremist to be something more meaningful rather than merely reactionary wards/words to stop change. We could deprogram forever but we'd be here forever. People tried bitcoin to make wealth more universal or accessible for example, but it's still based on materialism and still prone to the same wealth gap as everything else was. If you have more you get more. The only system of power that would be universally balanced is entirely nonmaterial in nature, which can't compound the rate at which you gain it by simply having more. If you work that out let me know, we'll save the world together :D, but more seriously it would form the basis of a better world. You might say consciousness and my instinct is to say we'd need a bridge from that to here and a way to avoid replacing figureheads with figureheads. If you want something else radical that you won't like, stop people giving up their power to figureheads. Which forms the foundation of this discussion from my perspective. That's why you (and most others) don't give proper credit to the mass change that happens daily within society and consciousness. Why we have this debate, because I see the same value in all people and you have it weighted toward figureheads. Leo does too from what I can see, and so do most people, so you are not alone, and that's why we have this problem where no change is happening. People give up their power to other people who have no motivation to change anything because they already have what they want. My bias is obviously that I can't stand figureheads, and the more set someone becomes in a position of stagnant authority the more I tend to dislike them. For the soul/body/mind, any distinction you like to make can be created, or can be collapsed, its all the same. @Oeaohoo

@Oeaohoo *For your benefit entirely, you are creating a duality between the soul/mind/body where none exists. I often fight with the soul, but then that fight is reflected in the environment quickly enough. Its more that I create resistance to myself or what exists, rather than a separate part of me is somewhere making life difficult. That would be far too easy to avoid responsibility for my own manifestations You are confusing ability with awareness. You can be very able and very unwise. Which leads to tremendous self arrogance and usually a fall. You could be a man in a very simple job, who was incredibly wise, I've met many simple people who I learned wisdom from. So to think these people day to day are not leading to change in others and they all need guidance to do so is simply untrue. Society wasn't always a pyramid at all. At one time it was run by councils or a gathering of village elders, among other systems. I think you mean money is a pyramid, which it is, but that isn't the source of all or even where the majority of societal change originates. New systems of governance form when there is no leader as well. The old model is far from guaranteed to return. Precisely because there is no leader guiding it toward a model at all. The most successful and indeed destructive revolutions often had no clear leader, destruction is often a requisite of change so something new is built in its place. Of course, eventually, someone leads and yes backing helps, but the change itself doesn't need to be initiated by any single individual, it's the people themselves that often initiate mass change by the weight of their will, fear of what they will do otherwise, or in times gone by physical act. The very fact they are so well manipulated now is why we have no significant change happening. You can absolutely rouse the rabble to overturn the global world order, or you could until about 1980 perhaps, that's the point. Then eventually a leader might result from doing so. Historically there is no guarantee that the new system is better than the old one. Whether a leader exists or not. Let's talk about something less dramatic though, and while anything can fail, assume these efforts are successful below for the sake of the discussion. Example: 1, 6 people get together to form a group dedicated to cleaning up their community. They have no leader, they go picking up trash, the place looks better and they succeed in showing others to look after their local area by example. 2, 20 people start a workers cooperative at their local supermarket, it has no leader it has shareholders. Sure there is a manager and it has supervisors but there is no single voice greater than the rest. Let's assume they succeed, which a company literally called the COOP in the UK ran a business model not dissimilar to this, here is its first form: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_Society_of_Equitable_Pioneers 3, 12 Therapists work at a clinic. The manager only comes in on the weekends to make sure everything is running well. I sit there at a desk and diagnose which therapists might be best for the client. This was my old job and I was not the leader of the place, I was on the front desk. Yet I was every day helping people and changing their lives, which in turn changed that small town. At least more than one person told me so at the time. 4, People get together on a forum and talk about life, they help each other improve and from time to time amongst all the many messages, inspire small but meaningful changes in others. Like right here. Sure Leo runs this place, and he is responsible for getting people here. Makes lots of changes in others too, and I'm sure sometimes in Leo himself. So do a lot of other people here, in conversations he's not present in. Finally, on your democracy breeds tyrants, it can, it or can give rise to a very humble intelligent politician. Identities or figureheads with too much power are always troublesome. Either way, I'd prefer a democratically elected council, with guess what, no single leader that's asked to carry the entire weight of every individual's whim on his/her shoulders. Teams elected and overseeing different areas of society, which are re-elected when they need to be, rather than throwing out others that are doing a good job because one man's time is up at an arbitrary number of years, or another unrelated council member was caught in a scandal.

Yes i've no illusions they will be anyone pleasant to deal with, but just a different name and face will mean it's possible for people to more easily begin to cease hostilities and mend the rifts. I get the feeling countries like Germany are really holding out hope for this possibility. As long as its nobody with dreams of a new USSR or Russian Empire that will be enough to mean we won't have a repeat of this again.

The body does change the soul and the spirit because they are the same thing. We are doing work that changes soul/spirit every day we are alive. Let's get the context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revolutions_and_rebellions So there were a thousand or so major ones and an uncountable amount of smaller movements that made smaller changes. Putting aside you are factually incorrect that every revolution has a leader, there are demonstrations in the middle east right now that are leaderless for example. Nowhere in my post did I mention leadership. Leaders get nowhere without popular support, or money/title enough to artificially create it. Power is where power is. If it's top-down that's where the power is. If it's in the hands of people that's where the power is. You can only imagine it one way because you've only known it one way. In modern-day, the state has more power than it ever has had. Right down to whatever information you are allowed to see at all day to day, what food you can eat, what entertainment is acceptable, language you can use etc. In era's gone by communities were ruled much more at the local level, so things were more organically governed, and power was decentralized significantly more. Kings for example feared their peasants, for good reason, they didn't laugh when a few of them got together and held up signs, they didn't have all the tools of state suppression governments now enjoy. When it comes to governance, no matter how benign someone's motives are, we live in a dystopian nightmare when it comes to social order.

@Oeaohoo There have been uncountable social changes and developments that happen through mass movements and revolutions. You are cherry-picking history.

One way for Russia to exit from the war or hostile stance, and end-all of this, is for Putin to step down from ill-health. Poison, Illness, true or not I really don't care. People could negotiate much easier with a Russian that wasn't Putin. It is one way that we all go back to some kind of normality after this.

Genes can be activated or deactivated depending on individual circumstances and environmental factors. This is still being understood and cutting-edge research. That's why some people with a gene for an illness will get it and not others. It's not much help, other than to say live life the best way you can and read up on what material has been discovered on the subject. There's no guarantee The more you get spiritual experiences the fewer guarantees there will be Let go of the need for a guarantee, of anything, or any expectations whatsoever. Spiritual teachers used to advise cultivating a receptive state. That's not passively pulling back or closing down, and it's not actively seeking a specific thing. It's keeping an open door for life to come to you on its terms, while actively pursuing spirituality as a whole. If you meditate a lot you might reach this state often. Other than that you can work on specific things like astral travel, dream recall, third eye work, kundalini, self-inquiry, past life regression, breathing, or Taoist energy work. There are a lot of books or websites out there on all of these things. It requires dedicated practice. It requires removing toxins from your system (detox). Living life in a loving, joyful or at least grateful state. It requires the reintegration of all the parts of you that you are resisting, or are feeling disconnected and hurt from. Otherwise, you are splintered and fractured. Incense, sound healing, or visual healing is also beneficial to reach you on deeper levels. Hope it helps. If you have an area of spirituality you are looking at specifically maybe someone can better advise where to start. If you want further help beyond that, when you dream tonight, set the intent for your dream body to bring it to you. All about the intent, you shape events around it.

As has been said. Throw out the chart if you do bodybuilding, it's only going to make you depressed. I used to torment myself with it. Now I would just go for a run and make sure I can do the miles.

Couldn't agree more. In the higher grades, we used to raise ourselves with our knuckles for example on the wood floor when we stood, and do small exercises like that to toughen the hands. Nothing extreme but week in week out it's all conditioning. A bit like how free weights are better than a gym machine because you get all the benefits of moving them about, and stabilizing the weights yourself during the exercise.

Yes. It's been dead for a few decades. Laws have been passed to cripple protests, and take the teeth out of any popular movement. People see how ineffectual gatherings are and give up on them. Governments have become adept at disinformation and media suppression, so much so regular people hate the protestors more than they do what's being protested. We are heading toward environmental collapse which means the gradual death of everyone and everything. Day by day. Year by Year. In a sane world that operated in a healthy way, there would be worldwide protests every day until this was corrected. People have always been self-interested. Things on a gradual decline are easily knocked aside for immediate gratification, even if that gratification is a feel-good media illusion. Human's ability to adapt to slow change is part of their downfall. The sense of being able to operate in a group for social change gets labeled as a cult, or attacked from all quarters as extremist quicker than you can blink. Such obvious programming that people should be able to see it on mass. This applies to things like the environmental decline over decades or centuries. Also things like the gradual erosion of any home/work balance which in recent years has skewed so much toward work, that it's long facilitated a breakdown of families and so society as a whole. I wish I could adequately describe how much more of a robot I feel at work than I did twenty years ago. It's one of the reasons I am doom and gloom about where life is headed because the force of popular change has been bound to the point it's almost completely ineffective. Worse, people are taught to be happy with that outcome. As I see it this is because of the rise of authoritarianism from the east, which people have been slowly acclimatizing to, at the expense of any force that could drive change for the better. Vilification of anything that is different or outside of the structure those in power decide.

Definitely. The giving and connecting emotions build energy outward. The disconnected individual-focused ones draw it inward. *Editing this for clarity. Nothing wrong with disconnected or selfish emotions i have plenty, just recognizing that energetically they draw inward rather than build outward.

By form. In watching forms god watches itself. Otherwise, there would be no distinction between anything and you'd observe nothing. Form creates form.

This is about subtleties so there are many factors or ways of looking at it. When you are in a very high energetic state, people are often magnetically drawn to you, but it's YOU that brought them there. This was a very hard lesson I had to learn. If it was as she described, she was as much a magnet as you were. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mantak+chia+energy+dynamics It depends on how weak their own boundaries are. Connections energetically happen often before we know it. You can certainly manipulate others into giving up energy and you can certainly do it without thinking about it. A good way to become conscious of energy dynamics is by doing regular energetic work, like Kundalini Yoga or Taoist practices under Mantak Chia (great teacher) which I gave in that search link above. Some teachers talk about visualizations of removing energetic connections in a calm relaxed way. Example: This post drew a certain amount of energy to type. Let's say you made another post that was deep down just seeking attention but wrapped up as a question. Then you gave it to someone who forms their own identity around helping others. You could have a constant energy dynamic where they gave up their time/energy to help you, and both of you were getting what you need. - This would be a relatively benign energy exchange from both parties, but you can imagine patterns where it's not about help its about abuse, or control, or manipulation etc. Then imagine that advertisers know these patterns like the back of their hand, to understand that there are people walking around that are experts at this. I just picked advertisers to show an easy example, you can find people in all walks of life that are masters at it. I am somewhat sensitive to the energy of a room. If it's thick and bitter for example I can feel that walking in. If it's lively and intense I can feel that. You can be with a person that's down on everything, and they do this day in day out, maybe at work. That would be someone sucking in other people's attention and energy. Maybe they are going through something for the day and so you are happy to give it up, help them through it. Maybe all day every day they moan about everything and no amount of attention or help on your end is ever going to be enough for them. If there is a group the energy tends to balance out, but if enough people are in a negative state the group's energy will tank. I've heard it said a few positive people can balance out several negative polarities because they compound, it's much more supportive. Whereas individuals in a negative or drawing state are individuals for the most part. I believe, that a few energetic individuals can really change a room's energy. I also believe that these overlapping fields in a wider area are often held in place by whoever is in the best state energetically. Picking your peer group is really important you can't control every interaction you are going to have, just where you spend your time intentionally. It's also part of the reason why we are limited energetically by those that are the worse off in our society, because when looked at even as a very large group its always a shared field.

@Jodistrict Oversimplifying history is a necessity if it's going into a few pages of a model. The evidence to support spiral dynamics is in modeling human progression throughout history. How accurately it does it is what can be debated. The word cult gets thrown around like a wet newspaper these days. Also known as anything that deviates from the norm with sufficient intellectual reasoning or spiritual belief behind it. It's only a problem when people lose their ability to critically think for themselves, and start looking to an individual to decide their life for them, but then that would be the case if someone were especially lost in life. I agree it's somewhat flawed in that the entire thing has a collectivist bias, but it does allow for things like human history to be shown as part of consciousness development, and the collectivist/individualist dynamic to be expressed in a way it hasn't been elsewhere. Up until maybe 5-10 years ago, I hadn't seen collectivist and individualist dynamics discussed at all, or even recognized as the driving forces between many things like disagreements in society, spiritual fractures, troubles in relationships, and impasses in development, or wars being fought. Of course. That's life. Everything is formless eventually. @Danioover9000

Shotokan Karate was great. It's defensive and counterattacking until blackbelt, by which time you'll be disciplined, strong, and have little fear of confrontation, or any want to initiate it. I would sum up its ethos as how to get out of trouble, and strengthen the body/mind. I would look for a variant that still has unpadded kumite (sparring), which is part of the reason I felt confident because I was used to sparing more naturally. I had hardened wrists, legs and arms. Every week you are training to be hit, so a punch becomes nothing to fear. You'll walk a head taller after doing it for six months. As for spiritual marital arts, I've always been told that studying the ways of a ninja (Ninjutsu) with the spiritual component is what people recommend.

On models. People adapt models all the time. I get that he's just passed so there would be sympathy naturally for wanting his work preserved, but that doesn't mean the way he's conceptualized life needs to remain stagnant from now on. Things don't remain static for long, if a model doesn't adapt to the changing conditions of consciousness then it's done. All that said, Leo would eventually benefit from devising his own model and having that become the thing people were referencing in the future, even if it took a lot of inspiration from this one.

@rnd Read about the history of Russia invading Eastern Europe repeatedly. Understand Putin's comments when he says he believes many of those countries on its border belong to Russia, and how that makes them react. Put aside the US boogieman and ask yourself why all of their neighbors want to join NATO. Consider why Russia has the right to tell anyone how to run their own country. Look at how Russia went from a country trying to democratic reform and looking to join the EU, into first an autocracy and now a fascist state. Look at how every time Russia threatens a country all countries pull closer together defensively. Read about the REAL Azov which were several hundred strong. They reformed to become part of the national guard, their leader left to try and get elected, he got 2% of the vote. They became 3,000 strong, people taken from all walks of life, regular people. 2% of the popular vote went to the far right, this has been on a decline in every Ukrainian election. With all the Russian fascist internal groups and its Russian Imperial Movement exporting Nazi's overseas who is the real fascist state? Want the answer, everyone has a far-right. Consider if scapegoating the extremists to attack the other 98% is pure propaganda and if it makes sense? If so, attack yourselves next. Read about the real history of the Donbass, the Russian-backed separatist movement, the trouble they started. The forces they put into the DPR which caused a rebellion there. Understand they did this because democratic forces overthrew the Russia puppet government. Understand all the gas that is under that part of the country, and that almost all wars are fought over resources. Understand why the Azov made their stand at the steel plant, which robbed Russia of part of what they wanted. Understand why Russia are going after all the port cities. It's not a coincidence that this area is used for trade. Money. Money. Money. That's all men ever fight over.

Someone mentioned the map of consciousness. Divine love, unconditional, without attachment or expectation, Is not the same as what most of us know as love. It is significantly stronger or more complete than romantic attachment or joy as an emotion for example. If you were in that state for long you wouldn't be here. That's all I know for a certainty. This is how you get there. Love every poster in this thread, sit down and show gratitude, joy and then love for every single word spoken. Pick the poster that you have the most difficulty with and find reasons to love their words, or them, or the experience. For some people it takes untangling acceptance with love, or agreement with love, or whatever they've tied to it. Love is just love. It's nothing else. There is nothing else there to attach to it. Love everything that enters your life. It's all you. Love everything you currently hate. Again, it's not agreement, it's not acceptance, it's just love. You can actively work to change something while loving it for example. Its not being a doormat, its not accepting or allowing abuse, violence or narcissism. It can be difficult, but there is no barrier to it other than what you put up. No thinking of worth or deserving, or worrying about what it will mean. So I'll end this one saying love to you all, and all the words that are spoken here, all the people that put their time and effort into these discussions to help others/yourself. Gratitude to leo and the moderators for running this and their effort in maintaining it. Thank you all for the many replies to all the topics here to increase awareness and insight. You all restored my faith in spiritual development where it was almost gone. If you want a spiritual practice that embodies this, the fifth agreement does. Toltec shamans do. Gratitude.