eskwire

@mikeyy I've never paid to find out the secret sauce of TM. It's mantra repetition right?

The gratitude I feel for your work is ineffable. Thank you. You basically rock my world. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

@The Universe Yes, theoretically, because there is nothing that enlightenment takes away from you. If you are adept at business and have something to provide worth money in return, this will shine with enlightenment. If you are getting into business to puff your self concept up, then you probably won't get into business after increasing consciousness. But you won't care, see? The issue is then irrelevant. Perhaps you can't do both in terms of focus and time. "You can't serve two masters." You can serve both masters if your business is consciousness work, but not every student of consciousness work necessarily has the goods to do this. We can't all be Peter Ralston. He's a truly amazing creature. I see that all the time at the martial arts school where I work. Little kids who suck at karate dream of opening their own school one day. I have chosen to work for someone else to pay bills so that I may pursue enlightenment. Then see if the whole business thing even matters.

I wouldn't be surprised if he needs a break from this place. We all do at times. We are all at different stages in this. Often times, the people who are at lower stages need the most attention and are on here using it like a journal. Some folks seem to be further along but like to teach and help, so they're far along but on here a lot. Solitude is important and healthy at times. And, sometimes, you have so much you could say there is nothing to say at all. Personally, this is my social media. The more I'm on here, the more I know my consciousness is waning. It's orders of magnitude better than Facebook or something in terms of content. Not to dismiss this place. It's great.

I went searching for this post because I thought about your tears today and remembered my own a few months ago, when I felt god. Now it seems like laughter comes up more. It's really ridiculous - all the thoughts and intense feelings about bullshit before this shift. I laugh at the stupidity of it, and what a joke it was that it all meant so much. "My suffering is your entertainment." ?

From my experiences of self transcendence. It doesn't take you to another dimension where you can't measure things, use any relational/relative concepts, or otherwise function as before. It seems like the ideas you find to be untenable are the scaffolding people use to get to enlightenment rather than the building itself, which can't be discussed. You may have been talking to people who claim enlightenment but haven't gotten there or people who are still seeking. Idk. I'll leave this topic be now.

@sweatergoat Change your definition of "alright" with an openness to anything and yes!

@Salaam What is connective tension in relation to consciousness? I am not following why the skills you are describing and enlightenment are mutually exclusive. I understand you think it's an idea, and a primitive one, but enlightenment is not an idea. It seems you enjoy parsing things out with precision and these ideas about oneness and nothingness seemingly take that away from you, but...it doesn't.

@Salaam What exactly do you think enlightenment is? Why do you believe it is detached from real life? I appreciate your nuance with what seems to be emotional management and, surely, that has a place. I think of enlightenment as inclusive of that. Peter Ralston says it very well: enlightenment makes you freer to be human.

@Salaam Not an insult, just a lil joke about people calling me man or bro on here but I'm a lady. ?It's all good. Some things seemed harshly misrepresented and I felt compelled to chime in. I'll remember your take on things as I go forward and see how it does or doesn't fold in.

@Salaam Whooooa we never even talked about what I think. I only said I do self-inquiry and find it is valuable and leads to important "understandings"...a change in life. I also never said everything is an illusion. I (pretty lightheartedly) said concepts of "me" "mine" etc are illusory. I do think the ego takes ownership unnecessarily for spontaneous life. Does that mean planet Earth and pain and love and work and sweat and cooperation are just illusions, totally non-existent? No. I never said that, nor did I claim to be a "god." It's ok, lady, you can project on me too. ?

@Salaam I disagree. You are placing too much importance on pieces being "self-contained" and...somehow....all productivity coming out of that separation...for some reason. It is not necessary to believe in self and others, in separations, to also work hard. That is just your take on what people are discussing when inquiring into delusions of self. I have been working harder and more productively, but also less neurotically, since starting self-inquiry. Also less angrily. Damn, you're angry.

Yes. My work here is done!

@Socrates It's not about you being blunt, or saying exactly what you mean re: veganism. It's about you having an ego spazz and telling everyone else they are having an ego spazz. I'm not offended by any of this. I'd like to implement a vegan diet. You are being immature and we are simply pointing this out to you. If you want to be part of this forum, you have to accept that most of us aren't going to pet your ego or your pet ideologies. We may agree with you and if we think you are delivering the message badly, we will point that out so you can become more effective in the world. Why? Because you are here for growth. Or are you here to talk about veganism?

@Socrates Ok so you are obviously a young person and are into your ideals, as well as knowing the names of logical fallacies so you can argue with people. There is nothing wrong with that. But please listen for a moment in an open way. Nobody on this forum would be offended by veganism itself. It's not like we haven't heard of it before or wouldn't allow others to live in that way. A large percentage of us have probably tried to stick with it or at least looked into it. You made the mistake of assuming this forum was full of people who were "better than ordinary people" and, with that criterion, would already be vegan or have zero objections/questions about it. You are projecting your ego onto the forum. People in this forum won't jump on your ass for being vegan, or not being vegan. People in this forum jump on your ass if you are being dogmatic. This is a place to change your mechanisms and habits of thought, not to begin thinking any one certain thing.

I would like to thank him for the laugh. This was too funny. Did you know Socrates yelled a lot and used sassy memes? You thought he asked many questions to open minds. Oh no, you are ignorant of the truth. The truth of Socrates.

All this talk of "evil/no evil" has been interesting. It seems pretty obvious that evil is the ego. Ego separates from God - from consciousness - making "evil" deeds possible. Like Leo said in today's video, evil is "selfishness." What is the ego? A sense of self. Selfishness. I end up listening to Christian sermons somewhat frequently because of the culture here. I just replace "the devil" or "evil" with "ego" in my mind and those sermons are fucking awesome. Rock my spiritual house.

This thread got a video. How awesome and real time. ?

@Prabhaker Don't get me wrong. I have a lot of masculine tendencies and feel sexy/whole being aggressive/swaggery or being soft/feminine. I like both. What I mean is that it's unreasonable to tell people they have to take a position on the gender scale to be happy when our bodies and collective consciousness are changing.

Tell all this to the endocrine disruptors in everything.

❤ this. Me too. Whole life. Doesn't matter. Upside of that is you will feel equally alienated in all cultures. I have been able to travel and deal more than the average person because of that.

Daaaaaaamn.

@aryberry Yeah I think that's the point of Neti Neti. You play a game of whack-a-mole when a false concept of self comes up until the realization happens that there is no correct mole. Dig it.

Hay frinz! I am at a good spot for a complete reset. I'm going to stay at the karate school where I work this weekend. Fast, meditate, and journal. It will be a mini retreat. Anyone want to do it, too? Solidarity. You can do it at home.

@TimStr ???