Key Elements

This is a pretty serious topic for me. I want to do this right. I don't want to screw myself or others.

@Aakash Lazy way? What lazy way? I think you've never done it before, and you don't know what's up ahead. Once you retire young, it's a different journey. I was trying to tell you this in a different thread. Go and do some work that will benefit others in positive ways after retirement. "An idle mind is devil's workshop." You will find this quote out the hard way if you remain idle or spoil your children with money. But first, you're not even independent from your parents. Don't remain idle. Yeah, and I never said "grossing" products--whatever that means. I'm talking about high quality products.

@Leo Gura Yes, correct. We evolved to include corporations. I do realize that orange society like ours control the population of humans without talking about it. It's very expensive to live in a heavily dominant corporate society esp if you have kids. The best schools are in the most expensive neighborhoods. The biggest problem here is the long working hours. Ok, the solution: if you want better income, make a high quality product to scale in a ready-made corporation. You need investors for this. You have to be careful building your own system, esp in the food industry. It's already saturated. (Hmm...unless, you cook for other ppl. Eg. Food truck, home catering business.)

@Leo Gura Leo, one of the things I see with not passing through orange properly is the overpopulation of ppl. In countries where they don't put restrictions (red tape) on businesses, they just build real estate wherever they want. They take it out to the edge of cities, and start cutting down trees. The rent is cheap, and so ppl go there. In green communities, where they build homes by themselves, there is an overpopulation. Worse yet, developed hospitals are not nearby. When something serious happens to one's health, you're in trouble. Here, in the U.S., we're too stuck in orange. I think we're too dependent on big companies for jobs, and we buy food/products from them instead of mom & pop shops. Starbucks does much better than a regular family owned coffee shop. We buy factory made foods--much cheaper. We have corporate farming. Corporations took over. It's out of balance. The head of these corporations make the laws. They could easily gather a bunch of lawyers to sue the government. That's why passive income gets taxed the least or 0%. Correct me if I'm wrong.

@StephenK Maybe, perhaps. I'm just calling it blue/orange in general. Of course, a little racism could be mixed in it--depends on the person.

A "stuck stage blue feature" : when they see an "outsider," they will come up to you and ask you 20-50+ questions about your background. If you actually try to answer their questions, whatever you say, it gets "stretched out" and spread as gossip in the wrong way. Or, they invite you to their parties and play this game with you in this manner--their favourite pastime. This also happens with stuck orange ppl, but not as gossipy. When they talk about others, there is no depth. They don't really know them for real.

The thing with talking about marriage is, you can't be one-sided. You have to look at it from many different sides. You got to know the in-laws whether or not they're going to interfere with the marriage. It's hard to see this if you are in the culture or unfamiliar with the culture. Or, if you never been married or interacted with different ppl, it's hard to see. Also, it's hard for closed-minded ppl. The assigned role of the daughter-in-law may only be "jhadu pocha" with head covered all the time and a fake smile all the time. Her only social life may only be the accepted kitty party. That's not happiness. She can't grow or self-actualize. Everyone wants her to be stuck in stage blue.

I said it that way because pointlessness = having meaningful points. If Truth is pointlessness, it transforms into Everythingness, The Flow (Singularity), Love, and Ego without distance. So, living your life taking into consideration of the impermanent transformations of Everythingness, Flow, Love, and Ego are the points.

@Aakash just remember, when you become Truth, the illusion of consequences don't exist anymore. You just become pure consciousness. There are no more illusions to deal with. Of course, when you go about living your daily life in the present moment, you could live like the pure consciousness, but this takes practice to reach that "level" with a non-existent, pointless ego.

@Aakash here's another way of explaining "pointlessness." Is Truth "pointlessness?" Sure, you could use that word to describe it. When you awake, your ego will initially think that there is a grandiose distance between your ego and Truth. But, think again. Look at it from the "perspective" of Truth. There is no distance. Distance is an illusion. So, yes, you could call life itself "pointlessness." Therefore, it doesn't matter what you choose to do with your life. (Although, I would choose carefully because there are consequences.) Does it help being in the present moment while you go about doing things? Sure. Let your unwanted thoughts about the past go by. This, of course, takes practice. I'm only commenting by what you said.

@Aakash hey, I totally agree with you that life is "pointless." There are at least two sides to being pointless: A) Be a guru who lives in a cave. Have followers bring you food, clothing, etc as donations while you talk about non-duality to them. B) Live as a normal person. Become successful and contribute to society. However, you know non-duality. So, you express it in your book, app, art, music, etc for your audience. Pick one. They're both "pointless."

@Aakash let's not get into judging. You could go into believing in any religion you want. Be careful though. You may turn it into dogma and use it to judge others more.

@Aakash if you want to ignore your ego completely, go right ahead. I choose not to. That's the difference. I know ego is just born from Truth. I choose not to live my life as "pointless." And, there's nothing wrong with that.

Yes, you're right. The word "paradox" is just a word. It's only a realm--an illusion. It does not exist. And, so do "you." You do not exist, only Truth, the pure consciousness. With that said, how do you choose to live your life? Remember, flow and detachment are also part of Truth. They came directly out of it. (You become them temporarily during these transformations.) And, also love. You will become love before you embody back to your ego. Take flow, detachment, and love into consideration when you go through life. Life is just an illusional story that you paint as you go along. I rather paint a beautiful picture.

If you want to live your life as Truth, don't overthink this. You are Truth, and also you're part of Truth (ego). Paradoxically, you're both, and paradoxically, you're just Truth. If you want to live like Truth in the ego realm (to love realm) have a good plan and go with the flow. Be independent and detached yet learn to work with others.

Nope. A lot of ppl are like you--still dependent on parents. We all know that parents won't be there to support you forever. Becoming independent from anyone or anything is not a comfortable situation for most ppl. If you become independent, financially free, wealthy, etc., your journey isn't over. Life doesn't allow you to be comfortable at that point. You will have to find a new, profound journey. Otherwise, you may learn the hard way--that life is the hardest teacher. Some unexpected challenge may come your way that may turn out to be the biggest challenge in your life. You may learn the hard way because you didn't prepare for it. If you come face to face with a lion or a psychopath, and you're about to lose your life, for example...well, these are not the only examples. Ultimately, what is your milestone goal now? Can you try to do this "stress-free" and in a "meditative state?" I think there is no final goal. Life doesn't end till it actually ends. Just treat this moment as precious. Each moment will never come again.

@Aakash I'm not exactly sure what you're saying to me. It looks like you're saying that I'm following Shinzen Young to the brick wall. Well, you're mistaken because I was only commenting on that song using Shinzen Young's clips. It's only because he's articulate and clear. If you want to know something, I find Shinzen Young's teachings less addictive than Leo's. I find Leo's teaching like trying to search for the needle in a haystack. But, I'm not against Leo. Every teaching has pros and cons.

@Aakash but here's the problem. How can one person go up to another person and tell him or her an advice about the individual's personal path when the other person don't even know what's going on? You don't know the full details of the other person's path. You don't know my plans and intensions. It's probably the same as a dogmatic Christian missionary coming up to a person and saying, "you're going to hell because you don't follow Christ." Also, it's not one person's business to judge another's path. Judging misguides.

This song, to me, looks like it's pointing to the Power of Realms Trap (@ 3:25). I call it the Everythingness Realm Trap. Or, it could be pointing to someone who keeps wanting enlightenment but forgetting to live life--The Enlightenment Trap (@ 4:48). Sometimes you have to wonder why self-transendance goes at the very tip-top of Maslow's hierarchy. The absolute isn't a realm or an obsession of the absolute.

I want to share more on the 'S' side of a startup. Let's take the example of two countries. Yes, I've been to these countries for a few years. I'm describing by what I've observed. I'll call them countries A and B to be anonymous. I'm saying it like this because--just because someone is from a "3rd world country," doesn't mean he/she is stage blue/red. No judgements please on other ppl. Country A is stage red/blue: The government is a military dictatorship. They don't allow protesting. You could get killed by doing this. They do ethnic and religious cleansing. They don't allow capitalism (stage orange). So, there are no fast food restaurants or any companies. There are only mom & pop shops/stores/businesses--the small businesses (self-employment). That's how ppl survive. You're either a small business owner or you work for one. Sure, they have government jobs--postal workers, joining the military, teacher in gov schools, etc. But, it's hard to get paid a decent salary in gov jobs. (In recent years, Country A did introduce some capitalism. So, yes, there are some McDonalds, but their networking and all that might not be that developed.) My point is, being a small business owner, your skills and your survival skills could get really developed--very tasty restaurant foods, lovely arts & crafts, great architecture of buildings, etc. I love the detailed designs on their purses! The circumstances could make you a stronger person, if you look at your situation carefully. So, there was this guy (years ago) who migrated to the U.S. He was from a country like Country A. He couldn't find decent job that paid well, even though he went to an employment agency that specifically helped recent immigrants. He just took any job, and that's fine. He told the agent who was helping him that he was a fisherman in his country. Too bad the agent put him down as "unskilled," and he got a job as a janitor. Nothing wrong with being a janitor, but it doesn't pay much, and he was married with small children already. I hope he realizes that being a boatman is a skill, and that he could operate a boat. Why not one day own a boat? Use it as a tour boat. Train someone you trust to have that skill to be a boatman and a tour guide so you could earn passive income (cashflow). You no longer have to work on your own boat. Learn how to borrow money from different sources and pay it back safely. Own more than one boat as tour boats. Research on this. Oops! I forgot. Owning a janitorial service will probably create jobs and make more money. Country B is stage blue/orange: Interesting. This government is democratic. Yes, they do allow capitalism. So, they have full-fledged networking. Looks like when I got there, the networking was at its peak/best. I got some opportunities -- an incubation and a job related to my startup. That job was only a part-time job but I could survive on my own with it. This society wasn't completely stage orange. So, things were not as expensive. They still allow small businesses to thrive without red-tape or restrictions. It depends on your business. If you're very poor, they wouldn't even put restrictions on you. I met a graphic artist there during networking. I wanted him to design my website. This is the prettiest website I've ever seen at a low cost. An idea came to my mind recently: I wonder if I ever do a due diligence for let's say a developed app, could he be invited to the U.S. under a certain visa, and stay in the U.S.? Nope, I had second thoughts--maybe not under Trump's immigration laws. ______________ Now... In any startup, you could improve on your startup, and you could change it in any way. You could even say, "back to the drawing board." But, what you can't do is completely quit and give up on it. See, a startup's thinking is, "the sky is the limit," and "challenges are opportunities." For example, if you started a janitorial service, you could eventually patent your biodegradable cleaning product(s). And, get a trademark: BE in fancy letters. BE stands for Bio Enlightenment. Make a website on BE, and share your awakening in a cunning way--so that those who are ready to hear it will hear it. Tell your audience that your products and services are based on the awakening story. This is an example. I still wonder if the skilled boatman could get his tour boat immediately--if there's a way. There might be. You got to see everything as an opportunity and go look for it. ______________ A saying, "when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade out of them." A raw startup, "when life gives you hell, you make lemonade out of it." ______________ Great movie on networking. It took place at the worst possible time without the exchange of money. I ask myself all the time, "if they could do it in a stage red environment, why can't I do it in a stage orange society?" ______________ Bodhisattva I can't call her a nonprofit or a philanthropist. She went way beyond that. ______________ Please feel free to share ideas.

A lot of us live in a stage orange society and have to learn how to deal with it. Become a leader (founder) of a company and use that as a vehicle to drive society up to the next level (in Spiral Dynamics). "Be the change." -Gandhi

@remember networking is a people skill, not just for fundings. The problem with stage orange networking in a stage orange society is that they don't go deep within enough, and it's too individualistic. They only had an achievist mentality--to get as much fundings and try to go beyond the fundings at whatever the cost. It never works this way. I thought the dot.com era in the Silicon Valley taught everyone a lesson. Looks like--no, not everyone. To me, the biggest networking flaw/lesson that I've ever seen was with the Larry Nassar case. People in power knew, but no one did anything about it. So, Nassar became a big hype for decades, and in the end, it was the biggest mess and criminal case.

@remember in other words, you have to know who you're working with before you sign that contract of due diligence. Make sure you're completely clear as to what your due diligence is about before you sign it. Make sure you talk to your IP lawyer and other startups who have received fundings. Get to know them on a personal level first and know their ethics/code of conduct. Don't just go and pitch and trust any funding that comes your way.

Yes, I understand. However, without medical knowledge or with very little medical knowledge or practice, you may not see the big picture of what's going on when your team of doctors and medical designers work together. The final product put on the market may not be what anyone wants.

@Charlotte I said something here and in my past few posts. I would try to become self-employed first.