Jordan of the Shire

Seeking some insight or perspective: I have an unresolved tension with the intention to deliberately guide and direct an audience towards a product. Not that it is wrong to do that, but that it means to some extent I have to underhandedly have an ulterior motive to everything I share. Since to sell a product well, you need to build rapport, understand the needs of the consumer, then provide the solution. There is conflict of interest in relationship. So wondering what logic people have around marketing and sales? I'm sourcing a way to derive an entrepreneurial living without becoming a meme. I function as an instructor and coach, without paying clients for the moment I also have a Software application I'm working on which will be part of that. (This effort is in its grassroots) I also have a construction business. What d'yall think? Feel free to share videos, examples from discussions you've had in the past, different spiral stage perspectives, or whatever comes to mind.

I feel like we'd all be cooler and just know how to treat eachother if we didn't react to our thoughts like hippos chasing rabbits. I think people are all over the place with philosophy and politics because theyre confused. The answer is that conservative and liberal are right at different times. What you say today may be wrong tomorrow. What is right, right now, may be incorrect later. Being caught on views misses the picture. We're all arguing when the problem is very much rooted in not being still, being traumatized, and having an opinion about everything. Nuance in dealing with people. That's why there are books like the however many laws of power, or never split the difference, because of how wild the court of people are when everyone is dealing with some form of delusion, we have to be skillful in how we communicate. Lest there be consequences or outcomes we dont really want. So tricky too when we actually have to build things, someone has to be a leader in any given undertaking, and there are complex things being done. But the power of being still, having genuine release, and cultivating awareness I think solves a lot of clarity issues. It can be helpful to step away from trying to affect change in the world for awhile while things in the mind settle, and the light of awareness is more clear.

Still learning what spirituality really is. It's common that I learn what it is not, and it is usually associated with what my assumptions are about anything. So technically I am less wrong, but always wrong in some way. I think that the opposite of spiritual is the creation of a self of which to occupy a space and then empowering that. It could be good or edgy or whatever. It's sort of self-conformist tendency which is natural. And to put it that way, you could even say, that the opposite of spiritual could be composed of moments, states of mind and being, and stages we get trapped in rather than a ultimatum. What I seem to react to is the use of psychic mediumship, fancy imagination techniques, self-identified enlightenment, hedonism, kundalini-like assumptive work, and flowery language, associated with radical assumptions that create groupthink and then convey a truth but it becomes a parroting rather than experience. What i seem to react to is the presentation of the promise which is basic marketing, in the form of spirituality, which becomes the means to satisfy financial means, status, pleasure, intellectual satisfaction. These are orange tendencies guised in the form of the saint, magician, and lover. It's shadowed by the desire to obtain, to be seen, and to hold power. This is difficult to avoid for anyone. I have to see it, know it, and let it go when it arises. To say I'm free of that is nonsense. But i think there is a spectrum of self awareness. "Is the thing revealing insight into the nature of reality" This is a liberating metric. Removes the judgement from what you're doing, even if it is flawed, or fake. As long as the process is revealing something to you about deception and truth. People know their skill but without relevant comparison or humility of their skill they can easily be overwhelmed by their own assumptions and then they wont progress further than their new found excitement. In my own training, when "special stuff" happens, the common response is "don't worry about it" "let it go" "keep going" "Yes we have many of these things" "humility is essential" "as your skill grows, so too should your humility" Yadda yadda, humility seems to be important. But in the marketplace, it is elevation of the self in order to attract a market, that gets you somewhere.

I like Jensen Huang's statement. He said, if he knew how hard it would be to grow Nvidea, he wouldn't have done it. So starting with naive optimism is important. Asking "how hard could it be?" then try things. Just do it and see what works and what doesnt. This is the process. Whatever business you're in is really dependent on vision, values, networking and solving a real problem well. Building goodwill by being of service, being a reliable friend, being optimistic and courageous even when people are like, fack off you gotta get a real job. haha. and continuing to push through the hard times. It's kind of like an energy ball. The more focus and attention you put to a thing, the more it grows. Focus on first principals. What are the essential key components, make the requirements less dumb, create a prototype, pitch it to people, gather support, build feedback, iterate. Over and over. One technique I like is, if you have a service, schedule your first workshop or class or release on the calendar and then hold yourself to that date. Then invite people to that date personally. Then do it. As you approach that date, all the mental garbage comes up on why you should cancel or not do it. Just relax. Do it. I personally look at money as a bi-product of doing something well. It is the effect of different causes going well, rather than the goal. Instead of "may I have x amount of money", focus on the causes - "may I develop the skills, values, mindsets, and relationships that causes money to flow" The pressure of attaining a dollar value is backwards.

hell yea hahaha This is great advice.

Anyone can tell you the truth but to experience it you have to practice. To practice, you must renounce your conceptual views and practice. The process of developing spiritual has more to do with attention and qi and embodiment. Writing many paragraphs of theoretical views is an example of going from 0 (experience) to 10 (elaboration and division) I like the quote "I don't think before I speak, I song before I think" Song is the chinese word for an infinite scale of release. Song is the path.

Many ways to enlighten and many layers to it. There is the stream enterer, one who has only a few character defilements left, and then a few more levels of enlightenment after that, and then once you achieve the highest level, there are more levels. So it's like this. A good measure of someones development is their level of equanimity during changing circumstances.

B-e-a-u-ti-ful - yea life is starting to feel so beautiful like this and the same feeling of like - ho damn, this moments so beautiful... and there's more? deeper and deeper. gratitude, and mystery!

Awesome! This is a big deal. Quite a journey. Nice! Heck yea Amazing! That's incredible man - all the things that get in the way, when those drop off it feels like having a weight lifted forsure. Heck yea When I look around its nice to see when people are making progress. There's a lot of beauty in this world. So many people are doing great things. It's good to recognize it from time to time when the negative seems to catch the attention far more.

Enjoying each day and feel grateful. To throw my hat in the discussion. It's okay to feel pride, but the follow up to that is to recognize that its not self, letting the self feel pride is okay, well-being is okay. Then see the separation between awareness and self. This is actually really important for spiritual development. Filling the self with positive feelings, then recognizing that the awareness is not those feelings. But the awareness knows good feelings. Thats better than knowing shitty feelings right? So it's okay. Anyways Yeaaaaa Pride.. I'm proud of my boys frodo sam aragorn gandalf legolas boromir gimli and smeagol Proud of han solo and leia and luke skywalker Proud of the dudes who got through basically psychotic breakdowns and overcame I'm proud of my family and what they take care of and their efforts.

Hello there fellow Oso If you're interested in a safe method of practice, there's a method called Dissolve and it's taught by Andy Mack. If you're interested, see if that research gives you something safe and gentle to work with. It's what I've been focusing on and it's really helped. It's hard to find the alignment. I understand. Takes time. Take your time, have faith, believe in yourself, do your best, it's okay to fail. Consider what you value, put it down on paper, attach behaviors to those values, and then see where that could fit into a job. Then enjoy the process. Volunteering at a foodbank could build meaningful connections, or a book store, for calm yet meaningful conversation. A hobby craft store, or boardgame shop. Joining a yoga studio, or finding a hiking group. Social connection could come from your job or something you do recreationally.

Curious what the thoughts are on www.geoship.is Geodesic Homes.

I've heard that many people mis-attribute kundalini awakening for electrical energy moving up the spine. It's a very rare phenomena which has become a buzz word. Most of what people experience is Zifa Gong. When energy moves through the body and meets resistance it causes spontaneous movements. These movements are interpreted in a lot of ways, but it is just energy pushing through blocked channels. It is advisable to spend many years developing the body to be able to act as a capacitor for divine energy, otherwise one can burn up and take on great illness.

If you're having spontaneous movements and they're not stopping see if you can have someone cup their hand and slap your Yao, all the fascial webbing that is on the lower region of the back. This can help disrupt spontaneous movements while in public or when not needed.

Do what you can, observe the way things happen. Enjoy the process. Learn a little, do a little.

Hey brother - Try this structure in the mornings when it feels aligned. i use it sometimes when I feel I need to have a sense of direction. These are prompts; Big Picture: What is your big picture? Reason for being here? Reason for well being? What is the purpose of life? What is the direction of your unique expression of consciousness? Wildly Important goals: What are some goals you have? Can you contextualize that in small steps? (Even if time is kind of not perceived the same way... and you're not an industrious type like me... it helps to contextualize thing in time somewhat. WIG: Now you have your WIG Choose a WIG and WOOP it Wish: What is the underlying wish, what do you want to see or what comes from it? Outcome: What is the outcome of this particular goal when it all goes well? Obstacles: What things can you anticipate? Skills you need to learn, problems that might get in the way? Plan: What comes to mind in how you can approach these vacancies? WIG -> WOOP -> WIN What's important now - Suspend your head from above, take a deep breath, feel your feet, call to mind the passion purpose mantra that resonates with you, look forward, ask your higher self, what's important now? WIG -> WOOP -> WIN -> Doing something I find it helps sometimes to start the day off with a self created timeline. From the morning to evening, choosing vagualy or specifically what you'll do during certain hours. Again, depending on where you're at on any given day, these tools may or may not be useful to you.

What about a Geodesic Dome (plans: https://trilliumdomes.com/shop-all/) with a Rocket Stove https://richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp - raised floors with thermal mass heating with solar powered ventilation. Can pull Tensile Nets From the Top around the Dome on the outside and plant a climbing species to provide natural shade and temp regulation during summer, and use a polycarbonate on the top for a window to the sky. During the winter, Geodesic is capable of handling the weight of snow, and because of the shape, air distributes pretty equally throughout the structure so it doesn't take much to heat or cool it. If you want to go extra - maybe hempcrete for insulation if you're not allergic.

Humility makes it easier. I've found claiming a complete victory usually empowers the other side of me (the conniving and tricky side) to double down.

She seems cool. It seems like Leo and Teal share some mannerisms. Like the way they pause and how they make eye contact with the camera. Which I think is funny and coincidental. She shares ideas which are what-ifs that expand the idea of what could be out there... but once I start thinking multi-universes, alternate dimensions, and aliens from other planets - I don't gravitate that way. I prefer to stay in the body and with what I can directly perceive.

I've trusted that things go into Da'at. Whatever you learn exists in this space of Da'at. I was told that once. Nothing you experience is ever forgotten. Some kind of mystic idea. Still figuring out the truth of it. However, its given me the confidence to learn, and forget, learn and forget. Now AI gives us the capacity to fill our subconscious with information, then we can go around practicing Wuji and meditation, or yoga, or walking, ect, and let that information sort itself out into something meaningful. Rather than needing to be the logical function, we can let AI be the logical function, and we can use it as a tool, and we can abide in emptiness. Giving that we are a species of hedonistic weakness. We'll have to discipline ourselves to strengthen the qualities we want in our life. So whether we have AI or not. We still gotta forge our own self. With AI doing all the work, you have time to study and practice. You're delegated to AI? Prompt AI to teach you why its doing what its doing. Form a feedback loop where you work in conjunction with the tool to understand why it does what it does.

a teacher told me once not to read books which is kinda funny. he means, the more ideas you have, it reifies ideas as something concrete and something to identify with. so his advice is, for spiritual practice, they aren't really necessary. another teacher told me, it's important to shape the mind with theory so that it knows how to function, and that helps people progress a lot faster. I fall somewhere in between. Depends on the knowledge, depends on your desire, depends what you're trying to create. I have found it extremely helpful to have theory, but i always spend a long time actually doing it. You must have a healthy self esteem to do spiritual practice. For a healthy self esteem, conventional optimization and self-improvement is an important step. You can work both ways. You can try to change the body to shape the mind. Or you can use the mind to shape the body. (all the information stored in your tissues, your whole being) You can do genuine, authentic Qi-gong and Dao Yin, (this means the quality of Qi Skill), opening channels, clearing out shit, and you will self actualize as Qi harmonizes your body. You only require the theory of the practice. The practitioner will self-optimize as a result of training and not necessarily affirmation or concentrated contemplation. Side note: The tricky part about developing Qi Skill, is that, more Qi = Empowered Self, and if your self is rotten and full of mischief, anger, and all that stuff, you're going to have a hard time because it can take you over the edge of self control. Which is why you get a lot of deviation in people who practice these things. There are safe ways to develop Qi-Skill, and Potent not so safe ways. Or you can change the mind through realization, insight, perspectives, and interaction through attention using mental exercises, derived from books and other kinds of practices. A balance between theory and practice is important. I don't think you have to read a book everyday. From theory to practice to mastery

Hey brother, there was a time when I took a course on social pro now: https://socialself.com/ It really helped in understanding how to make small talk and move into interesting conversations i enjoyed with people, and I became closer in my community, and it really helped with my sense of well being. Also, serving in the community, doing something, like volunteering or helping someone do something. This helps because it starts to fill you with a sense of value. Inviting people, even acquaintances for coffee is nice. If you frequent a cafe a lot, reading, or writing, or doing something creative can sometimes spark conversations that are interesting. Taking a class you're interested in, or join a community hike club. Try going to places where you don't have to talk as much, where you're doing an activity. Watch Hail Mary. This movie was a great example of how to make friends with an Alien (ie: in this example, people we don't know at all) Beautiful movie. Learn a martial art. Get to know your body and mind really well. Become competent in using it. See if there are any dissolve practitioners in your area. https://dissolve-release-peace.com/dissolve-therapists/ It's a useful method for bridging the gap between being different and isolated, and becoming more at peace with yourself and the world. It helps a lot. Hope these suggestions help Enjoy your day

The buddha said "sangha is the whole of the path." Sangha are your friends that practice. They can help you move along. The buddha also said "there must be someone to walk the path" So, yea brother. "feel that it may be more beneficial to step back from external sources of guidance for a while and focus instead on forming my own understanding of truth based on direct experience." Heck Yea

Nothing like a good mango

Hey Lila, Yea actually thanks for pointing that out. It's funny how i can say "nature is not egalitarian" yet some forms of life organize in an egalitarian way. So its a blanket statement which doesn't reflect how things actually are. Its funny how that happens. It is a myopic view. I would also like to see more community beauty motherhood and children and spirituality. I was having a talk with a friend today and she was saying she would have more children but she needs to work, she already has a full schedule. So I think, like you said, small groups of trust-worthy people working together to raise families. This could help the birth rate. I think women need the space and comfort and resources to raise children. If they have to work and do everything on their own, then it is hard to raise kids. On cruel nature. I don't personally see nature as cruel and violent. I want to say that, it is natural for there to be non-equality in terms of manifestation, and that nature is manifesting in many different forms, and those forms have different functions, that don't always serve a preference we might ideally want. Many forms of nature have a give and take, consume and provide, have parasitic and symbiotic functions. Our attempt to control these aspects of nature, even in ourselves, seems to meet different forms of excess and deficiency because it is difficult to balance a very complex system via control. This makes me think of a tangled form. I find that I can untangle a cord. I don't think about how to do it however. Some function of my mind sees it, and i untangle it, however i didn't run any calculations. I think that there is a part of us that has a self organizing principal when it is allowed to function, when we can get out of the way and let it work, it works. I think one of our valiant efforts in humanity is our attempt to understand. Is our attempt to seek and know. And I am learning that the mind is a great tool. And intelligence or intellect is not the antithesis of spirituality or release, which is a belief I have held for sometime. So learning 3rd dimensional laws of physics, and understanding engineering concepts, and studying ecology, and you know, the intellectual rigor of science.. i am finding myself gravitating to it now, to some degree. But I am finding for myself, that the activities of the mind need to be balanced with release. Because Ideas about the way things function or ought to function can become intensely identified with, and energy goes where attention is. So if you empower a direction, then you might end up off in some excess or deficiency, which is fine, thats the beauty of life, but if release is a daily practice, one doesn't need to go on a tangent for too long. A knowing that the mind is separate from awareness. Then the minds functions can begin to function in a unique way. This is something of a study for me, and i'm exploring, pointed at it by different teachers. So in part I am speaking of something I am experiencing, and also, exploring as a clue or hint by people who have pointed in this direction. One of the issues I have is that the physics of the universe includes things, like siddhi and miracles, that defy current widely accepted physics, and so many of these laws are relative to the context of consciousness. They work within certain conditions, but not in others. Accepting this is difficult for me, it makes me not want to learn anything haha because its so fucking contextual. I'd rather live with the mind that untangles naturally. But i AM curious about how people are coming together and solving problems... and this idea... that many different people, expressing themselves in different ways, they are parts of a truth, and so I personally am starting to see humanity in a much different light. ..... yea...