Natasha

Thus, raising levels of awareness is the most effective part of 'seeking' to bring one to self-realization.

Yes, facing our fears and feeling unpleasant emotions fully is how we begin to heal. When we dismiss/suppress them, they keep to resurface over and over reeking havoc in our psyche and disturbing our peace. And this is madness 'cos none of that stuff is even real. Check out Eckhart Tolle's talks on 'pain body' and how the ego feeds off it, powerful stuff.

Spiritual Traps discussed in this video: The Enlightenment Trance, Imitation and Concept, Beliefs and Stories, Non-Duality, Mind and No-Mind, Inclusion and Exclusion, Spiritual Fascism, Avoidance of Stopping, Silent Awareness: The Resolution. What have been your spiritual traps?

@AlwaysBeNice Yes, that's why shadow-work is so important. I repeat it again and again on these forums. It takes time and effort to root out the conditioning/programming that hold us back.

Same here. Perhaps our survival mechanism is the one to blame

@Preetom Practicing gratitude and Being helps me to avoid the meaninglessness trap. I also used to be in the 'ego death' trap, now learning to integrate the ego instead of trying to eradicate it. Got to be aware of those traps, so we're not so easily caught into them in the first place.

Cool! @Emerald and @Brody live in Florida too. We'll all have to get together sometimes

@S33K3R I agree. Spiritual ego bumping over a concept(s) is futile indeed. The best way, I found, is to simply do your work, and those with eyes to see and ears to hear, will respond.

And when she grows older and 'nice' are no more, what do you do with her then? Make sure she's got some brains too. As Judge Judy says, "Beauty fades, dumb is forever"

Yes, victim mentality goes out of the window as one grows spiritually. No one to blame, not even oneself.

@Brody I live in Melbourne, FL USA and I've been doing this work for about 2 yrs now. I see you're new to the forum, so welcome! Feel free to jump right in

@Toby Yes, unconditional love/truth includes all the 'good', the 'bad', and the 'ugly'. And the rapist would be as much of the embodiment of it as a saint would. Morality is a product of the ego - what hurts us is labeled 'bad', what gives us pleasure is 'good'. This is how duality stuff works. But I'm with you on the fact that we want reality to be our way. Dual reality, however, will never be our way, it's impossible. A character in a movie does not dictate a screen-writer how to write a script.

@Jani I agree. EQ (emotional intelligence) is as or even more important than IQ.

@Toby Abusers do not see their actions/motives as abuse, they are simply driven by low conscious impulses. I studied psychology and if you listen to a psychopath's side of the story, you'll notice how their motives to hurt others are always justified and always tied up to victim mentality. When a person is relatively healthy psychologically before an awakening, their perspective just gets enhanced by all the good and wholesome emotions they've cultivated during the course of their life prior to the shift... like for example, yours and mine and folks on the forum, was. On the other hand, when a person who has been severly traumatized in their developmental years and the only way they know to love is through trauma bonding, their awakening may not cure that wounded place. It might take them a long time to even recognise the fact they had a wound in the first place. And those self-realized who recourse from hurting others can sometimes turn that victim mindset onto themselves, thus a monk burning himself in fire. Those people had masters or even were masters themselves, yet they never worked out own self-loathing/ effectively cultivated unconditional (self)love/compassion. That's why they're stuck at the Blue stage of psychological development. Watching Leo's new vid on Why People Seem Crazy... good insights there too.

That's what life is - a dream

@Mondsee What is life? Each form will give you a different answer. My answer is to share, experience, and celebrate existence. Better done with a sweet friend at your side

@Toby Animals see reality as is and most of them even have no self-awareness, yet they still run on their natural (and some on predatory) instincts - survival mechanisms. Those Zen masters who operate on low conscious psychological patterns are not much different from a predatory animal. A psychopath won't turn into a saint as the shift occurs. It all depends on which stage of psychological development one was at when they awoke. That's why I'm such a proponent of shadow work following self-realization - we all have issues we need to resolve, be one awakened/enlightened or not. Osho collects women and expensive cars and Buddha was known for occasionally indulging in too much alchohol, while both enlightened. Their natural instincts and conditioned behaviors were preserved even after awakening. And the list can go on. A tough bullet to swallow, but It is what it is.

@I Am That In his Systems Thinking video last week Leo was talking about the Yellow Stage consciousness and how it's more advanced comparing to the Blue, Orange, and Green. Zen is in the Blue dogmatic stage. One could be enlightened at the lower stages of psychological development, yet they wouldn't be advanced enough psychologically to properly integrate the ego and follow up awakening with effective shadow work, at least right away. Enlightenment doesn't make one automatically a high conscious being. You have to advance yourself psychologically as well. Thus, Yellow stage consciousness = Self-realization + Properly integrated ego/Shadow work. I don't think Tier 2 is possible without these 2 factors.

Eckhart Tolle's material is great for times like this. At some point in the past I binge-watched his vids and read his books in a matter of days. Also, check out his interviews and guided meditation vids.

@Progress Have you watched comedy Office Space? The main character stopped caring and as a result got everything he wanted when he did care and nothing was coming his way

@Dan Arnautu Love listening to Alan Watts. Thanks for sharing.

True. One has to cultivate compassion after an awakening, especially if they lacked it before the shift. Self-realization does not guarantee a shift in one's moral compass.

@Snick Yes, I was born and raised in Odessa. It's the Black Sea resourt with lots of culture, so there are a lot of tourists visiting all year around. That's how I learned English A beautiful city indeed. I have friends here in the USA from Sweden. Ulla and Mark had me over for Swedish meatballs recently and they were delicious C(:

They get it - world peace starts with an individual's freedom from their own mind. When we have peace that transcends all understanding (ego-mind), we get that much closer to the world peace.

@Natalya Privet! Are you from Ukraine too?