Ajax

@Mal Hmm, I certainly apologize if I offended you. There really is no debate here, I am just curious and ask for details. If you do not wish to engage on further discourse on the matter it is sufficient to simply say so, instead of of judging it as "mind games" and "energy leeching". Of course, I do get your desire to no longer continue this conversation so I will not discuss the matter further, my intention is simply to point out your misperception concerning me and my intention. Take care, Jax

I had a stressful day and maybe I shouldn't have jumped in this dog-fight. Might have bitten off more than I could chew. Regardless, I just came back from a long walk and have a much clearer head. I don't really believe that, virtually everyone has moral issues and if you are judging with any degree of prejudice, you are having blind moral issues. As of the context of what you were saying... I wasn't disputing that I was looking at your debate with Charlie and trying to "untie the knot". 1. Your parents, girlfriend/boyfriend, friends, teachers, siblings, ect... mind-fuck and undermine you... what makes Charlie different... he represents black marks on a screen... Just about everyone you talk to often claims to be a "guru" at one thing or another... why does this bother you? 2. It is the perfect platform even if it was "Blue" mentality like you said, it is still an opportunity to co-exist and share perspectives... There is some truth behind tradition and dogmatism and the wise will prospect for it.. The test of strength is being able to balance conflicting realities. The whole reason I got into this discussion was because I thought that you missed the point that he was trying to make. This quote, strengthens that viewpoint. His point was simple enough as I understand it... It is not violating the "moralizing" principle to openly acknowledge the horrors or the crimes committed. That is it in one sentence... So is everything I say... I understand moralizing it is just another way of saying "facing without reacting" or "not resisting". These are old but invaluable enlightenment concepts. I saw your reality I just jumped in the middle or your "fight" with Charlie as for what is going under my nose... well like I said I am more than happy to receive your viewpoint on what is going on... I like to know what is going on under my nose, that is where I eat!

@Mal You are right, I don't know exactly what you are trying to do... I don't want to prevent you from it and you are right I don't fully see your reality. That is why I was debating responding right now because I wanted to take the time to understand it. Would you clarify it to me in more detail for me? Spoonfeed and baby it for me as I do want to see your perspective, step-by-step.

I do see what you are saying and I do agree with you. It is a danger to start moralizing the "moralizing"... And yes, you are right that is what he seems to have been doing. I am sure he feels compassion for the woman/child who was hurt... and yes he should have been more mindful of making it clear that he does not approve of such actions and that they are harmful and barbaric to society. And yes, it was not the time or place to discuss the issue of neutrality with her so in that way he contributed to the outburst... however, I see what he was trying to do and it wasn't necessarily wrong what he did because he was practicing a very powerful self development concept, however at the same time you are right because she did have every right to get upset. I think what most of us students are trying to do is to handle the problem of criminality. This issue affects everyone, hell my human identity kicks in around strange children because I am afraid of being labeled a pedophile just because I am a man. Because of criminality people have difficulty trusting and even loving their neighbor. That is why us students want to solve the problem... and to many of the students, think that de-moralizing is one of the first steps. As, they try to understand the criminal mentality they understand that the criminality is in great part due to the victim mentality... therefore punishment does not seem to be a viable option because it makes them feel further victimized and possible more dangerous... but the problem we still don't quite know how to solve the issue so we moralize it by avoiding moralizing. @Mal You are right on many points but you are also moralizing... moralizing is being prejudicial. Being prejudicial means "anything adverse to something without sufficient knowledge." As an observer I can tell you are not fully understanding his viewpoint so you do not have sufficient knowledge.

Realize that this issue affects everyone not just those uninitiated to personal development. I would like to invite you to review the following thread, and a certain member who decided to"attack" "me". You see, even if you say a moral neutral statement, people will get upset that you did not condemn it and even assume that you are the "enemy" or support it... it's dualistic thinking which inhibits even the sages. So really you should be ready to expect such a response from any controversial topic that you discuss. It is what SHOULD happen lol!

@ChimpBrain Let's say for clarity's sake, that ethics means "applying the best possible solution given the circumstance." With this concept in mind, what will make us be unethical or have a lower level of ethics? Well, it is having a lower level of consciousness due to prejudice. If our thought processes are biased due to value judgements or emotions, we will not process the situation fully and therefore not make the "best possible solution". We perceive the situation through the lens of morality or social conditioning and so we do not see the situation as IS. Therefore, the potential to make poor decisions is high. Let's look at the issue of criminality... When we moralize a criminals actions, we start to punish them in order to hurt them for hurting others. However, if you loved your child and he did wrong... wouldn't you do everything humanly possible to help him in whatever way you could? When you punish someone... unless they have a high level of consciousness... you are creating a victim. By definition a victim is someone who does not take responsibility for their actions... So now you have a criminal who was probably already a "victim" who now is further victimized by society and is now judged and labeled/identified as a "bad guy" which further ostracizes him from society.... And then people wonder why he doesn't have compassion? However with "Transcendent morality" you love the criminal as much as you would your own kid. Therefore, you discipline him with love you may be harsh but you love him at the same time, accepting him and not judging him showing him how to take care of himself and how to care about others. Teaching him to actualized, how to survive without taking advantage of others. The rape scenario mentioned in this thread is an irrelevant point. A compassionate person is a responsible person, they would not idly stand by and allow others to be injured. That has nothing to do with Transcendent morality. If you saw your own kid beating up your other kid, obviously you would stop them and then try to prevent it from happening again...

Paradox isn't it? You are moralizing compassion and love. Do you know the difference between punishment and discipline? Disciple is intended to help and punishment is intended to cause pain. You can discipline others with love and kindness with force. As I said it is paradox. I think the reason that people struggle with paradoxes is because they don't have the mental flexibility to see how one idea connects with another, because they are thinking, not seeing/perceiving. I have said it before and I will say it again. Looking is a more intelligent act than thinking.

Try this: Step on broken glass to prove to yourself that you can tolerate pain. (don't actually do that I am just making a point) As long as you even hold the idea of "cheating" you are going to feel pain, cope or lower your consciousness to handle it. Cheating is a negative concept which is a value judgement. Your trust issues are a result of a lower consciousness, it is a personal journey to grow and and directly torturing your ego is not the way to go in my opinion. Listen to the other 3 that gave you advice. Textbook victim mentality. I would recommend listening to Leo's victim videos part 1 and 2.

What do YOU want? I imagine you don't even know which is why you are struggling. If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always gotten. Don't undo your mindsets, change it toward something else, creating a new reality.

@Falk Leo discussed this previously: I forgot about this one, I came about it by chance on my mp3 player. One thing about these polymaths is that they generally choose creative endeavors for mastery, in that way they can incorporate their interests in their work. I too do dream to be more of a universal genius which is why my mastery target is in writing. It is general enough to incorporate my wide array of interests and I can gain enough experience with it to have an easier transition into more specialized fields of writing if I so chose. The problem as you noted is both time and funds. Most of those "renaissance" men also were either from wealthy families or had wealthy patrons. Therefore, they had nearly all the time they wanted to be studious without the inconvenience of having a "normal job" or having to work. That is why one of your first goals should be discovering a way to generate some sort of income so that you can advance your intellectual pursuits. Fortunately, I was able to solve this problem by creating passive income. I was lucky in that I had family with business/economic backgrounds so I was much more educated in investing and in the art of wise spending. Also, I relocated to my hometown where the cost of spending is impressively low, so I can support myself on the cheap and I can use my funds and time for actualization. Just like Leo said, to get where you want to go... you are going to need an extraordinary amount of time and work into self-education. So the first thing you must do is ensuring you have the time and the work ethic.

I never heard of the man before you mentioned him. Fortunately, he has published books that you can get for less than $20.00. It seems like many of the courses require purchasing the book anyway. Therefore if you are interested in him, I would advise you to get one of those books first before you make up your mind. I just bought one of his books online and am considering purchasing one of his ecourses if I like his book.

There is nothing wrong with having a wide variety of interest, however, they are talking about career-wise. As population increases, competition becomes increasingly fierce. Therefore the person who produces the most valuable products and services are the ones that will be best rewarded. This can only be achieved with mastery. Unfortunately mastery takes so much time and effort to obtain so the more you focus on it, the easier it will be to master. I think that is one reason Leo discussed Lifestyle minimalism.So you can have more free-time to think and creative and spiritual endeavors. However, one should still work consistently to master a skill for a career.

My thoughts exactly. That's why I only go after single ladies. I want a woman who can handle being single, it shows a strong, independent woman...which is something that I admire. She is strong enough to leave if things are not going well in a relationship and is compassionate enough to leave a man with as little hurt as possible. She has such a high level of decency that she will not be double-dealing with you. These are qualities of higher consciousness. High consciousness can and does override instinct. Furthermore, a "Disney" romance or "The One" doesn't exist things get real and the things get tough after a couple of years. It happens to everyone, stormy weather is bound to happen. Our love and relationships are tested in times of trouble and one who is willing to betray their love and partner when life throws challenges is NOT someone who I want by my side. Of course every case and person is different, but as I said in my first post it is something to think about and be aware of. As Cuzzo said, being flighty is instinctual and so the chances are greater that you will get hurt if such instinct is strong in a woman you are courting.

I am not a dater... Carry on with your hot sex, may it make you happy.

I have no prejudice toward such a person, it IS the way of modern humanity. However, betraying a loved one is NOT an ethical solution... the end never justifies the means. If she was really being true to herself, she would leave with out treachery. I may stand alone, but there are women who understand this. I just have high standards. They are out there, though I admit... one may have better luck finding UFO's!

@appleaurorae He is getting into the really advanced stuff now. If you are not ready to hear it... don't worry about it. One day you will. Just do this slowly and gradually. For example, take 20-30 minutes to enjoy your supper. There used to be this thing called "table conversation" where people would just sit and talk and relate sometime for hours at a time. Then they would retire to the den sit by the fire and talk some more. In the south there is an activity called "porch sitting" and it was an open invitation to just sit and visit with your neighbors. In this way the "home" extended past your home into your neighborhood. Unless you have personally experienced this, you wouldn't know what this is like. Here is an example of slowing down in my youth and how it increases productivity. I was often by myself and my parents didn't allow tv in the house. So I had a ball and a basket ball hoop. Since I was by myself and didn't have some sort of contest to play, I slowed down and wasn't trying to make as many basketball shots as possible. Rather I simply focused on practicing on my technique to make the basket. So I might have made one shot a minute, Yet, every shot was slow, deliberate and modified an increasingly evolving technique. I got to the point where I made the shot almost every time. In time my speed increased considerably as my technique improved. And when I played kids at school, I outshot every one there. I didn't have the greatest ball handling skills but boy could I sink those three-pointers. When you say "magick" do you mean "prestidigitation" as in magic tricks. If so, I have a bit of knowledge in that field. The tricks really are simple and repetitive. Most of them rely on slight of hand. Today's magician are woefully deficient in the finer points of slight of hand. They may fool the audience, but they don't fool me. The great magicians of old would spend hours upon hours and days upon days on just a few polished acts. Then they would work on their patter and presence to pad the time between acts. This would also take, days, weeks, months to perfect as well as they were intended to build anticipation. Therefore, much of their "magic" resulted from their "act" not their trick. This was done by working hard but slow. You were perplexed about the working hard-working slow paradox. Why? All too often working slow is hard work. Don't believe me? Try dedicating a few days a week to meditating 5 or more hours a day... Try working 6 hours on one or two magic acts a day. Now, that's HARD WORK. Not physically perhaps but mentally it certainly is. Try this, instead of running one day. Just take a long walk through nature for 2 or three hours. Or go on a hiking trip and instead of just trying to get somewhere... Stop and smell the roses... Watch the murmuring of the wind through the pines, the cool gentle breeze on your skin, the joyful melody of song-birds. The wide variety of colors in the sky and on the ground and in the life. The veins and pattern on the leaves... have you taken the time to see and experience any of these things. You say you got places to go and things to see. But have you truly looked and experienced these things you are in such a hurry to visit? Could it be that you were in such a hurry to get to the next thing that you missed out on so much beauty for you to see?

The essence of what you are is a creator. Therefore, you have to honestly ask yourself, what is it that you want to create? It should be something with long lasting value and can allow you to express yourself and contribute to society. What is your vision for your life? What do you see yourself doing after 40-50 years. If those activities contribute to your vision, add it... if not, subtract it. If you don't have a vision/direction to go... then you already know your next step work on that. Sorry I didn't provide you specific answers, however, it is your life and your creation... no one should paint on your canvass that you are painting. In short, it is your creation.. your choice.

I started personal development at age 12 to augment my martial arts. I studied many of the eastern works such as Art of War, Book of 5 Rings, Hagakure, Tao Te Ching, Tao of Jeet Kune Do, etc... It was around this time I started practicing mediation dabbling with performance-visualizations which greatly advanced my skills in martial arts and tournaments. I started to drift away from this in my early/ mid-twenties and into cognitive enhancement(increasing IQ). Throughout the rest of my twenties, I deeply studied western philosophers and scholars such as Will Durant, John Dewey, Voltaire and Plato, just to name a few. About 2 years ago, during a youtube-surfing binge... I discovered Leo by accident. Incidentally, he was talking about the matrix and looked a little to much like cypher so I almost turned him off Anyway, I started to follow his more spiritual videos and it turned me into a new direction. Last month, I parted from my wife and went back to my hometown. Since I only have free time(I have passive income), I purchased Leo’s course and completed it within 5 days and discovered my life’s purpose. This opened up a flood of wisdom and insight...15+ years of theory building started to come together and I have had consistent enlightenment experiences since. I don’t know if I could say I am enlightened but those concepts are effortless for me to grasp. I also have total mastery of my emotions and even though it has been a month of separation from my wife of over 10 years... I have not experienced depression or any other emotion but peace about the whole matter since that experience. So to answer your question, directly... I don’t know. It no longer is a journey for me but a way of being that is how it appears now. I imagine that it will take me less than 5 years to get to enlightenment, if I continue on the same path that I am on. Right now I am in the process of getting through the books that Leo recommended. I don’t do sitting meditations anymore. I do, however, practice “awareness” meditations like early morning or on clear starry nights I go out and just expand my awareness as much as possible noticing and being aware as much as I can. I also do the same things with a long walks where I just "be and perceive"... This has helped me more than more traditional practices like sitting or breathing or inquiring.

In my opinion you should seek an actualized life. It is nearly impossible to commit 100% to enlightenment. There is just too much going on in the world and if you have even the slightest attachment to the material world and you pursue enlightenment, those attachments will hold you back for many years and you will waste so much time. So enlightenment should only be pursued if you really, really want to do it. If you are divided, don't do it because unless you are willing to take very drastic measures, you won't attain enlightenment for a very, very long time and the road will be unnecessarily challenging.

You're progressing just fine. If you recall Leo's description of the 4 stages in his victim video, you will remember that the 2nd stage is the fighter stage. The next stage is the creator stage, so just focus on that one. Keep meditating, reading, thinking, practicing and whatever else you do...you will graduate soon enough. In the meantime, appreciate the accomplishments that come with overcoming the victim stage.

Here is a basic fact about humanity: They like what they understand and they don't like what they don't understand. The reason they don't understand is because they have certain fixed viewpoints and limiting beliefs about something. Now these things are only resolved by self realization and trying to talk about it or explain something will be pointless. It a "teacup is overflowing" kinda deal. Course you gotta realize you can't empty their teacup for them. Therefore, if it bothers you... don't bother trying to explain. Just use the only weapon against misunderstanding that you can, Communication. Of course you know communication is sending and receiving. If you are sending communication sufficiently, then the problem is on the receiving end. Therefore any attempts that you try to communicate should be directed toward discovering the obstructions at the receiving end. This means that instead of talking, you must practice listening. You should be asking probing questions, asking for more details, better explanations, seek clarification, etc... This will accomplish several things. First, it will allow you to see the obstructions for what they are. Therefore you will see that they are based on assumptions. Therefore you won't take their stabs at you so personally. Secondly, it will force them to question their reality and therefore will possible open their mind to new possibilities or at least make them more self conscious about even bringing up the subject with you because they don't want to face the fear about questioning their own reality. You see the reason they are doing this is not because they are malicious... It is because they have this stable reality about life that they constructed by their considerations(fixed viewpoints). It is a false reality and deep down they know it. Therefore, they live in fear that if the truth was revealed, their fragile world would blow apart into a million pieces.(it might be a good idea to rewatch leo's video about lies). Since you know that they are living in fear, you should realize that the things that they do are out of fear. Things done out of fear are not sane, they are insane. Therefore from this angle you should understand that they are acting out of insanity. Reacting to insanity is not a sane thing to do. Hopefully this has helped, my friend

Yes, there are multiple paths that eventually converge at "Truth". I have chosen a path that is considerably different. The basic problem is the same on both ends. The distortion of perception. This distortion is what is preventing us from seeing more truth and becoming free. Let's call this distortion "falseness" Therefore the goal of both of these paths should be eliminating falseness. To the degree that your thoughts and activities depart from this goal, you are off the track. There is a specific thought process that can be used to tackle this problem, but I won't share it because I will not violate the guidelines of this forum and promote a product. You may contact me, privately, if that is your wish.

The mind distortion video is by far my favorite. I recommend that you keep trying to understand it. Here are two videos that really like:

UH, No..they..don't You don't need money to believe in yourself, you don't need any money to exercise and little money to eat decent food, you don't need money to talk to people and you have access to more information and answers than even the greatest geniuses before the 21st century and you are telling me you can't find your life purpose. Life purpose is something from within a self expression, you don't necessarily need money to discover it. You may need money to pursue it but not to discover it. I will repeat a trite old platitude: Excuses are like assholes, everybody has one and they all stink!

@Tomek To have and eat a cookie, one must be willing to make sacrifices that they might not want to make. For instance, you may need to give up capital, to find someone who can take care of your affairs. Additionally, you may find someone in the big city that may be willing and desire a smaller life. Or, you may find a business student who has finished their studies that might want to take a break before they enter the "real world" and managing their business could be an opportunity to manage your business. There are many, many solutions.. Additionally, do you have a plan to create some sort of business in the big city? Or are you so focused on keeping your passive income that you haven't the energy to start creating something new? If you could discover a great opportunity you could find a way to make money doing something you enjoy on a grander scale so that you can drop your previous opportunity. This a " trading your cookie for a better cookie" approach. This may take challenge and sacrifice but if one focuses on the end result, they should be happy. I would have been in a similar situation that you were in, but fortunately. My mother, who taught me everything I knew about business... was happy to take care of my business for me while I lived in the big city. I then created several different opportunities for myself in the big city so everything ran smoothly for me. I had to make sacrifices at first, for instance I lived in a house with many people renting, but the rent was only about 200USD total. I may have skipped a meal or two a few times ... but in the end, it was worth it because I got what I want. I think the secret is having a long-sighted vision.