outlandish

What do you mean by zen body? You will need more than 90 days to master the core teachings of the Buddha. For most people that takes several lifetimes

The fundamental problem with science IMO, is that it misses out on consciousness. Science tries to find a coherent model of an objective reality that is external to consciousness. Science is what you get when subjective observers, peering out from consciousness, put a story together of what is out there, without ever being able to peer back at themselves. The ultimate conclusion of this materialist outlook is that consciousness doesn't exist. Yet here we are, as conscious beings, experiencing being present in reality right now, and science really has nothing to say about it. Science is on track to be able to pinpoint the exact neuronal firing patterns that correspond to the experience of tasting a mango, but it seems unlikely to be able to explain qualia, why it is that there is an observer experiencing tasting that mango, or what is that observer, or what is the nature of subjective experience. Current science breaks when it starts looking at these questions. It's even hard to phrase these questions in language. Science is the investigational toolbox for understanding the reality we find ourselves within. Ultimately, if science is any good, it needs to look at the elephant in the room, but that may be impossible. Then again maybe not. Science has changed a lot since it's birth during the enlightenment, and the future is vast. It's interesting to note that the words science and conscious have shared roots. I don't have any disdain for science btw. On the contrary I think it's the essence of being a being in this universe and that ultimately spirituality is an extension of science (or vice-versa).

I hope this is a one step back, two steps forward kind of thing. Iran + Persia has historically been such a important cradle to human advancement. I hope Iran can incrementally progress forward again over the decades.

If you feel a thread has been unjustly locked, feel free to contact me or any other mod with your reasons why. We can unlock threads if a mistake has been made Mods won't stop locking threads that break forum guidelines Try not to take it personally if your thread gets locked or if you receive a warning. No one is holding anything against you Let's not over blow the importance of this forum, your thread, or of being a mod. Take a step back and it doesn't look like such a big deal

Sounds like a good call @noselfnofun Funny user name btw

Looking forward to these videos Leo, this is a crucial topic!

What will you do if you don't go to the retreat? What's the alternative, will you be in the dumps anyways if you skip it? Will the extra challenge of these life situations make meditation impossible? Do you think being silent with your issues will help you come to terms with them, or will it be more like picking at a wound? I think it's going to be really hard for someone else to answer this for you so the best I can do is bring up some questions.

Nicely said @ajasatya - I feel he speaks for me here, if not the rest of the mods as well. If you feel a thread has been unjustly locked, or a mod has made a bad call, feel free to report it. We are all human and are going to make mistakes. There's lot of grey area that we operate within. This isn't 4chan, we're tying to keep discussion on a bit of a higher level around here.

@tsuki @Mu_ I'm glad you're ok with it, but it's still against forum rules and it degrades the quality of discussion on this forum to have useless banter shouting back and forth. Let's try to raise the bar a bit around here.

@tsuki @Mu_ please refrain from name-calling. You have been warned.

@EvilAngel Leo hasn't done anything to you, you need to take responsibility for your current state of affairs. Also, your existential crisis is nothing to do with autism.

I'm not so sure about that. When you look at the state of our species objectively, we have never been further from extinction. As for the rest of life on earth; not so good.

David Bohm talks about the rheomode in his book Wholeness and the Implicate Order, which is his thought experiment or proposition to use language based only on verbs. The idea is that because reality is in a constant state of flux without any fixed state, this would be a more truthful way to communicate on reality. Apologies if this has been mentioned, I skimmed the thread pretty loosely.

@Shaun Yes it's the round cushion they use in zen sitting meditation. If you're going to buy one, I'd recommend trying it out in person rather than ordering on the internet because it's kind of nice to get the just-right sized one.

I prefer to meditate on my zafu

lol @whoareyou you typed the exact same reply as I was making. What he said.

I would not recommend combining LSD with cannabis, unless you're very comfortable with cannabis. It's a real wild card, and frequently is an ingredient mentioned in anxious/paranoid trips. It does intensify the trip, but not necessarily in the right way. It can be confusing and complicate things, so I tend to recommend steering clear. I would recommend a higher dose if possible. I don't recommend pursuing an ego death overtly. It's hard for an ego to die whilst it's grasping for an ego death. It's a tricky thing, to seek without seeking. Maybe it happens, maybe it doesn't. Be open to it, but don't expect it. Surrender, release into the absolute stillness at bottom of consciousness. Dwell in that space without resistance, and allow to unfold what will.

Yes, that's where I saw it, SFMOMA. It moved me to tears too! I think for me it was because of the association with this album that touched me so deeply in my youth. But also the serene beauty of that painting, it carries a lot of emotion. It was kind of a shock too, like running into a long lost best friend on the other side of the planet. I hadn't ever expected to see the painting IRL. The album is a pretty acquired taste/spicy kind of album. Noise rock, lots of clanging and overdriven guitars, beautiful noise stuff. It's widely regarded as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Not really into that kind of music these days, but still the album still sounds amazing to my ears, it's stood the test of time. Funny, I was listening to it on repeat for the first time in years a couple of weeks ago, and it still sounds fantastic.

It will be really interesting to see side-by-side comparisons of DMT and 5-MeO-DMT breakthroughs. I've never bothered with DMT, don't feel drawn to it, but I'm very curious nonetheless.

@Etherial Cat your avatar is great! I spent so much time listening to "Daydream Nation" in my (sonic) youth, and ended up seeing the painting in person in an art museum somewhere. Sorry to derail the thread, just got really happy to see that image again. @Western Buddha yeah don't let it bug you, try to let it go, it doesn't matter. Now you have a funny story to tell. It would be a really bad idea to hit her, not fair at all, so I hope you can abandon that violent fantasy.

Sure, but that doesn't leave much to talk about now does it? ?

@Enlightenment awesome thanks for the clarification! I've listened to that talk before, or at least read his stuff or listened to other presentations by him, but definitely need to revisit because it's such a big (and convincing) paradigm shift on how to understand how these drugs work - the mental organs model. And sounds like I had 5ht2a mixed up with 5ht7.

@StarStruck it's recursive and algorithmic

@StarStruck yes but be very careful with this mentality of earning enough money that it's not a first priority. There's no end to the feeling that you don't have enough money if you don't watch out. I highly recommend reading "Your Money or Your Life" by Vicki Robin. Please check this book out! It really helps put your life, work and money into correct position. I would say by your avatar that you have the potential to be a good programmer lol. It doesn't matter that you're 30 and not 20. You'll probably live to 90 anyways if trends continue, which they should.

Well, to be biological and reductive about it, 5-MeO-DMT hits a specific set of receptor sites on your neurons, especially 5ht2a if I recall. Weed is working on a completely different set of receptor sites, which are used by your system for completely different purpose. Weed isn't really a "true" psychedelic. Even LSD hits different sites than 5-Meo, although it's much more closely related, and there is a lot more overlap with the sites that 5-MeO-DMT affects. LSD, DMT and magic mushrooms are good examples of true psychedelics. A lobster couldn't experience the same thing because they are a completely different animal, but they might experience something analogous. It's pretty hard to imagine what it would be like to be a lobster, let alone a lobster on 5-MeO-DMT! I believe they do have 5ht2a receptor sites, but I could be mistaken. They at least have serotonin (5ht family) receptor sites, I think these are some of the most ancient neurotransmitters in our evolutionary tree. There was a very interesting study where octopuses were given MDMA. The molluscs demonstrated pro-social behaviour on MDMA, so there might be a lot of overlap in the way these drugs affect animals. Molluscs are very distant to humans, so it's pretty remarkable that it had this effect.