SOUL

I came across him more than a decade ago and there was always something about him that was off putting but I could never really put my finger on what it was. I just watched some of his recent stuff and now it's very clear to me what it is. Very logical way of trying to systematize his experience and another who thinks their perception is the ultimate truth that most everyone but him can't understand. He holds alot of grudgy and judgmental energy much like Peterson does, in many ways he's a precursor to JP. This leads to a lack of well being in him and his effect on his followers doesn't seem geared towards well being, it's an exercise in 'I'm right' and 'I know the truth' in an egoic stroking. Then I came across some really yikes comments from him about eugenics...or as he called it 'soft eugenics' that he tried to backtrack from it as it appears he realized how this would be received. How people should apply to have children and other people, the ultra-intelligent would decide who is or isn't allowed to breed and what traits are the desired ones. Of course he put himself in the group of people who would be the deciders and how they should be the ones who controlled society....even though he constantly whines about the others who he doesn't like or respect he thinks controls society. Again this stinks of the self appointed authority of all that is right and good that Peterson also exudes in his attitude. Other than that his ideas are pretty common in the quantum consciousness ideology that has been circulating in the new age for like 50 years except he uses alot of complicated jargon to make it sound especially esoteric because he's still battling with a self induced conflict with a perceived opposition. We can see the fruit of someone's inner work in how they behave and for all his high minded ideas he comes across as still self suffering. So if liberation is something you seek in experience I'm not sure he's got much for you. It's not a matter or right or wrong, true or false and good or evil for me, it's about cessation of self suffering, liberation is the fruit I cultivate. Though to each their own way.

It is a common self justifying exercise for one to insist on projecting their own experience onto others. Through the perception of 'oneness' and the 'absolute' there is tendency to view it as universally 'true', that it's the only 'truth'. Is it not fulfilling to experience well being in your own perception of 'what is' that one has to tell others that your own view is the 'truth' for everyone? If they don't mirror the same your experience it's 'false' and they are delusional. Genuine liberation frees one from the desire, need or even the habit of 'truthifying' one's own experience and 'falsifying' another's experience. No matter how 'deep' one thinks they view from all of the perception is in our imagination. Being awareness doesn't require validation to be as it is.

There's really different aspects to what you are speaking of. First we have something of a desire that isn't satisfied with the physical, it's the spiritual churning one might call it. Once we have found contentment in just being present we experience no lacking and realize we are complete so the churning ceases. In this we are fulfilled with as it is and experience transcendent well being. Which brings me to the activities of life, if we approach them already fulfilled and all the joy of being that is expressed through us then we bring joy to the activity not seek joy from the activity. Our joy isn't dependent on the activity and it's acumen or accomplishment. This sort of orientation allows one to recognize which of the activities in life we do that actually resonates with our joy so it reflects it back. It feels as if joy is amplified by things that resonate with our transcending joy even though in liberation we experience a complete sense of well being and bliss once the spiritual churning ceases so it is already maxed out in us. This doesn't mean we stop doing the things we love, we actually have a complete joy we bring to them so can elevate the activity. Of course since that joy isn't dependent on them the struggles and challenges to refine them are steeped in the genuine joy of liberation not conditional appeasement of the self. I know the intuitive perspective would be to say that the spiritual path would also require alot of effort but the reality of it can be quite counter intuitive. Just being doesn't require any work at all, realizing that transcendent fulfillment in being present is the absence of attainment, it's recognizing already complete. So working hard to refine skill will allow one to achieve each next level but doing it while being present in realized completeness and fulfillment is an experience of joy that cannot be described though once one does experience it then it is understood.

Pardon me for parsing the map I hope this doesn't distract anyone from being present. 'only in the imagination' Imaginary are things that exist 'only in the imagination'. Our perception of everything happens 'only in the imagination'. Both of 'imaginary' and 'illusion' are something that happens in the imagination. Except that imaginary is something that only exists in the imagination but has no existence apart from the imagination though may be imagined about something that exists outside the imagination. Where as illusion is something that isn't as it appears as perception in imagination yet may have existence apart from the imagination even if our perceptions of it are only in the imagination. The conflation of 'imaginary', 'illusion' and 'imagination' into essentially the same meaning of 'does not exist' obscures the 'map' of understanding our perception and experience. The rock exists apart from our imagination but we only perceive it's existence in our imagination and it is when the rock hits our head that the rock and our imagination realize the 'oneness' of it all. It's a challenge to bring clarity to the nuanced explanations of the difference between these concepts behind the words that get thrown around so often in this discourse. Many from both the advocates and critics of this with even some of the most educated and involved in the discussion fall prey to the clouding up the understanding. Fortunately a clear understanding of this confusing buzz word salad isn't a requirement or precursor to being present, we can simply be it...no map is needed. We can experience liberation without any of this, liberation isn't a result from having the 'right' or 'true' map... more like from burning all the maps. Liberation is the fruit of consciousness in just being.

it is it is....

@Inliytened1 Did you notice your use of those words, too? Words are just part of the map. It appears you are trying to fit what I'm saying into your map which is why you imagine I have an 'Absolute Truth'. You may eventually cease to be distracted by the map, the map keys, the location, the destination and the directions on the map.

As soul I can confirm I go and come as I please...

So you must be just another jerkoff on a forum then....got it.

That's quite the buzz word salad you replied with. All those concepts you suggest are not imaginary.....the absolute this, that and other things are in the imagination of the mind. They are concepts that get psychologically primed into people's paradigm of understanding. Yea yea.... but you saw it in direct experience so it's absolute truth!...uh huh, the reason you interpreted the experience that way was because of the priming that happened. I wasn't exposed to those concepts when I initially had direct experience so my perspective wasn't of that interpretation and as I have been exposed to the concepts it doesn't mold the perspective in experience I have. This isn't about which is right or wrong, true or false and real or illusion. It's all in the imagination. Our experience of being awareness is formless so we will overlay concepts to help understand it. Some people say those conceptual interpretations are 'truth' which is just the way the mind 'trusts' the experience is 'true'. Every new experience is filtered through this conceptual paradigm to confirm it's 'truth'. Don't get attached to the conceptual paradigm, it's just a map and the map is not the territory yet the territory is formless so really has no map. It doesn't matter if a million sages use the same map as you do, it's not the formless territory, it's just an interpretation of experience. I know my reply might sound like a buzz word salad too but I had to use something you may understand. Our experience is all in the imagination.

Every interaction and perception of anything happens in the imagination of the mind. Everything from all physical senses of our body to the meaning that is gotten from arts or religion to the detailed explanations we get from mathematics and the scientific method. It's all in the imagination. Also as activity of the imagination is the inner work one does with the awareness, the consciousness expanding mystical experience. No matter how deep the revelations into 'truth' and 'reality' one thinks they are having through meditation and/or psychedelics it's all just in the imagination. So when people try to contrast 'real' vs 'imaginary' as if they have some genuine insight let's realize it's imagination. When someone tries to define what is 'truth' for everyone suggesting it's a universal factual reality because of what takes place in their own imagination it actually doesn't reflect the nature of existence. So as you explore your own conscious experience stay aware that it is only in your imagination.

You would have thought that the guy might do the smallest amount of effort to establish they aren't mistaken and looked up the definition of 'illusion' but alas it appears they don't know it. The basic first step in the discourse was a misstep, they build the whole argument about 'illusion' around it meaning 'not real' when the definition is more accurately stated as 'not as it appears'. Rookie mistake. After watching that video then bouncing around watching some others on other things I am exploring this video popped up on the sidebar in recommendations and I recognized Don from his Ted talk I watched years back and this video is a great discussion on the very subject. It takes a real scientific approach to addressing the meaning of when people say 'illusion'. Fascinating stuff for sure. Not sure I agree with everything said here but definitely is something to contemplate and consider.

Once one realizes pellucid then it's recognized all this staging and leveling of mystical experience can be a distraction from being present in awareness. One may notice that pellucid isn't actually on the color spectrum of this system...exactly!

Is Leo a dream character? More like a nightmare character! Amirite?

Well, sure, awareness of 'me' comes much earlier and quite honestly can be a more powerful motivator of behavior than the 'I' ls in many ways no matter what our age is.

All of us experience our first awakening in our youth when our consciousness finally matures to the point that we become aware of our consciousness, we awaken to our awareness and realize... 'I am!'. This is the moment when we finally are experiencing our consciousness with the meta-conscious aspect of it and not simply with the conditioned reaction to inner activity. An issue is we don't know it's happening, society doesn't alert us that it's happening or give us any insights to it's presence and how to use it. So we often blindly stay a slave to the conditioned mind for many more years, decades or even the rest of one's life if we don't ever have another awakening to our subconscious conditioning ruling the mind and behavior.