SOUL

Right from the first sentence there is a mistaken perception, the ego isn't dysfunctional, it functions exactly as it does. What may be dysfunctional is the concepts, ideas, emotional responses and self perceptions it employs as it does what it does. The very manner it functions in can be used to remedy the dysfunction of the content it employs so that we can heal in a holistic way.

I chuckle quite a bit at the stuff I read on this forum because I don't take the back and forth chattering all that seriously and I don't take it personally. It's just people doing people things, the ego is a sneaky facet of our psychology and it exerts influence on our perceptions and behaviors in ways that are often difficult to suss out. I began my journey decades ago, before there was even an internet so I spent alot of time face to face with people on a spiritual journey in quite an array of communities. I learned that people could adopt a 'glowy' disposition and have all the spiritual jargon and rhetoric on their lips but still not have an authentic experience of what they are portraying. Online now someone doesn't even have to have that 'glowy' disposition, they can just line up the words in text that fits the discourse and seem like they are something but behind the keyboard in their own inner life they aren't. So when you say you know someone is or isn't, insert your favorite bull crap spiritual term, you are just imagining you do. You really don't know it. It's helpful to realize that our perceptions of others may not be accurate, we don't know what's going on with their inner life and to believe we do is only in our mind. We can get some insight through the words they use but again, online people can write words that may not reflect what really is. Speaking of words, especially spiritual ones like 'enlightened', are abused to the point they may not be useful anymore. I know from direct experience that there are a few different facets of inner work and that don't necessarily correlate with each other. How these different words apply to those different facets is a vague and subjective thing. So, saying that someone is or isn't something using one of these spiritual terms, especially online, is more about projection of one's own contextual understanding and through the veil of subjective perception. You just don't know, making claims about others with regard to the state of their inner work is a fruitless endeavor other than food for ego. You don't need to apologize for anything and after further contemplation it actually seems like it can be helpful going through this rhetorical dance as I called it. There can be benefit to others reading our exchanges in learning that saying others are or aren't one of these spiritual terms is useless except to ego. That exercise may have value. It's great to see Leo chimed in to clarify his intent for the apology...of course, words said on the internet don't necessarily portray reality accurately. Haha

To be fair, as we grow in awareness we can become aware of the effects of our behaviors and words have on others, we can actually experience a first hand like experience of it and have an intimate knowledge of those effects in ways that we previously didn't have. So we don't necessarily need to project any emotion onto this, it can be something that is recognized as a sort of performative act to signal to others our intent to reconcile many different types of things as well as this simple act can make an impact on others and allow healing to happen. You declaring why he 'solely' did it may or may not be as you suggest, only Leo can answer that. Also, I'm not sure where you get the notion that you have any authority to determine what is or is not being awakened and who is or is not awakened. This isn't the first time you've said this to me and I suspect I'm not the only one you have said it to. It may have your desired effect on others who you say it to but I see through this ploy and has little to no effect other than for me to chuckle at your own arrogant hubris. I hope we don't have to go through this rhetorical dance again.

Do you mean he doesn't have to apologize or that he doesn't require an apology? I didn't say he should do either, though, did you think I did?

I will take your sentiments into consideration but I don't require an apology for your personal attacks towards me on this forum, this reply included.

Transcending the human perspective to awaken to a universal perspective doesn't mean that one should just dismiss human social interactions altogether. An apology is a way for someone to reach out to others to let them know they are aware the dynamics between them have been strained in some way and taking responsibility for the part one may have played in it. Although the apology isn't the end of the situation, it's more like the beginning and in fact, without resolving the issue that caused the straining and behaving in a way that remediates it then the apology wasn't much more than a token gesture and is not a genuine acknowledgment. So time will tell what this really is, the present moment will continue to reveal its actual nature.

The challenge for us is to remain present with the typical distractions of every day life. There is a misconception that we need to 'control' our mind, that we need to do something to tame it in order to remain present. This is the ego creating self identity around spiritual activity and is empowering the distraction as much as it is empowering a perceived part that controls it. The happenings of life are used by the self identity as a distraction from being present then turn around and use the supposed spiritual activity of controlling to create more distraction while all along being present is ignored or destroyed in the process. 'Being present' isn't an activity that one does in place of or instead of tending to life's daily chores, it is a nonactivity that exists in awareness simultaneously as we tend to those chores. So cultivating an inner life that has this coexisting dynamic builds a healthier mindset than the controlling one. The inner environment of coexisting that has a sense of peace even with the so called distractions is possible where one of controlling is by nature in conflict so a sense of peace isn't possible even if the distractions are kept in check because the dynamic is always tenuous and in tension.

I've spent alot of time camping out in the wilderness and in NM I spent alot of time near some hot springs. We used to sit in the springs at night and watch the light show as we called it. These mysterious lights zipping across the sky, even sitting motionless for an hour or so until the military jets come to check them out and they'd wait until the jets get real close then in an instant race off away at a speed that made those jets look like they were the ones sitting still. This would go on all night long, night after night. I'm not going to claim anything about those lights other than they were silent, moved in ways and at speeds that no known human technology can. If there were a long history of crashed 'ufos' then we'd have come across them many times before even if we had no clue what to do with them. This suggests it hasn't happened before...or since, too.

This is just speculation but if we are being visited by some extra terrestrials the question I would pose is why have they never crashed before and why does it seem like they only crashed at the time they did? Humans were only exploding atomic bombs in the atmosphere for a very short time and it was during that short time in which the only really widely 'known' crash is to have supposedly occurred. Could it be that setting off an atomic bomb in the atmosphere messed up their technology enough to take one of their crafts out of the air and crash? Again, this is just pure speculation.

One member thinks alien insanity is boring...duly noted.

In a world that requires a dollar, you seem to believe he provides a dime, but really he's only offering his two cents.

Contemplate the notion of rude awakening...then realize it isn't.

Just straight to the point, if someone uses another person's ideas of success they won't measure up to it, and it's not just because what one seeks for in life is not what someone else does, which can be a powerful insight in itself. Genuine success is not something accomplished, it's a state of being. Of course, I just pointed out the part about using another person's ideas about success...so feel free to disregard mine.

No need to create any self suffering from it, it's really nothing to let it disturb our peace. Words are whatever. Just be.

@Anahata Oh, you are pointing at something, ok, well, then nevermind.

If you divide white light with a crystal or water it creates a rainbow and if you combine the rainbow of material pigments together into one it creates black. Contemplate that...

Ah yes, another person on the forum telling others 'you are doing spirituality wrong' with even calling out Leo to explain your way through how you think he is doing spirituality wrong. To be fair, Leo himself also does this on the forum. I encourage everyone to realize liberation, which is the cessation of self suffering because once one abides in that all 'truth seeking' with the accompanying parsing out of what one believes is the truth is recognized for what it is. Until then, good luck with the mystical mumbo jumbo, I hope it leads you to well being.

I will mostly frame this in the context of romantic relationships but it is generally accurate about almost everyone so we can be aware of it when we interact with others. I have found that people will reveal to us so much about themselves when they are talking about others, especially past relationships. We will learn how they will talk about us to others and about us as a past/present relationship. So when we meet someone and specifically in the case of someone we may view romantically listen closely to what they say about others and their past relationships. It doesn't mean it's always a red flag if they have anything negative to say about others or their past relationships but be aware of how they talk about these others and what they say about themselves in the context of the circumstances and narrative they are portraying. This gives insight into how they think now and how they likely will tell it presently, not what they think and say of it in the past or the future, though. We can even apply this to ourselves, be aware of how we view our own relations and what we say about them. The aspects of the circumstances we highlight or ignore, the narratives we create about them and how we portray them. I've been aware of this for a very long time and even catch my own mind trying to 'tell stories' about past, present and future people and situations that I will not believe because it's just self bias. Also, be aware of how we 'tell stories' about others to others, it will give insight even to oneself about how we think about and view it all. It will help to interrupt the reflexive bias the mind will conjure up and allow us an opportunity to view things in clarity. Finally, don't beat yourself up because of this, even as I have said all this stuff about being aware of how people tell the stories of the things in their life it does seem like you take some responsibility for them though they might not be yours to claim.

Truth is some conscious agent efforting to verify what it perceives as real for justification....wisdom is that conscious agent realizing it doesn't require justifying effort to be at peace with what is so is in liberation.

So raging at others who don't accept your word as gospel truth is now them raging at you? Wow...just wow.

This is often what happens with 'truth seekers', they believe their experience is the absolute truth for everyone, preach it like they are an authority about it then lash out attacking others if their word isn't received as the gospel truth they think it is.

Go back? I'm not sure you thought this through...there's no going and no back... Also, sorry to hear about no healing for you, others can and do heal whether you ever experience it or not.

What if someone is addicted to pickleball? Asking for a friend...

I'm not one for esoteric deepities, so I take a practical approach. Although, it's difficult to express it without touching on some abstractions. In the mind there are sensations associated with motivating our behavior for survival and these appear in what we call awareness. These are things like emotions, thoughts, urges, impulses and such. The ego is the story telling part of our survival process that pulls all of these into a self identity, which it seems humans have a quite developed sense of this. The issue with ego is that it will use even suffering to get what it wants as long as it motivates the behavior for survival. In fact, suffering without actually being under any actual present duress is a very powerful tool for it to do what it does, it's imaginary suffering, it's self suffering. Also, the story it tells is an important part of its process, so it protects the story as if its life depends on it...because its life is the story. All of these things I've mentioned like mind, self, ego and awareness comprise what we call consciousness. Yet awareness, though being a facet of consciousness also can transcend the appearance of individual consciousness and awaken to absolute consciousness. So the ego is merely the storyteller of our individual consciousness.