Forestluv

@SageModeAustin Do you want an open or monogamous relationship? A FWB can be open or monogamous. They are inter-related, yet also have some distinctions. An can FWB carries issues to work through as dies an open relationship. I wouldn’t assume they are the same thing. If you want an open relationship, I would look into how open you want it and communicate that. See if she is on the page. There are many different forms of open relationships. To me, it sounds like the issues are more about degrees of monogamy / polyamory. There are various degrees. For example, do the two of you just want to flirt with the opposite sex? Perhaps sexting? Fooling around? Having multiple sex partners? . . . Ime, it’s best to be truthful and not hide stuff. To just communicate what you want. Personally, poor communication and uncertainty drives me crazy. It inhibits the development of trust and connection - and is a source of jealousy and stress.

That can be a difficult question to answer. I’ve also had a pattern of ADD symptoms and know how disruptive it can be in life. Substances can help, yet as you mention can carry side effects. Personally, I would try a variety of different things and in different combinations. For example, caffeine / sugar intake, stress, triggers for distraction, meditation, practices to relax the mind-body, sources of neurosis, blocks, sleep quality, exercise etc. I’m not opposed to substances and I’ve used them beneficially - yet there is more going on than an one substance can fix and I think it’s helpful to look at the big picture of my lifestyle and how that is contributing to the symptoms. For example, after spending a couple weeks in a remote village in Belize, I reached very relaxed states of mind-body. Stress and worry dissolved and I became highly in tune with the environment and felt connected to the people in the village. ADD symptoms were greatly reduced - perhaps by 70%, without any substances. Upon returning home to “real life” and work, the symptoms started intensifying again. This indicated that its not simply “just how my brain is wired”. Something else is also going on.

@Dodo I’m contemplating how I can effortlessly I understand English. No translation or effort is needed. I don’t even think about it. I don’t have to *try* to understand English. There is no *doer* in my brain. I just automatically know. However, my second language of Spanish involves effort. I often need to translate and think about meaning. There is the sense of a doer trying to understand and speak Spanish. . . When I lived in S. America, I admired how natural it was for locals to speak Spanish. It flowed beautifully without any effort. When I commented on this, they would laugh and say it’s just second nature. At times, I had questions about how they automatically knew meaning - for example there are words and sentence fragments that can have multiple meaning. I would point this out to my teachers and ask “how do you automatically know which it is?” At times, they would look confused and say “That’s a good question. I never looked at it like that before. Huh, I don’t know how I know, I just know. I’ve never thought about it before”. . . It is effortless to them. It’s so effortless that the “issue” requiring effort doesn’t even exist. Just as English is effortless to me. Sometimes I skype with people learning English. The other day a guy asked me “How do you know when to use the word ‘job’ and when to use the word ‘work’. It’s so hard to know the difference!”. I paused. I had never thought about that before. Yet, I can see how that would require effort for someone learning English. Yet for me, it’s so effortless that that “issue” never existed for me. What you wrote about the effortlessness of pure being reminded me of the effortlessness of understanding one’s native language. There is a natural flow that is not disturbed by a doer trying to do something. There isn’t even the “issue” of a “doer”. It just happens. ?

?? It can feel strange too. Especially initial experiences. This is a great exercise. I came across this while learning my first foreign language, Spanish. For two years I tried to create new symbolic meaning to symbols that had no meaning. I initially gave Spanish words English meanings by translating in my head. After a while, the Spanish words simply had meaning with no translation into English words. Then. . . I realized I was doing a subtle form of subconscious “translation”. When I see (or hear) English words, the stimuli is automatically “translated” into meaning without any effort. This is the goal in becoming fluent. The ability to subconsciously and effortlessly give meaning has immense practical value, yet it is also a filter and alters/limits the essential nature of ISness. Words and thoughts seem to be the main machine in assigning meaning. Without words and thoughts assigning meaning, the direct experience is very different. Yet it’s a deeply conditioned system. As you mentioned, try to look at an English word as a bunch of squiggles and lines. It’s very difficult. Yet if I look at Chinese characters, it is effortless. In this context, we are “unlearning” meaning. It’s not to say that assigning meaning is “bad”, it’s that assumptions and attachments to meanings can cause distress in a mind-body. As well, there is so much more to experience / beingness than meaning. Sometimes I walk in nature and try not to give labels and meaning to everything I am sensing/perceiving. Similar to your word exercise, it’s really hard. Sometimes I get frustrated, yet I try to relax, get curious and fun - more like it’s a game. Then it’s easier to relax into a state of beingness in which meaning is absent, it just doesn’t appear. That pure beingness is ISness. My mind wants to give it meaning by calling it beautiful or love. Yet in the absence of assigning that meaning, it just IS. Similar to absence of meaning when looking at a word. It just IS. I’m also realizing that it goes deeper than words / thoughts. Underlying feelings also assign meaning. In my mind, thoughts seem to take center stage. When words / thoughts slow down, it becomes apparent that feelings also assign meaning. Yet this is a different “language”. A language without words. Thanks for this prompt, it got me contemplating. I’m curious if you have more contemplations/thoughts that may arise in this area ?

A short video on the grass roots Denver movement.

I like that the one initiative in Oregon legalizes psychedelic therapy and is being run by health care providers. The MDMA trials just started stage 3 trials and is many years away from reaching regular clinics. I hadn’t thought of this route before. It seems like it could be much faster. If this passes in Oregon we could see professional psychedelic therapy by 2021. With positive results, word is gonna get out and social support will skyrocket - just like it did for stem cell therapy I can’t find an organized website for California. It looks like an initiate failed last year due to an overreach. They tried to legalize its sale, rather than simply decriminalizing or legalizing psilocybin therapy.

I just donated to the Oregon campaign. There are two campaigns. This one is for legalizing psilocybin therapy and is being run by therapists. https://psi-2020.org/ I read these shroom campaigns are being run on tiny budgets, so small donations can have an impact.

Interesting that the chief petitioners for the Oregon initiative are therapists. Unfortunately it looks like their are two competing groups to legalize shrooms there and it’s gotten nasty. They gotta get on the same page. I hope if the decriminalizing dominoes continue to fall, it will loosen restrictions on researching psychedelics in laboratories. The restrictions are brutal right now.

Yep. It looks like a crazy 4th quarter comeback. A three point buzzer-beater. A razor thin win that still needs certification

What a crazy day! The bill was down big last night and all media outlets called it’s defeat. What an amazing turnaround. This is a huge step in awareness. I hope it goes well. A lot of people will be watching Denver as an example. . . Oregon up for a vote next in 2020 And kudos to the workers on on decriminalize campaign. I read they put an enormous amount of time in outreach - including a lot of old school door-to-door outreach

I get a lot out of weed. It is one component of my “spiritual” program. In particular weed and yin yoga synergize beautifully. It’s taken me to some amazing spaces.

I listened to the lottery draw discussion part about halfway through. The religious man gives a common ideology to argue the existence of an intelligent creator - it’s a variation of the “fine tuning argument”. That is, imagine a lottery draw of 1 million numbers. To get a particular combination is so infinitesimal that it’s virtually impossible. Yet that is from the perspective before the lottery has taken place. After the numbers are drawn, there is a 100% chance those numbers were drawn. There is a 100% chance that what is IS. I’m not arguing that some form of “supernatural” intelligence doesn’t exist. It’s just that this particular argument for an anthropomorphic god is nonsense to me. I appreciate how respectful they were to each other.

Ime, weed can be a great tool, yet psychedelics have powers that weed does not.

It’s much easier to speculate about SD stages beyond Turquoise than actually embodying stages up to Turquoise.

That is the Perfect perception for your mind to be having right now. How could it be ant other way? Just be mindful of a mind’s tendency to hyper personalizing things and drifting into name calling.

@Leo Gura Nonduality can be hard to communicate without a self entering and becoming attached/identified. It can be very subtle and sneaky. I notice that dynamic appear in my mind from time to time.

@Fountainbleu That is a low dose and frequency. You may be hyper sensitive to it, or perhaps some additional environmental inputs are contributing as well.

I don’t think we are on the same frequency and it’s best I step aside here. I think I would be counter-productive at this point. ?

I can see JP pulling up some people up to blue/orange. Yet his demonization of Green will make it much harder for them to transition into Green. They would need to recondition a lot of beliefs. I’d much rather see some that simply pulls people up to Orange.

This is the fundamental root of the block. The particular “fact” is irrelevant. It is this orientation of the mind which will resist expansion and keep it contracted.

Correct. And you don’t seem to be open or interested in seeing what is being pointing to. This is a common dynamic of the psychological self. The self clings to objectivism for a sense of grounding.

Of course. Yet the difference between us is that I realize I am a somewhere pointing to a nowhere. You haven't yet had the direct experience of nowhere yet. Thus there is no contrast between nowhere and somewhere.

Sounds like attachment and identification to a perceived external objective reality. This provides the mind-body with a sense of grounding, yet will eventually collapse upon closer observation. Trying to "back up" a relative view with "evidence" is a classic external objective reality delusion. It happens all over. Science, philosophy, spirituality etc. . .

It sounds like this approach is resonating with you. I love to see that

This seems to be getting into dualities and attempts to define love in relative terms. That doesn't resonate with me, yet it may with others. For example, if love is surrender - then love isn't non-surrender. I've seen and experienced forms of non-surrender I would consider love. That is why I'm saying these relative definitions are limited.