lmfao

@stevegan928 This seems like a funny idea. Here's my list from what I've seen The True vs False Skepticism video also hit me pretty hard. It's the simple truths which are most hard hitting and profound for me and so I like these videos which highlight what's at the core of suffering and unhappiness.

@Emerald The trend has existed pretty much forever. Non-dual truth can't be explained in words which is part of the whole problem in talking to people. The best I can probably say is that is every facet of your consciousness is spontaneous and that EVERYTHING is equal. I felt this experience very strongly today when meditating. You speak of people using non-dual truths to bolster their "other - ising " beliefs. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... I've read some things on this forum I deem to be fall into the category you describe, and it is wrong/egoic, but if I my memory is correct very little of what they were saying had non-duality as a discussion point. I'd be interested if you could link me an example of where you think this is true. You're probably right in calling some people out but I from what I know non-duality has very little to do with it. But I will still say that their perspectives are "valid", but of course "valid" is a word which is always relative to something.

@Roman Edouard I've been dealing with boredom recently as well. I'm trying to take the approach of using boredom as fuel to start healthy habits like reading and exercise.

@Tropic Love There are two different angles of thought/experience I've taken in coming to the "conclusion" that good and evil don't evil. Before I was ever into self actualization or consciousness work, I was initially a Muslim who then turned atheist. One way to look at the universe is that its just matter and energy which is shuffling and moving around in accordance with the laws of the universe, the laws of physics. These laws are precise in the sense that identical starting conditions produce identical results in all instances. Humans are just a complex configuration of matter and energy obeying the laws of physics, and so we are no more ethically responsible for our actions than a tennis ball is ethically responsible for feeling the force of gravity and falling to the ground. Although the second angle is to do with meditation experiences, I'm running out of time to spend online and so imma just end it here.

In b4 mods lock this thread

@MarkusSweden Exactly, yellow includes green. People in yellow can easily have the love of green in addition to "perspectives thinking". I'm not sure where you are coming from. You say that if everyone stayed in Green the world's problems would be fixed. The point of yellow is that you can implement whatever perspective necessary to fix a problem, and that fully includes green. You're deluding yourself mate, if you were truly at turquoise you wouldn't speak about moving backwards in this way. And if you want to grow yourself spiritually you need to start to see through the illusion of good and evil.

@Tropic Love To give you a bog-standard evolutionary answer, we enjoy the taste of and crave unhealthy food like soda and candy because they are high in calories. For millions/billions of years our ancestors have been struggling to find sustenance in the wild, and so when our ancestors came across a high calorie source it is beneficial for them to eat as much as they can from it because finding enough food to survive used to be a struggle. But our lifestyle in modern times differs greatly from that of our ancestors in the sense that having enough food to survive is no longer a struggle, but we have ancient machinery within us which is adapted to a different lifestyle. And as for why humans are hard-wired to survive as a species, consider if the converse were true. In this alternate scenario, our ancestors die out and they don't give birth to us. By definition, any species which currently survive must have the desire to survive passed down in their DNA otherwise we wouldn't be here.

@MarkusSweden to go to back to what the woman was saying, I'm someone who doesn't get surprised or outraged by injustices and I think most people are like this. That doesn't make them wolf, all that in of in itself implies is that the person understands and has accepted the existence of corruption in the world. In her analogy, a wolf is an asshole who has no problem with deceiving people in hurtful ways and a fox is someone who can fall victim to this stuff easily. The very thing I say from now is based on this understanding I have of her analogy. It is an ego driven paradigm which even if we entertain, doesn't account for everyone (she probably didn't intend it that way anyway). The are not only two ways of being which can be categorised as "cold predator" and "warm hearted prey". But it certainly is something to consider. The embodiment of a wolf would be red/orange and the embodiment of a fox would be blue/green, I am guessing. Just because you're warm hearted and care about people doesn't mean that you have to be run over. But I would be lying if I were to deny the fact that there is a trade-off in "protecting" yourself from the world and becoming cold, if we are to look at how most ego driven humans function.

I find this question interesting because I wonder at what point can you say that a guru is doing something unconducive for your growth. I've heard people talk about cult followings and manipulation on the part of spiritual leaders and find this interesting. A second thing I wonder is, does enlightenment and connection with the absolute necessitate that you be an ethical person? I believe the answer to that question is no based upon my own experiences with meditation for 7-8 months now. Behaving as a solipsist seems like a valid way of being. I could do all sorts of harm to people and it wouldn't matter, but it is instead the case that I feel the urge to be nicer to people and care about them. But the existence of enlightened criminals is something I see as being completely plausible, although these criminals wouldn't be impulsive and would just do what they can without being caught. What I'm talking about now is only tangentially related to this thread topic, but I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. Back to talking about my original question. Can you think of non-duality spiritual leaders who have abused their followers? Do you have footage of such people speaking? Are all spiritual leaders secretly assholes who don't give a shit about the well being of people, since they have seen through the illusion of good and bad? I have no idea at all how well I can spot a manipulator.

@PsiloPutty yeah this is a bit funny.

@Stoica Doru you're being silly. The words "my", "me" and "I" still have utility when communicating.

@RichardY You want to join a cult? Great. Just watch this video with an open mind and feel the quantum extraterrestrial vibrations as you take leaps in consciousness.To roam the circuit is to become one with it. We exist as superpositions of possibilities. Put this tune in the background as you suspend critical faculties and listen to our tapes. Thank you very much.

@cetus56 good answer

@SoonHei I had a friend with whom I talked about meditation experiences with and how I've come to the realization that my actions and my thoughts are as much mine as every other event in my consciousness. He was someone who is quite open minded and intelligent, so I knew I could have a genuine conversation with him. People who are genuinely into philosophy, psychology, maths and science at an intuitive level will be open minded to non-duality. These sort of people are rare though. Most people don't care about such things. The way I started talking about non-duality (although I never called it that) was to talk about what it means to be a happy person and how we are constantly lost in thought, and meditation is a good remedy. There is bait here for stage orange and stage green thinking. And I then talked about insights I found along the way after starting meditation. My friend doesn't meditate at all, in fact he was Muslim. Because of this, he probably found what I was describing uncomfortable at some level because it is easy to infer from my descriptions of non-dual experiences that free will doesn't exist. Overall though, he probably would have watched an alan watts video I linked to him had the video not been taken down on youtube. Even though I've said all this to him, until someone starts meditation they'll never resonate or truly understand what you're saying. I've tried getting 5 people I know (friend + 4 family members) to meditate, results have not been successful. I can't explain the idea of oneness of everything without it threatening their belief system and so I've purely marketed the fact that meditation improves mood and stops overthinking, helps you live in the present moment and be happy. But you see, religious folk who have been heavily indoctrinated will be forever closed to non-duality. To reiterate what I've learnt from talking to people, the best way I've found to sell non-duality is to market the benefits of meditation in terms that people understand. We are very neurotic people with low self esteem and cannot live in the present, and meditation will make you happier. And I'm not using the words "very" and "low" relative to what is average among people, otherwise I'd be contradicting myself to say that everyone is very neurotic. I'm using these words relative to what should be the case and/or relative to what can be the case. The five people I talked to were like "yeah I should try it" but everyone's too god damn lazy to do shit man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ego wants to end suffering, so that's a good way to market non-duality. Put yourself into the mindset of who you were before consciousness work.

@Psyche_92 I don't know what your exact position is like, but I know that if I had to pick I'd probably pick Buddhist monastery cuz yolo.

Preach.

@Revolutionary Think I've listened/read some Alan Watts and Peter Ralston. It's some good shit bro. I have strong reason to believe one of Leo's favourite book is "The Book of Not Knowing" by Peter Ralston. I'm currently reading the book, it's fairly big and very insightful. I like Alan Watts as well just because he's so good at phrasing and communicating things. If there was any video by him I would want you to listen to it would be: Shinzen Yound, Sadhguru and Jed Mckenna are all pretty dope from what I've listened to. I made this thread a while go which can help you find some good non-duality teachers Edit: I only just saw you wanted people you could directly contact as well lol. Idk man. It seems possible that some non-duality teachers respond to emails or have forums themselves. The core messages that these people want to give to you would be in book form, so don't get worried if you can't find anybody to talk to.

@SBB4746 honestly I have no idea whether what Leo said was right about 100's of books. I was initially confused listening to his videos because of the analogies of maze, rats and cheese but that was because I wasn't being "metaphorical" enough. There are an almost infinite amount of ways "cheese" can manifest. Common ones being wealth, validation, recognition, tasty food, sex, friends and etc.

@Outer@Geromekevin (accidentally put "@Outer" here) even though there are way too many variables and I don't understand enough about politics, imma make the guess that Trump won't win in 2020. @Outer you've asked what's Trump done wrong. Idk if you're referring to what he's done as a president or before that. Looking at some of the stuff Emerald posted (I only read most of it cuz I'm a slow reader and/or dyslexic), he seems to have been discriminatory towards black people buying homes and all these various happenings point towards him as being someone who will do just about anything for profit. He won't care if a few people are hurt in the process. Some of thing Emerald mentioned though seemed like meh/whatever to me though. When it came to him rejecting black people buying/renting apartments, I speculate that he probably would have done so because he had data which suggested that black people on average are less reliable with payments. Or this was conjecture on Trump's part. My speculation is based upon the presumption that Trump just wants to make money in this situation. His sexual harassment and groping shit doesn't make me like him either. All in all the picture I get of Trump is an overt manipulator who won't mind hurting people to get what he wants. From this, two things come to mind. On the one hand, so long as Trump's policies and legislative actions as president are good, his character and previous unethical stuff doesn't matter. I have no comment to make about how good a job he's done as president. On the other hand, the mere prescence of someone like Trump in the White House may cause racial friction in American society. Whether or not he does a good job, he's a dick. The fact that he brought up the idea of a Muslim ban spreads hatred and ignorance in a society. Even if Trump is power hungry, previous presidents probably were but they were just covert about it. Trump and previous presidents have probably been sexual predators. I can't remember any specific details at all, but if it is the case that Trump has consistently been degrading towards women and other minorities in his statements, then that ain't gonna have a positive impact on society. I don't know enough about Trumps actions as president to give an opinion of how a president he really is though, but he just seems like a dick to me. But you know, I was happy when I heard Trump got elected because I hated Hillary Clinton and Trump was the underdog. I almost always want the underdog to win. But I think that the me now would have reacted differently.

This thread has SPIRALED (bud dum tiss) out of control and the OP didn't even explain the reasoning behind the point of view that Trump is leading USA up SD hierarchy as it is described in the book he read.

Alan Watts: Three of my favourite lectures. If you've never listened to him, watch one one of the videos above. There's also this short little clip of Alan Watts in person:

@How to be wise What information did the book give on how Trump is supposedly leading his country up the spiral?

@Cortex logic doesn't work when you look at your present moment experience and ask "why does reality exist?". There is no answer to this question. It doesn't matter if you believe there is an infinite chain of causation, a circular chain of causation, an uncaused cause in the form of a deity. There's just existence. There is no why, it just is. Look at your present moment experience. There is all this stuff in your consciousness, but you don't know why it is there. Once you see past the illusion of past and future this is clear to see. There is just existence, and you don't know why it is there. Like if I try to switch on mindfulness, I'll be amazed at the fact that any of this exists at all.

@NoSelfSelf Mate that's just false though. Who's the "we" you are referring to here? Loads of people's life purpose arise around the states of being and emotions they feel when doing what they love, regardless of other people. Self-ish life purposes can still have a positive impact on the community.e.g. People who play music might be like this, people who play sports, people who master their craft, people who keep exploring an academic domain. Success alone won't ever bring your happiness, regardless of what you do. Only being satisfied with the present moment would give you that. Regardless of what can be true for different people, you're saying that for you in particular you want your life purpose to have a positive impact on the community. Am I right in thinking that? I feel like I have very little info from which to give you advice. Other than that the fact that your life purpose would have the consequence of helping people/animals, what else would you want from a life purpose? Do you want to be a doctor? A charity worker? A vet? A therapist of some sort? Am I wrong in suggesting these medical based profession? I know that your question is actually asking about how to transcend orange but I'm concerned about how perceive yourself and how you perceive stage green. Like I've said previously, many people pursue self-ish life purposes which still have a positive impact on the community in some way (but they don't do it because it has a positive impact). Just because you grow yourself into someone who cares for other people, it doesn't mean that your life purpose has to be some people-orientated profession where you directly interact with them and help them. I know that for me, I don't give a fuck about whether I "contribute to the world". Imma just do what's get me into the flow of things (studying physics and solving problems), and that gets me happy. Any small contribution I make to the world would be a welcomed side consequence. Life long monks who aren't helping people are perfectly happy. They're just going with the flow of the present moment. And if the flow of the present moment leads you to wanting to help people then that's also great. All I'm trying to say is that whatever you do, you should have a life purpose that you enjoy the present moment process of irregardless of what that means to arbitrary standards. In terms of transcending orange the best advice I can give is this video: Watch the end of this video for tips how to transcend orange. If you meditate and your ego shrinks then you will go beyond orange and you will be beyond the need for advice for how to change yourself. I agree with @Brittany 100% here, just try small changes at a time.