"Censorship works not by blocking the flow of information, but rather by flooding people with disinformation and distractions." -- Harari

Here's is the dirty little secret that almost nobody knows, and even if they did know this at one time they probably don't know it now.  And that is a clean life is a much more pleasurable life than a dirty life.  And you can only find this out by doing it.  But it's a discovery, and then you'll see that the trap of living the dirty life is people don't realize it's a more painful life in every way -- including but not limited to energy levels.  Sobriety in the widest sense is much more pleasurable than being doped up on all kinds of stuff, chemical and informational and otherwise. 

https://jordanbpeterson.com/great-books/

MEDITATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Make it to a routine to always listen to both sides of an argument - especially if one side provokes you.
Instead of having opinions about stuff - allow yourself not to know.

Agree up until the Sadhguru example. Sadhguru makes a lot of money... I'm not saying that as a negative but he his financially well off
Overall though I think a lot of people are on point - be creative in this pursuit. Look into other people like Shunyamurti who have amazing spiritual communities. It's honestly awe-inspiring. Be creative and open. Development along the path to this goal is tricky but I urge you to avoid going into the mindset of 'I'm going to develop myself to the highest level then save the world,' because you can isolate yourself to Buddha level but that doesn't mean you've developed yourself up the Spiral Dynamics spiral and vice versa - you won't get to a selfless Buddha level of spiritual development which is almost required at this point to really get the fruits of such selfless service and not have it be about the money. That balance is something you need to find. Some forms of growth you can't really get until you're pursuing your mission. For example, I can't be a successful leader just by getting more and more enlightened as fuck. The role of being leader demands growth while being a leader. 

if you la
ck self discipline , training in school is less emotionally painful than doin it alone , 

no idea...

While I generally do agree and see the point, people tend to be very expressive to how they feel and the things other people say. So on one side seeing video rebuttals can help open new perspectives. That is if you are watching the videos to learn and then make an evaluated decision on your own for your own improvement vs to just attach and defame somebody. The spreading of information and ideas is one of our great points as social creatures. The more edge case scenarios we have like this the more we can build a more robust model on the type of world we want to advocate for. Very few people are willing to lead.
I used to be very argumentative like them in my early high school years because my sense of raw nitpicky logic developed faster. It was a big ego trip to feel like you won an argument with superior debating skills. I can imagine a lot of people get the same off this stuff.

Laziness is fear of failure/fear of success. There is also the thing that some people are not lazy at all in and of themselves, but are perceived that way by industrial society or in comparison to people with a different lifestyle.

@Serotoninluv I think many ppl in society are not getting this...
When you're in a relationship, do you want it to last? Yes? Ok, then. Don't call it quits so easily. Just keep working and working on yourselves. That's it. All these "emotions" or talking about something or going out somewhere are just the icing on the cake. Even when you're together, technically you're still "single." What's keeping ppl together is simply because they accept each other for who they are, and they want to be together.

@p1xelmonk True, this Mikael guy is too depressed to post anything imo.

jesus christ. can somebody lock the thread? this is just getting too sad and pathetic.

Girls are different from one to another. Some Girls like my sister is beautiful in appearance but very tough and incredibly masculine in energy due to childhood trauma and impossible to converse with. Her soon to be husband is emotional and sensitive and caring but very reliable in time of need and hardships,and also is very social and has many friends and confident in his body. He has both qualities of feminine and masculine. She likes him so much and rely on him. She can be rough on him but deep down she will die for him. There are many types of girls. If you wan't to know how you can't fall into the trap of generalization. Mix zodiac signs with MBTI Indicator and cultural background and early childhood and medical history. If you successfully did this paradigm shifting technique by mashing all these together, you will see that nobody is the same at all and all your conclusion is false and simply your ego is taking reaction after one incident.
In terms of sexual encounter, the most available and confident and persistent guy wins the bedroom game. Not the most mascular, most intelligent, most tall, most strongest, fastest person. Women will always choose the available and so few will remain without sexual encounter. Marriage is different case

@Outer To be honest I have no proof that I am autistic, but I ascribe some of the non-neurotypical aspects about me to autism. I don't think autism is bad, it's just different from most people and there are different ways in which people are autistic. I know that I absolutely hate small talk. Besides maths, science, philisophy, non-duality, psychology and etc the only things I like discussing with people is anime and video games. My social skills can be quite poor in the sense that sometimes I don't know when/how to interject into a conservation without talking when someone else is talking. It's only recently that I've started to realise that my failure to appropriately time my speech in a conservation can be attributed to the fact that most people think/care about different things to me and so what I say may sound strange/random. I generally give no shits about societal norms (with the exception of saying "thank you" and "please") and about what people think of me. I may not be autistic but I'm different from most people, I don't really fit in anywhere. I've only ever clicked with people who are interested in scientific/philisophy questions.

Seems like you are looking for someone to worship and latch on to
To aim to follow mindlessly and absorb mindlessly
This is a trap, you think you're doing the right thing by seeking the perfect teacher, logically that's the one you will learn the most about
But in terms of consciousness you're trying to be lazy and not have to stay conscious of what you absorb and learn
An imperfect teacher means exactly that you will have to be conscious of what you absorb and learn, and thats what makes the teacher perfect
It means not dismissing everything and not plainly absorbing everything either, which you are trying to assert at the end of your post 
She is not fully credible and you should not just away 
 
To me she is enlightened, and she has a significant amount of presence
She still has a strong ego which shows in her through her femininity, through a very tempting aura, you can tell she wants attention, not in the way that she dresses but in the way she is being
Not judging though, just observing, these are natural stages just as ego translates in male energy through wanting to be tough guy
Her interviewer seems completely intimidated, and he seems to feel completely inferior to her
I have observed her in the past, she does not help me raise my vibration but she can help many people who are starting out, as long as you don't start worshipping her

Be careful what you wish for when you put yourself out there to teach advanced personal development to the masses.  I wish Teal Swan well and I think she means well.  The hate I see come her way is so unfortunate.  And it's all Ego, she knows that.  But it's still sad and unfortunate that she has to take that kind of ignorant abuse just to do her job.  I once had a Russian calculus teacher when I was at UCLA studying Engineering who told me in private that some dufus in class was just an 'ignoramus' for interrupting and making the most inane comments during class.  I never forgot that word 'ignoramus' or the thick Russian accent saying it in such a stoic way.  Hey -- 'he's an ignoramus, it's no sense arguing with him or hating him,' he said to me.  That stuck with me.  And by the way, this man was the most brilliant math teacher I've ever had.  He got his PhD in Moscow, Russia.  Dude was stoic as f*ck and brilliant as f*ck -- he never used a calculator to crunch numbers, he'd do it all in his head.  And he smoked cigarettes too, it was funny.  You'd see him leave class during an exam to go smoke a cigarette.  He was serious, stoic, and rarely smiled.  He'd give you half a smile if you walked up to him during one of his smoke breaks and talked to him about Math.  And he only talked about Math too.  He wasn't a nerd, he had a wife and kids, but he only talked to students about Math.  He would say stoically, 'what's your problem?'  'What can I help you with?'  -- like he was talking to a professional solving a puzzling Engineering problem.  He had that 'cranky old man' thing going for him, and students loved him for it.

I'm curious to hear what your opinions are on lottery gambling. This is something I do regularly because it's always readily available at the nearest 7-11, requires no effort to skill to try, and has variety of prizes and odds- super unlikely to win the Mega Millions or Powerball, but lots of smaller prizes with better odds, still enough money to be life changing. At present I have little money, and no other ways to go about making more money due to shitty living situation, so this feels like the only option. Like let's say I win $100k on a scratch-off, this would then allow me to get my own apartment and new computer, phone and A/V equipment. Then I would have the ideal infrastructure to pursue conscious ways of making a living, something I don't feel is possible while staying in my parent's living room, trouble sleeping due to noise and no privacy.
It seems the more happy and optimistic I feel, the more I gamble, while if there are times I feel depressed or hopeless, I stop because it feel so pointless and wasteful. If I stopped completely though, I feel like that would be giving up on life, and just waiting around to die. Posted another thread here about feeling like I am talented but extremely lazy and disadvantaged, unable to even get a wage-slave job and still can't find any other ways to immediately change my situation and overhaul my life circumstances than desperately try to succeed at lottery gambling. But after looking over my dwindling balance and growing credit card debts yesterday, realize gambling is something I need to stop soon or otherwise be really fucked financially.

Adyashanti is at Stage Turquoise.
 

I never missed my childhood. I didn't have a bad one, but being a kid sucks, it's so limited. As soon as I started to taste freedom in life, around age 17-18, I was totally blown away by it and never looked back. And the more I go forward the better it gets. 
I never saw responsibility as a bad thing. But that's probably because I was lucky to stumble upon life purpose early in life. I quit school and I always did what I wanted to do, and that created an association in my mind that makes me see "responsibility" as a great thing. Most people see responsibility as bad because they've been forced by society to become responsible of stupid nonsense that makes them miserable, like school, jobs and family. 
Junk food, TV, video games, Christmas, that's all candy. Taste freedom, and you'll by disgusted by all that afterwards. 
But maybe it's not so much the candy you're missing, rather you're missing the sense of wonder and connection to life. You can get that back with consciousness and psychedelics. 
By the way, one thing that nostalgia is great for, is channeling it into artistic pursuits. 

this video about yoga really couldnt of come at a better time, for the past month i have been researching and watching all the videos i can about authentic yoga. (an amazing series is "yogic paths") but i have been bombarded by different paths and info and am slightly confused. There are those yoga teachers that are definitely corrupt (dont get me started on nithyananda) but there others that seem to be the real deal, such as sadghuru. Anyone care to share thoughts on him?  I started to do some meditations based off of tantrik yoga, and combined it with traditional hatha asanas, from the pradipika (which is what sadghuru bases most of his asanas from), but now after leos video im doubting if this is the most effective way of yoga for me. I might just get a notebook, and do it the classic scientific way and write out my experiences from different methods and see whats best. 

@Aimblack I never said you can't do it. I merely pointed out that by your logic, you can practice mindfulness meditation at a strip club.
There is a reason spiritual teachers like to be hardcore and orthodox. Because otherwise noobs come in and start to corrupt the teachings with their sloppy and egotistical ways.
"Let's do yoga while listening to heavy metal music. What could go wrong?"
"Let's do SDS while masturbating to porn."
"Let's lock each other in a room and beat each other with sticks to help us get enlightened." (This actually happened in Osho's commune.)
Etc.
You can always break the rules. But the rules are there to keep you from kidding yourself. And the ego loves to kid itself in this work. The ego will look for every way possible to defang the techniques.

Everyone is trying their best, regardless of what they appear to be doing. Everyone has their own paths, eventually all will be lead to light so who cares?
Raise your own vibe and see through a higher perspective The higher you vibe the more clarity you see out of it.

@Joseph Maynor This lecture has some great great information talking about how this happens to teachers on the path.
It made me quit seeking for a time to focus on self discipline and shadow work, sans 30 mins meditation as well.
-------
I think the reason witnessing these corruption in teachers has to do with seeing how corrupt people can become in a position of power over others.  My parents were bullies, a few teachers of mine were bullies, and the institutions they use to house problematic children were used to scapegoat me in a toxic family environment and thusly became third party bullies.  I've had friends who work with troubled children, as counselors, they usually have wounds that aren't healed though.  That's in the past and I've made some steps to improve my compassion to understand the bigger picture.
The point is, I'm very very verrry aware of how corrupt I could become in a teaching position or any position of power, and I'm aware of how corrupt others can become in these positions of power.
When you let someone into your mind, make sure it comes from a good source.  Be aware of your corruptibility and ability to corrupt.  It seems to be an aspect of the shadow a lot of folks don't want to get so comfy with.  

@Serge Careful not to get carried away with your radical models.
Don't confuse nonduality with anything-goes. It's the opposite of that, actually. You want to become hyper-aware of the narratives your mind is building about reality, and drop them as much as possible.
The fact is, most of the stuff you believe, you have zero experience of.
It's very easy to abuse this work and hurt people. So be very careful with your theorizing.

You can skip all but tell me, is Jed McKenna’s description of enlightenment is how enlightenment actually is????? Is that as dark as he describes? And how would you describe it in a literal way?
I really like Jed’s writing and I’m not exposing or rejecting him by any means, on the contrary I do believe in what he says coz he sounds very reliable and he really removes some fairy tales, but I don’t know what to think about it, probably I’m not getting something but I feel like Jed’s description of enlightenment is somehow different from others’ including Leo’s. And I get that enlightenment is not all nice but a bittersweet pill where bittersweetness is not a problem. But in Jed’s description of Truth, Truth is sorta very ‘dark’ and doesn’t look like something natural. As I understood ‘enlightenment’, before reading Jed, was something like ‘feeling of borderlessness and oneness with everything beyond your body’, and ‘feeling as if you are child who knows nothing again’, and peace and staff like that.  But Jed doesn’t seem to talk about that at all, and please correct me if I’m wrong but these are how he seems to perceive the world:
1. There is no feeling of connection and oneness but rather total isolation in infinite cosmos.
2. He feels that people are not real or alive, but rather not more alive than a stone. 
But shouldn’t everything start to feel more lively instead ???
3. Overall he doesn’t seem to feel bliss and peace etc.. but rather emptiness. 
4. Total nihilism. This nihilism as I see it should turn into something like seeing beauty in everything without need for meaning, but Jed seem to miss all this meaning since he does emphasise  meaningless life so much. Yes life’s meaningless but if you can’t shut up about it, it seems like you want some meaning? And Jed seems to want some meaning. Maybe I’m wrong
5. In the end of the day, he suggests against pursuing enlightenment but rather to be sensible adult and enjoy positive aspects of life coz after enlightenment you cannot enjoy ‘positive’ things of this world anymore because no more good and bad dichotomy. Jed talks how watching movies has no emotional triggers anymore, so does people in real life who looks like soap opera characters.  But how can one enjoy beauty in life or in arts while for example watching movies where whole point to connect to story and ‘be involved’ in this story for 90mins? Isn’t that the whole point of art, connection and aesthetics? How to feel this life to the fullest if ‘your existence’ become observer-like and not participator-like?
6. He doesn’t seem to think that enlightenment is your natural state of being. And I always thought that enlightenment is a state in which any living body SHOULD live naturally and only because of unnatural bug in ego we do not live in it. This question really bothers me, if kids and animals are really enlightened, it then has to be natural for us, but some gurus seem to say that it is not something that everyone need or should have in their life. ?
7. Also he says that enlightenment always require conscious intention, it cannot happen spontaneously. But how about Tolle, Sadhguru and many others who didnt pursue it, but it just happened to them without intention?
8. Has to do with personality? Coz some enlightened people (like Rupert Spira, Sadhguru and Tolle) constantly talk about joy and peace and staff like that, while Jed sort of emphasises harsh reality. So might it be that enlightenment will lead to different ‘mood outcomes’ for different personalities? Jed seemed to describe himself as pessimistic anti-social type guy prior, and did enlightenment just increase these characteristics in him? I don’t get it tbh.
9. I like his straightforwardness and description of non-duality though, but he made me to doubt if I really want to pursue this. I already feel constantly disconnected and empty, its hard for me to find  meaning in anything and to have passion or purpose, and everyone already seems unreal and fake, and there’s not much joy in me anyway   And If I got McKenna right, all of that will just skyrocket towards infinity for enlightened person but it’s no longer problem, except that it’s not because of nice peace but rather coz of some nice emptiness. I mean all of that is not what I felt in ‘unconsciously enlightened childhood’, childhood was nice happy-magical times, definitely unconscious ‘oneness’, and I thought enlightenment is something like early childhood. I’m sure I’m not getting something. But if so, how would you describe your own state of enlightenment, not in a poetic way but as literal as possible?