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According to legend, only Gautama was completely enlightened, but we don't know. I don't disagree with your main point, however you can perform the same actions as before, perhaps not influenced as much by pain or fear, depending on one's depth of understanding. Shouting at your students, for example. Why wouldn't this be done out of love? Again, there has likely been enlightened warriors who participated in wars. What was their motivation? Enlightened guys can get divorced, have addictions, vote for unconscious, deceptive people, etc. Overall, I think you are holding enlightenment as a sort of ideal and perhaps conflating the domain of realization with personal transformation. Unless you're talking about something else.

If you're doing them it's because you want to. Some psychedelics can be beneficial, so enjoy. They're unnecessary for personal transformation, although they can be powerful catalysts. Enjoy the awareness episode! It's been a while since I last watched it, if at all. Happy browsing, have fun.

Whatever stands in the way of complete enlightenment is to be inquired into, not avoided. This is the domain of personal transformation.

He will return once he finally finds that camera which can record his alien transformation.

The programs claims to heal trauma etc.. I just think a pick up guy is the wrong person to teach this sort of stuff... (guy with a massive ego etc) I'd want in healer someone who is high consciousness, and who really cares Thoughts? P.S Yeah I've done a lot of sober cold approach in the past - and it's actually great, I've also done healing with other people before. I don't know how I feel about RSD teaching this sorta stuff, it's like he got publicly attacked then they are moving into this area now.

Some loose thoughts I had while reading your post: If there is some perception that has no bearing on our survival, then evolutionary processes would not favour being able to perceive it either way - it's a 50-50 chance. So we may have perceptions not directly related to survival - and spiritually related perceptions maybe one thing. Evolution doesn't progress, it has no end goal. Natively, that is correct. But there is an argument to say that any human invention is also a product of evolution/nature. Enhancement through technology does allow us to perceive more of reality. And it's done by using a transformation process: infra-red light is converted to light we can see, and so on. You could extend the argument further and ask if there are perceptions yet to be discovered through this enhancement (expansion) process. There's always variability in populations of any species, so it's quite possible some can perceive what others can't: for example see tetrachromacy. Note also, that this is an assumption based on form, so does it necessarily hold that if we have similar brains and bodies we must be perceiving similar things? If perception is relative to itself, then we could all be experiencing very different realities.

This post is going to be a trip report/an outline of insights and experiences I encountered last night while going to a rock concert with my step dad; the band is named Russian Circles. The drug used was weed. I smoked around 6 heavy hits of a strain called Gorilla Glue #4, dosed at 29.6% THC and 0.86% CBD, using a glass pipe. *Warning, this will be a long post, but I'll have it organized by the experience so if you want to only read about certain topics, you can. What I thought was going to be an otherwise "normal" rock concert ended up becoming a facilitator for 3 separate mystical/non-dual esque (I really have no idea what to call them) experiences. We walked into the venue and immediately it felt as though Russian Circle's music kind of shocked my nervous system... Like the vibrations where synchronizing with my body. It was loud of course, but also the style of music that Russian Circles plays is extremely rhythmic, has zero vocals, and is also very complex, so it's hypnotic in a way. They use a lot of loops in their music, so there are multiple layers of sounds going on at once. So we're literally just standing in the crowd and the more time that passes, the more and more it felt like I was beginning to sink into the rhythms of their music, as if my ego just kept getting increasingly quiet to the point where there was just the awareness of the music. More awareness, more awareness, more awareness... And then things got weird. Infinite Intelligence - Probably around 15-20 minutes into the concert after becoming increasingly aware of and into the music, and after still being high as fuck from the weed, BOOM. I'm just in awareness. It was literally just fucking awareness. I was aware of these powerful rhythms, I was aware of all of my body sensations, the visuals of the show and crowd occupied my consciousness and there literally was no more sense of "I." It was just pure, unadulterated conscious experience. And then there was this clear and distinct disconnect from the music, from the crowd, from the power of that auditorium, and "I" just fucking saw into everything that was going on. It was like the universe revealed to me the complexity of every last mother fucking drop of reality. It was as though I was peering into the amount of skill, time, energy, and fundamentally Intelligence, that it took those band members to perfect their craft, how much time and energy that went in to culminate into this beast of a performance, a performance that was able to drawn in a massive crowd and hold their attention, as if they had transcended into some sort of gods. I felt and saw the complexity of the musical vibrations, almost as if the sounds were "dancing" in some sort of patterned INTELLIGENT rhythm through vibration. "I" became aware of how much information and intelligence had transpired to create this exact moment in time in space, how much fucking evolution, how much cellular organization, how much practice and skill, how perfectly aligned the actual cosmos of our universe had to be aligned to create THIS PRESENT FUCKING MOMENT. The sheer intelligence of my absolute reality hit me like a freight train. Like... Every last drop of orgnazation and complexity for every last individual human, every brick of that building, every cell on that room, every atom, the velocity of our galaxy, the gravity of our sun, the pull of our moon, the psychology of these minds.. all of it just poured over awareness like a waterfall. What was also so profound about this experience is I could actually feel the limitations of my consciousness on this matter. I saw just how utterly mind bogglingly complex this ONE FUCKING MOMENT was... And yet how much intelligence I still wasn't able to become conscious of. I'm sure if I had taken a real psychedelic, perhaps it could have facilitated further insight into the nature of this intelligence, but regardless of the strength of this insight and experience, I still was aware enough to see how much further room for growth there was. One of the key insights I came into direct (as direct as I've ever been before) contact with is how that at every scale of reality, there is infinite of intelligence. Whether at the sub-atomic, atomic, physical, biological, psychological, social, all the way up to cosmic scale, there is infinite intelligence at play. The experience was actually beautiful and profound... and ultimately very elucidating. Self Contractility - The way Russian Circles organizes their music is that after each song plays, they play these soft yet melodic interludes before continuing on. So after the song that sent me flying head first into intelligence ended, I was kind of just sitting there shell shocked at what I'd just experienced. And then the music started up again... So at this point, my ego has returned somewhat and I'm a little overstimulated. What ended up happening was my vision just fixated on a man in the crowd. I was staring at the back of his head, at his silhouette. The music kept increasing.... harder and harder; volume and intensity rising and rising and dude I just kept staring at this random strangers head. This silhouette became the singular focus of my awareness, and it began to feel as though "I" WAS the silhouette, as if this outline was the source of any sense of self I could ever have. I became so fixated on this man that it truly felt like my sense of self just merged into his body, there was no more "my body" it was only "Silhouette." Intellectually, I've known for a while how arbitrary the "self" actually is. The ego/mind creates these artificial, arbitrary conceptual identities out of the human body that occupies our awareness 24/7. Just because this body happens to always occupy our present awareness, it does not follow that WE ARE THAT BODY. In fact, it's appropriate to say, we are AWARE of that body. Unfortunately, the illusion as a separate self, built off of layers and layers and layers of subconscious conceptual processes prevents the True Self from actually realizing its true nature. What this means is that the sense of a separate self is actually contractile in nature, and simply "morphs" around the body we always have a direct experience of, despite the fact that this is an arbitrary distinction. What happened with this man's silhouette was that this sense of self arbitrarily detached from "my" body and formed around his. This was achieved through a single laser pointed focus on his outline, so much so that the self "leaped" onto him. This is possible precisely because "my sense of self" is literally just as arbitrary as "my sense of self latching onto a man's outline." Each are bullshit, each are illusion, but each are achieved through a laser pointed focus on either my "sense of self" or another facet of present experience. To put all of this more concisely, the self can expand and contract in any direction it wants, with equal validity in all directions BECAUSE there is no actual self, or EVERYTHING is you so any distinction is arbitrary and equally valid/invalid, depending on how you look at it. Knowing this intellectually is quite different that going through the literal experience of self contractility. Energy Transformation - Towards the end of the performance my ability to focus started really diminishing. It felt like I was in some sort of limbo, unable to really ground myself or make sense of the chaos that was going on. I wasn't freaking out or having an anxiety attack or anything, but it certainly felt like I had started to spiral into a very overstimulated state where all of the senses where clashing and fighting with one another. The music had turned into the propulsive and powerful force that was hammering me over and over with each wave of sound. At the peak of my discomfort, I spontaneously dropped into a state of meditation and started to perform sushumna breathing. For those who don't know, this is a Kriya yoga technique where you essentially imagine/feel energy flowing up and down your spine through the 7 chakras. Through each breath, it felt like the energy of this performance started flooding into my crown and root chakras. What was so interesting though was it felt like I had started directing this overwhelming energy through my spine, and this somehow began to "recycle" the harsh energy of the show into alternative forms of creation. The sounds began to return to their beautiful state, and I began to slowly release the suffering from overstimulation by simple directing all of the energy into my spine. A flash of insight into the nature of energy transformation entered my mind too. As the energy of these rhythms, visuals, and crowd were circulating through my spine, it felt like these were then transformed into and through my body. If anyone has heard of the term "Shakti" which is roughly defined as divine energy and the source of creation, it felt like I was coming into contact with this principle. How each and every facet of our reality transforms itself, through itself, with itself, and ultimately recycles itself into all of reality. As more and more of the shows energy poured into my spine, more and more I became conscious of the strange loopiness that is reality interacting with itself through transformation. This last experience could have easily been more defined as a mystical experience rather than an insight into the nature of reality, however even from a materialistic paradigm, reality literally interacts with itself through transformation of energy and matter. It doesn't seem like too much of a leap to think that one may be able to become directly conscious of this facet. Meh. Sidenote: If you don't do Kriya yoga, START. This shit is powerful as fuck and really starts to open up the mind, body and ultimately self. Key Take Aways - Fuck. This was by far one of the most powerful experiences I've had on weed. It wasn't my most powerful, nor did this feel like an "enlightenment" experience, but nonetheless fuck. It was nice being able to directly experience mechanisms of reality, but I think the biggest take away I was left with was just how much further down the rabbit hole I have to go. Enlightenment goes really fucking deep... And despite how powerful of an experience last night was, I was shown just how much further my awareness has to grow. So for now, I'll continue to chop wood and carry water. P.S. For the forum members who still think weed can't be used as a tool for personal development and spiritual growth, fuck you (jk) P.S.S. If you actually read all of this, you're a G.

The real trap is thinking that reading/consuming information passively is transformation. You'll become fat.

One day you'll realize that no matter how much you read and learn, that's not transformation. You need to transform the BEING who's receiving information. TRANS-FORMATION. Transform the FORM -> Form = BEING. That's why people read 200 books and don't change at all.

I don’t think it has anything to do with spirituality. Some people just have problems managing money, just like other people are alcoholics or drug addicts. I pursue spiritual transformation but I am financially independent and don’t have to work anymore.

I did not watch the videos but I am 24 and this applies to me although this is a double-edged sword. I went to college on scholarship (came from a very poor family), graduated in a hard science from a top 50 university (global) and secured a job with Abbott's Laboratories, I was making a lot of money, up to 80k euros as a 21 year old. I was deeply traumatized and already very spiritual. It got to a point where I just walked out of the job, I lived at home so I stashed up a lot of cash and lived off it until now almost 24. During my time off, I did 1000s of hours of meditation, kriya yoga, went to trauma retreats, spiritual retreats, took some psychedelics, and completely transformed my life, I also read 100s of books, traveled a lot and it was a great experience. But now, I am almost 24 and almost out of money. I am trying to apply jobs but my experience is old and I may have to go and work a 'normal' job. I don't want to go back into the pharmaceutical world, I know it won't make me happy but anyways it seems like they won't take me back. Maybe I could have saved more money, sorted my career first etc... but my trauma was so extreme and so deep. There was enmeshment, complex trauma, a lack of proper self-identity and so on that I did not know who I was, so this three year off work changed my life. Just doing 2000 hours of kriya yoga was immense. But now, I am in a financial position that is tough. So it is not that simple. I could also have focused my energies on a business but without intense healing, it would definitely have been a heap of shit and inauthentic. This stuff seems quite tricky, if I didn't do this transformation work full-time, it could have taken 10 years just to do as much as I did, on the other hand, if I did it slowly, I would own an apartment now but would have been very unhappy. I think the way I did it was best but now I have to start making that dolla. Maybe I was lost in fantasy or maybe I wasn't. I am not sure. There is also that whole world of manifestation in the spiritual world, where people talk so much shit about free money, and so on. I think that is pretty delusional. I am beginning to learn more about life purpose, financial stability and so on now. Any recommendations for books or mentors?

Definitely. I pursue both the absolute and transformation, it is helpful to do so. Leo's video on maturity is gold, worth checking out. I'm also young, arrogant and stupid in many ways like every young person, growing up ain't easy and not everyone does it. Good luck on your process, enjoy it!

You can't transcend anything you're not deeply conscious of. It isn't about running away from anything but understanding it deeply. Don't put the cart before the horse. So wonder about stuff. Question the nature of mind, perception, suffering, happiness, etc. Have breakthroughs and insights into these matters. And pursue self-transformation at the same time.

And yet, despite appearances, the points might still be valid. You're projecting that I'm saying something based on somebody else. Again, it depends on what you're pursuing and why. It's always useful to clarify that. Hearsay aside, we should ask: What is consciousness? What are states? What is experience? What I'm saying is that self-transformation and enlightenment are two different pursuits. It sounds like your priority is transforming your experience of life, which is worthwhile to do. States can be healing, transformative and influential in how life is experienced. Not saying pursuing one invalidates the other, in fact they complement each other. And then there's absolute consciousness. It is a possibility to be realised now, not an unreachable ideal different from or outside of, life. Go after both while acknowledging they're different pursuits. Being allows for states to exist, it precedes states. As this matter goes beyond self concerns, you won't find any value, use or meaning there and it will still be what's true -- when realized directly.

45 min meditation today as well. I was discussing my Vipassana Meditation Methodology with ChatGPT before I sat down today, and made him summerize how I meditate: 1. Acknowledgment and Resistance: - Identify challenging emotions, resistance, or victim roles within yourself. 2. Shift from Resistance to Acceptance: - Release resistance and embrace the experience without judgment or avoidance. 3. Objectification through Vipassana: - Utilize Vipassana meditation to objectify and explore the layers of your mind. 4. Recognize Perceived Solidity: - Understand the perceived solidity of experiences, such as pain or challenging emotions. 5. Tune into Impermanence: - Cultivate an awareness of impermanence through Vipassana, seeing the dynamic, flowing nature of sensations. 6. Integration with Chi Energy: - Notice the intertwining of impermanence and chi energy, viewing them as different facets of the same unfolding process. 7. Peeling Layers Like an Onion: - Continuously peel layers of the mind, revealing deeper aspects for exploration and understanding. 8. From Challenge to Empowerment: - When facing resistance or victimhood, delve into the experience, recognizing its impermanent nature, transforming challenges into sources of empowerment. 9. Apply Insights to Daily Life: - Extend the insights gained through meditation into your daily life, influencing how you perceive and respond to both inner and external experiences. 10. Consistent Daily Practice: - Maintain a consistent daily meditation practice to stay attuned to the ongoing process of self-discovery and transformation.

Texts of that nature are not needed at all when it comes to self-transformation, depends on how you use them though. With enlightenment, no, because it is you and direct, best you can do is contemplate.

Math can predict what kind of person you are by fusing networking theory with sociology: The metadata that big tech companies can get from you allows them to accurately predict your iq, personality type, sexual orientation, and many other things including your likeliness to be a drug addict or pregnant. This has implications for managing people on a large scale politically or psychologically as well as a consumer with targeted advertisements. This isn't really new information to most of you here though, as it's mathematically likely that you're already aware of all this. I gave chat gpt a list of my youtube subscriptions and then asked it questions about my preferences and the views I likely held on various issues. It was quite accurate most of the time... Based on your YouTube subscription list, here are some inferences that can be made about you: Interest in Science and Mathematics: Subscriptions to channels like 3Blue1Brown, Bozeman Science, Domain of Science, and Numberphile suggest a strong interest in science, particularly in mathematics and its applications. Personal Development and Self-Improvement: You seem to be invested in personal growth and self-improvement, as indicated by subscriptions to Actualized.org, Abraham-Hicks Publications, Adyashanti, August Bradley - Life Design, Brian Johnson, and Sadhguru. Mental and Physical Health: Channels such as Dr. Alex Heyne - Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Gravity Transformation - Fat Loss Experts, and StrongFirst imply a focus on both mental and physical well-being. Programming and Technology: With subscriptions to channels like CS Dojo, Colt Steele, Corey Schafer, and Tech With Tim, you appear to have an interest in coding, software development, and technology trends. Psychology and Mindfulness: Interest in psychology, mental health, and mindfulness is evident from channels such as HealthyGamerGG, Mindful Mindfool, Psychology with Dr. Ana, and This Jungian Life. Entrepreneurship and Business: Channels such as ColdFusion, Notion, and Wendover Productions indicate an interest in business, entrepreneurship, and productivity tools and methods. Philosophy and Spirituality: Subscriptions to channels like Einzelgänger, ModernHealthMonk, Om Swami, and The Diamond Net suggest a reflective and philosophical approach to life, possibly exploring different spiritual traditions. Fitness and Outdoor Lifestyle: With channels like Global Triathlon Network, Mark Wildman, and The Run Experience, there's a clear interest in fitness, possibly with a specific inclination towards running and triathlon. Educational Content and Learning: The presence of educational and informational content such as Biographics, Ted-Ed, and Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell suggests that you are a lifelong learner with a curiosity about a wide range of topics. Creative and Artistic Interests: Subscriptions to channels like M O S T L Y strings and Trance Classics hint at an appreciation for music and possibly other forms of art. Tech and Gadget Reviews: Following Marques Brownlee and TechLead indicates you are keeping up with tech reviews and industry leaders' insights. Interest in Politics or Social Commentary: Channels like Vaush and friendlyjordies may point towards an engagement with political discourse and social commentary. Hobby and DIY Projects: Kris Harbour Natural Building and Stuff Made Here show a liking for do-it-yourself projects, perhaps as a hobby or a practical interest. Investment and Cryptocurrency: DataDash subscription suggests you might have an interest in financial markets, investment strategies, or cryptocurrency.

I posed this a while ago and someone may see this and find this useful. I continued with my practices and by God is it incredible, all of the previous health benefits remain and maybe I am sleeping and eating even less but something much deeper is happening, I am finding that I am becoming more and more empty and as I become more empty, I am becoming more joyful and filling up with love. All I am doing is Sadhguru's yoga but I have done it so fucking religiously for years while continuing with Leo's work, Ralston's work etc... Man this shit is insane, I could never have imagined this, I have gone from the post pathetic emotional states to so much joy and peace. The word joy is not strong enough and it lasts all fucking day! I don't about these seratonin and dopamine channels and how they need to be reset... doesn't matter to me anyways because this shit is incredible. Again, I don't equate any of this with awakening but by God does kriya yoga make your life vibrant, I feel incredible! So if anyone is still considering doing kriya yoga, just do it man, but real transformation is going to take 1000s of hours of practice and just sheer fucking intensity. I was also doing very serious contemplation and tripping from time to time on the side so it was a holistic development but it is clear to me that the kriya yoga was the key transforming agent. It just makes life worth living, sharp senses, joy, peace, less shitting, sleeping, fucking, eating and so on. Brain is much sharper and all of your other work is enhanced!

Been quite attuned to this as of late. Here’s what I’m experiencing: 1. Friends. Posted about this the other day. Have fully realized which friendships are working for me and which ones are exhausting and not worth my time. Even if they served me well before, they just don’t work for me now. 2. Assertiveness. Was always weak in this category. I’m finding myself able to stick to my guns both professionally and personally. 3. Compassion and empathy. I feel for certain people. I can delineate between someone who truly is down and out and someone who is simply using me for this. 4. Loss of interest. Things (activities) I used to look forward to, I don’t care to do anymore. Oddly enough they usually involved bad habits such as drinking. 5. Drinking. I do not crave alcohol, I do not need alcohol. The old me threw down at least half a bottle of wine each night or at least enough booze to get me buzzed. Now, I couldn’t care less if I have it, although a nice cold beer on a hot day is always welcome. Only difference is I stop after one or two. 6. Sleep. I went through this odd phase where I was sleeping early, and waking up at certain times through the night (every night). It is starting to normalize a bit more now. 7. Confidence. Gaining this very slowly. Small, very small things that give my confidence a boost. Not being shy, not being embarrassed, living in the now. So far, that’s what I’ve been noticing.

I guess you would call Carton Wolf state C and normal human state N. Then you'd have an transformation function called H (for high) and apply it C=H(N). This sort of shenanigans is why the universe is not "made of maths". It only ever maps patterns, it's never the thing itself.

What if seeing the apple and then the elephant is the transformation.

@HMD @UnbornTao @LastThursday @AerisVahnEphelia Thanks for your insights, guys. Did you understand what maths was about (i.e. a language, a symbolic representation of transformation etc) when you were a kid? Back then, how did you explain to yourself what it was about?

@HMD Perhaps you heard Leo mentioning in his blog once how he became a cartoon wolf. In that post, he claimed he was actually being that cartoon wolf, not just imagining what it would be like to be one. When I read that, I immediately recognised the kind of shift in consciousness he was pointing to. He meant literally becoming fragments of consciousness other than the physical body which he normally identifies himself with and feeling through their prism. From my perspective, I have experienced what it is like to become and be a consciousness of a comet, a rock forming in a cave, electricity, radiation, fog, seasons and various natural phenomena, a mitochondrion in a living cell, etc. For lack of a better word, becoming these phenomena, being them and feeling them as if from the inside would be selective identification. It's like you're travelling in yourself, assuming different positions within yourself. At first, I didn't know how to make sense of those experiences. They are very weird and unlike anything that my human mind ever knew. Now I can have them at will and often do so because it's fun and refreshing. So it looks like we're talking about a transformation of sorts. And maths is good at describing transformation. So I wonder if there could be a pattern of changing state in that specific way that could be communicated mathematically, with minimum distortion.

I'd say maths is a language like any other. The difference is that its purpose is to reduce ambiguity and to be self-consistent. It is also largely about transformation. One "sentence" in the language of maths gets transformed into other "sentences", using a precise and self-consistent number of steps. That way you can "prove" things. It's also about the essence of capturing patterns in the world, by mapping symbols and operations onto those patterns and also their relationships. English language is about conveying information in generality, so has much wider scope.