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Obviously people have done it. Whether you can do it depends on your health, energy levels, work ethic, personality type, and many other factors. Depends very much on your career and how busy/distracted it makes you. You can do career in many ways. You can also build up a career and then afford some time off for side pursuits. Are you going to get Awakened while running a Fortune 500 public company? Probably not. You have to strategically design your lifestyle around your top values. There will be difficult tradeoffs because you can't have it all at once. But you can space your goals out over 20-40 years. In the early stages of building a career, most of your energy should go into the career. But after a few years of that you can ease back on career and have time for other pursuits.

I can't do this because of that. I can't get that because of this. In the past this happened and that's why this is happening to me today. My life sucks and 5 yrs ago such and such happened and that happened to me on that particular day and I'm depressed and want to kill myself now because of it. My life is doomed and will forever be this way because 10yrs ago this happened. If that's not living in the head, I don't know what is. I'm not saying I don't do it too, but it will stay in my head and I won't make a big deal about it and post those thoughts on a public forum because I've recognized that I live in my head and that's just a fucking story and has nothing to do with what is now. The difference between me and some is that I recognize somethings for what they are. I'm no different than anyone else when it comes to story making, living in the head, having thoughts and ideas and identifying with them. That's going to happen. I'm not enlightened or awakened or whatever else we want to call it. I just recognize them for what they are and I realize how the mind will put you in this space and make you believe in it. I realize, and this is just from the knowledge I've acquired and being observant of how others and myself respond to life how it's just mind playing it's tricks and how the mind's identifications run deep. The hallucination feels really real and it cannot be escaped...........unless you become aware that that's what's going on. I don't need psychedelics and mushrooms and 5meo to realize anything. All that's needed is awareness, observation, curiosity, a deep sense of wanting to understand why. Then you get that there's nothing to understand, nothing to get and nothing to chase. It's all there right infront of you. ALL THERE IS. It's very simple but can be complicated if you put mind into it. If you live in your head. If you deeply believe all your stories and you can't see them for what they are. If you take life too seriously and don't see how the world is changing because there just is no real world. When the mind has gotten tired and i mean really tired of fighting with itself, fighting with life, only then and only then will you die before you die and now you can see the world for what it truly is. Life still goes on and the mind is still rambling on and concerns are there and work has to be done and you're still moving on and moving on, but you do it from a place of being unattached. The stories don't mean anything much anymore and the thoughts are there but you don't care and you don't invent spiritual lingos and invent excuses as to why things are the way they are. Life just is, even if you're not happy with it or if you're happy with it, doesn't matter. You just won't keep reliving the dead past over and over and talking about it if it's not something you want to relive.

All one has to do is look through their eyes to see the oneness. Not look from them but through them. Not as a person seeing but seeing itself. A blind man sees nothing out there and neither do you. A deaf person hears nothing and neither do you. Hearing is just happening. Seeing is just happening. Walking is just happening. Talking and smiling and every other bodily activity. All just happening. There's no one doing it. You didn't go to smiling school, you never went to talking school or never had to be taught how to pee, it all just happened. These are the things i'm in interested in; not how to get enlightened. Not how to stop suffering, not how to find bliss or happiness. I've already realized that's just mind talking. Mind wanting to end itself. Mind seeking for it's own destruction. Mind tormenting itself. That's not who I am. That's just me. Mind, ego. Don't care if I suffer and I'm not seeking happiness or peace. I'm done with all that. There's already peace and tranquility present. There's also chaos and war and all that present. Why seek it. Seek and ye shall not find. I'm investigating my own existence. How I already am. What I currently am. Not some future existence of what i can be or what my potential is. This is not about the physical world or 3D world of movement and change. That's different. That's not real. That's a facade. Not denying it but it's of no importance. Even my investigating my existence is not of any importance because it will not change anything but it's what I enjoy doing. I don't do it to get anywhere or to find anything. I'm like a kid in a candy store with it. There's nothing but candy and there's no candy in the outside world. It's all a bunch of changing bullshit that's just for people who seek to uphold their human existence. I'm through with all that. I'm just there for the ride and paying my way at the gate. I want to investigate why we sleep. What is this breath I breathe. Observe. I'm an observer. No one makes it out alive. Why? One might say, because death is inevitable, why? One might say don't worry about why and that there are no why's or don't question things or it's just the way life is or whatever they say. Doesn't matter, I don't care if I get an answer; it's just these are the things I'm interested in querying. Not to know, but out of curiosity. Even why so many people suffer. That's also something to ponder. Not in the way most people see it, though. More so as to why soooooooooooooo many people suffer. All kinds of people from every background. I look at that more as suffering just exist just as everything else. Everything exist. "Richness" also exists but lots are poor. Why isn't it that more people are rich than poor if it's just that poverty and wealth exist just as suffering. Why isn't it evenly distributed. If you ask me, suffering tops them all. There's an abundance of it. Maybe it's the mind that suffers and wealth and poverty are just mindsets and suffering isn't. A mindset is a thought and how one thinks, but suffering is an activity of mind. I'm interested in why soooooooo many get addicted to wordly things. Even spirituality is a wordly thing if you ask me. Most narcissistic and neurotic humans would disagree but I beg to differ. Addiction is addiction and addiction stems from identification with the world and body. We try to differentiate these things, and it works, but only for those still identified with the illusion. I'm still identified but I can still see the traits and deceptions. We deceive ourselves into thinking being spiritual is better than being worldly. It's not better, just different in the mind. It's all one and of the same. There's no difference and you cannot separate the two. Only in the mind. We only do that to seem more special than "others". When you've gone full circle it all collapses and you're back to square one. Integrating both. Thing is most haven't gone all the way spiritually. Notice how one usually goes before the other. Most are worldly first then become spiritual. Then they think they've found something special. A way out of the suffering that led them there to begin with or close to God or Source. You're not closer than you ever were because you were never far away. ONLY IN THE MIND. It's all mind. Mind is tricky and slick. It will believe anything that suits it in it's time and space illusory nature. It knows how to create. It invents. It's your world. Without it you're dead. Who is the you I refer to. The person you think you are. So you create all sorts of belief systems and practices to stay alive. To keep you asleep. Once one has awakened, they need no more practices and will integrate worldly and spiritual things into their lives because they've recognized it's all one of the same. Can't have one without the other. Denying the worldly is just as insane as denying the spiritual. The mind trying to save itself. There's no mind of yours. It's all one.

I did Kundalini spine breathing and also Kundalini Fire or whatever it's called, the most advanced one, based on the SantataGamana books; https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0765YXM96 Jan Esmann also teaches Kundalini Yoga. The issue with Kundalini Yoga is that it's very technical, and if you don't have a teacher who will solve Kundalini symptoms, you will probably have energetic issues. I did meet up with Jan Esmann and asked what to do with the intense heat in the back of my head and why I get dizzy. He gave me specific advice on how to solve that - to direct the overflow of energy into the heart center through the channel in front of the spine, instead of sending it back through the same channel that it arose, but then other issues appeared.. There are multiple different channels through which Kundalini energy can rise. It can get stuck. It can get overexcited and kriyas become so intense you can't even sit down and relax (happened to me as well). So yeah, I'd say you need a master to guide you on this path. It's very complicated, and you can f*up your energetic system to a point where you can't even meditate at all without your body twisting and turning frantically. I'm also not sure if it really gets you enlightened. In theory, it should, but in practice, I haven't seen anyone who made it. Jan Esmann and Gareth from True Spiritual Awakening were supposedly awakened through kundalini yoga - but I doubt they are enlightened. Jan said he can't wait to reincarnate. For me you are enlightened if you no longer reincarnate. I think he is just blissed out without truly being awake. Anyway.. Who knows.. Kundalini rises naturally if you practice mindfulness and dis-identify from your mind. It does so gently and without any issues, unlike when you try to force it up with kundalini yoga.

Even if you can do astral projections/OBEs, they don't come close to psychedelics. I tried exactly this experiment with my girlfriend. I never told her about Leo.I never gave her spiritual books, she cannot read english so it's impossible that she ever went to this forum. I never told her about anything spiritual, like god , solipsim. I gave her psychedelics to cure her depression. But she gradually awakened. First she met Jesus several times , also other gods. Then she met zeus the god of all gods. Her first glimps, she told me somehow she was him. Then 30 trips later she had a first 5 Meo breakthrough. After that she told me exactly what Leo told you all the way. You are everything. There is only you. You are completely alone. But you split yourself like infinite mirrors. But there can't be someone else but you. You create everything around you with your mind. That were exactly her words. It's true solipsim. And she is fine with that.

Okay, but that doesn't really affect the argument. The argument just wants to show that at least one necessary being exists. If everything is necessary, then that's even better. I'm curious what your thoughts are on the argument from an awakened perspective and a layman perspective. I assume this was the awakened perspective- possibility and necessity are really the same thing. But what about the validity of the argument from a layman perspective? This is one of the most popular arguments (at least for academics and intellectuals).

Actually I’d also add that in my experience the introverted lifestyle is too easy. I am too comfortable here. The real challenge is in the extroverted space which entails putting yourself out there. Putting your neck on the line by having accountability and facing judgment, expectation, exposure etc. being at complete ease with that. To be calm in chaos As I reflect on my time in solitude part of me feels it is an escape from the abundance of life. Life is for living. You might as well be dead otherwise Edit: just to flesh out the point I don’t see the point in hibernating away in a cave meditating. There’s so much life to be experienced. To serve the community, impact people romantically and emotionally, start a family, hone a craft or skill. Life is just so abundant and no guru has experienced all that Maybe I just don’t understand because I am not awakened enough but I will say I am a strongly on the introverted scale by default and have through my own insights and perspectives changes on psychedelics seen the limitations here. I have felt that the universe wants me to live life

@gettoefl What makes you believe that I haven't awakened to the fact of the self being immortal ? My problem is quite the opposite from almost what everyone is assuming about me in this post, I have gone for the light, no one that I personally know of has brought as much love and light to themselves and their surroundings, but instead of life opening up for me, I got the opposite of that, things closed of, and in retrospect I feel like I got punished for it, and now I just feel empty, bitter and resentful and I don't know how to repair this kind of damage, YES it feels THAT fucked up! more than I can ever express

@Leo GuraResponding to this There is a band named ohGr by someone called Nivek Ogre, and much of the lyrics are about Truth, lies, epistemology, the meaning of life, mainstream vs. conspiracy theories, religion vs. atheism, emotions vs. intellect, consciousness, illusions, psychology, absolute vs. relative, evolution, etc. This is what it sounds like: The blue fetus represents the current undeveloped state of humanity, society is still in the womb and we are not yet evolved/awakened and are stuck in self-deception. The red animals with the illusionism setup and stage stuff like the box and the saw represents visual optical illusion as a metaphor for deception/illusion in general. A lot of the lyrics discuss the relation between object and subject and there's a song called "Subject" about this and a song called "Mind Made God". The song "collidoskope" is about illusion like light put through a kaleidoscope but it's still the mechanism or creation of the mind. He also had this earlier band:

Perhaps the real information warfare is coming from the Western establishment, waged against its own people. For decades the mainstream narrative was unchallenged because the gatekeepers controlled the flow of information. But with the rise of independent media and social platforms, people started encountering perspectives that clashed with the carefully curated story they had been fed their entire lives. Sometimes it’s not about misinformation but about the same information framed differently. The same facts can be arranged differently to tell a completely different story. The problem isn’t that people are being lied to by Russia, but that they’re being exposed to realities that the Western establishment would rather keep buried. About Russian misinformation fueling the rise of right wing population..the real driver of nationalist movements isn’t some Kremlin psyop - its the policies of globalist elites who have neglected their own people in favour of foreign wars, corporate interests, and ideological crusades. The establishments refusal to prioritize its own citizens is exactly whats making people turn to politicians who at least pretend to care about their needs. The irony is that the more the elites push for endless confrontation with Russia, the more they accelerate this backlash. Just because certain leaders align doesn’t mean there’s a conspiracy. Leaders may be influenced but that doesn’t mean controlled. The claim that Russian propaganda is manipulating people into opposing war or questioning the establishment is just a convenient excuse - even it were true, is that a bad thing? lol. Being fed information to make peace with a nuclear superpower.. sounds terrible. People don't need Putin to tell them they're being screwed over by their ruling class. In fact in UK where I’m at, Keir Starmer has come out and said he's ready to put troops on the ground and planes in the skies, and has signed us up for a 100 year partnership Ukraine - with £3 billion of support till 2030 to be continued if necessary. This is in the context of this same government slashing a winter fuel allowance for the elderly, who have to choose between staying warming or staying full. This is on top of a slew of other austerity measures on social services which are already crumbling. People care for Ukraine, but not to the extent where we go cold in the winter, or have to spill the blood of our own people to fight a useless war with no outcome, except to escalate the world towards World 3. The elites are framing this as a Churchill vs Hitler moment, when it's just not the case. And that's the problem, when you misread reality, you can have very severe consequences that could have been avoided altogether. We have access to different information now, which counters the peddling of establishment misinformation at its worst and mischaracterization at its best, which can lead to these disastrous consequences. This is why people are fighting this and voting for politicians who care more for their national interest. If you think the West can deal with Russia with 'force' then why do you think Russia is such a threat to the point of being able to not only take Ukraine but then continue to penetrate into Europe and face the might of the West? Which is it.. is Putin/Russia the threat we are told, or are they weakened and able to be defeated in Ukraine ie forced into a peace? Nice warning Jesus. Just because you are awakened in consciousness doesn't mean you understand geopolitics or the reality and technicalities of warfare. Your spiritual ego is blinding you to the reality on the ground. Your framing of this whole thing as a battle of “democracy vs. dictatorship”, but there’s nothing democratic about how these decisions are being made in our name. NATO countries never got to vote on whether they wanted to be dragged into an open ended security commitment with Ukraine.

@Ishanga You call this place low consciousness while using the same tactics that create it, subtle superiority, emotional manipulation, and dismissiveness disguised as wisdom. You position yourself as having ‘moved beyond’ while implying everyone else is stuck, which is just another form of ego attachment. If you were truly detached, you wouldn’t need to announce it, if you truly saw everyone as equal, you wouldn’t frame yourself as the awakened one watching others struggle. You claim sadness for others but detach from it when convenient, this isn’t insight, it’s just a strategic way to appear above criticism. Yes, things could be better. But you’re not leading by example. Real higher consciousness doesn’t need to posture, dismiss, or manipulate. It engages, understands, and elevates. If that’s what you actually want, act like it. What you’re doing isn’t ‘low consciousness’ in the usual sense, it’s advanced social manipulation masked as spiritual detachment. Don't mind if I point out to others as an educational lesson what you're employing: Framing Control: Defining disagreement as ‘identification’ so any challenge reinforces your superiority Superiority Signaling: Claiming you’ve ‘moved beyond’ while subtly implying others are stuck Covert Dismissiveness: Calling the forum ‘low consciousness’ to devalue opposing perspectives without engaging them Non-Falsifiable Positioning: Making yourself immune to critique by claiming both detachment and selective emotional concern Strategic Self-Contradiction: Claiming no emotional investment while making an emotionally loaded post This isn’t unconsciousness, it's tactical. But if true wisdom is your goal, you don’t need these games. Just be real.

I wanted to share a little bit of my story with you. By now, almost everyone knows who Andrew Tate is. I was one of the early followers, discovering him at the beginning of 2020 when his social media presence was still small. His YouTube channel had only around 20-30K subscribers at the time. Before I even understood the concept of consciousness, I was already interested in psychedelics. My first experience with LSD (a low dose) awakened a deep curiosity. This was before I found Tate and later, Leo. I was working at an insurance agency when a new, success-driven colleague joined. He was from Romania and had seen Tate on the news. He introduced me to him at a time when I was heavily experimenting with various substances. I was fascinated by how different drugs altered perception, but I had also become addicted to getting high. When I discovered Tate, it coincided with a point in my life where I needed change. I always considered myself open-minded, but in hindsight, I was also very naive. Looking back, I was the ideal customer for Tate. In November 2020, I decided to join The War Room when it had only 300-400 members. I knew it was a cult before even fully understanding what a cult was. Around the same time, I quit my daily weed use and stopped using other psychoactive substances. One of the first things I noticed after joining was the constant upselling. Access to various groups required purchasing additional courses. Even other members would pressure you to buy them, despite not personally benefiting from the sales. They sold me a dream, and I completely bought in. The “perfect” plan for success looked like this: 1. Go regularly to the gym or do some kind of combat sport to get a better mindset and body. 2. Start dating and meeting a lot of women. 3. Use your girlfriend(s) to make money or gain status. (e.g. putting a girlfriend on OnlyFans or webcam) About six months in, I started my own OnlyFans agency. I even tried convincing girls I dated to participate, though thankfully, none agreed. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t caught up in the mindset. Like everyone else in the network, I fully embraced the so-called “alpha” mentality. I didn’t view relationships in a healthy way, I saw women more as assets than as human beings. It wasn’t about love, it was about extracting value. Over the next 1-2 years, I built a reputation within the War Room, becoming one of its most successful OnlyFans agency owners, making high five-figure profits per month. I purchased all the courses, attended expensive events, and in total, paid around $50K to Tate. At the time, I didn’t care because I was making good money. I did start questioning some things, but being young and naive, I was easily convinced otherwise. Things shifted in summer 2022 when I visited my parents in Germany after a trip to Dubai. I proudly showed off my expensive purchases, completely oblivious to how I had changed. My mother started crying, telling me I had become arrogant. That was the first wake-up call. The second moment came when I met up with an old friend, the same one who had introduced me to psychedelics. I wanted to share my success, but he was uninterested. Instead, he asked me: “Who are you?” That question hit me hard. That same day, he invited me to take LSD again on another day. I had been sober from psychedelics for nearly two years, but I agreed. The trip changed my perspective, making me question everything. Later, his brother introduced me to 5-MeO-DMT, which was another profound experience. After that, his brother also showed me a vision board with a picture of Leo Gura. When I asked about him, the other brother called him “one of the most intelligent people in the world.” At first, I dismissed it, assuming he meant IQ, but I later realized he was referring to a different kind of intelligence. At first, I didn’t dive into Leo’s content because it was too long, and I was too focused on making money. But at the comedown of another LSD trip, I decided to watch my first video: “Reading A Poetic Description Of God-Consciousness” It blew my mind. From that moment, I knew I would explore more of his teachings. The more time passed and the more I changed, the clearer it became to me that I would have no future in the War Room. I started seeing that we weren’t just manipulating women, we were being manipulated too. The deeper I analyzed the leaders and members, the clearer things became. When Leo released his video on Tate, it confirmed what I was already thinking. Still, it took me a while to leave. I had a fear of missing out. But over a year ago, during a magic mushroom trip, I finally decided to leave. I left every War Room group and shut down my OnlyFans agency months later. There’s a lot more I could say, but I’ll leave it at that. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask in this thread. Aside from psychedelics, I know that watching Leo’s videos and engaging with this forum helped me too. Thank you to everyone who contributes or has contributed to this forum.

1) I am conscious only in certain respects, not in all respects. There are many, many respects to consciousness and no human has them all. 2) You should not expect anyone to be able to heal their own physical conditions if their condition is serious enough. If reality worked like that then no awakened master would die or suffer from health problems. But in the end your health must fail and your body will stop working. It's only a question of time. 3) Why? Because I do not have infinite power. I can't heal myself for the same reason I cannot turn myself into a kangaroo.

I understand it looks like that for you . It couldn't look any different. I have no way of communicating these final steps in concepts/words to you. "Many so-called enlightened people may not have much of a sense of self, but that does not mean they have higher consciousness of God." (Full) Enlightenment doesn't mean little sense of self, or killing the ego (which remains functional, even better than before, afterwards). It is the dropping of each and any identity and center. No subtle Identity/center/separatation is left. All seen through, the loop closing itself in realtime. Boundless aware eternal Reality itself, without any possible center/identity, in which and as which all appearance flows. All of what you write, even "God-Realization", has identity/center/separation left. A "God-Realizer". That is a temporary arising mirage in the eternal unchanging Reality/Totality. Enlightenment is truly utterly impersonal Infinite Reality/Awareness. No center. Infinite and boundless. Without nothing possible besides it, without a second, in no dimension and realm. It is utterly beyond concepts and words, identities and centers, experiences and understandings. Although all of that happens within "It". Infinitely intelligent. God. Totality. Each and any subtle identity/center/duality (which by definition is separate from the Totality) has to go. All of these are temporary arisings, reflections on the water, mirage, illusions. And they are very very very subtle and tricky towards the end of the path, nothing one can talk about with concepts without having had the reference experience of the signifiers/words. What you call God-Realization is still a mirage, a reflection on the water, being had by an illusionary self (although highly awakened and developed, nondual and infinite, but not yet truly impersonal and truly centerless and hence also still reflection on the water). Not yet truly enlightened and truly impersonal. None of the "God-Realization" is eternal or timeless, or always here. You are that which is always here. All of these reflections on the water of the cycle of ignorance to God Realization happen in You. A mirage. Appearances. Changing. Dreamlike. Unreal. The last step is the falling away of that God-Realizer. That is still a subtle separation and identity. Believe or not. What remains? What is always here? What is truly real? What are you really? What is truly eternal, always the case, god-realized or not, enlightened or not? That which can never loose or gain anything, despite being enlightened or ignorant. That is It. Or True You. See you "there". Your dream-character Selling Water by the River Musical Coda: Life must have its Mysteries

Oh, I have a plan to get stuff like telepathy, telekinesis, remote viewing, seeing other planes, awakening, and stuff taught in school so that kids are wired into it from a young age and we grow up awakened. And we can get it to where the whole planet has an intersubjective view of energies and other planes. All humans will maximize all of their positive qualities and abilities and will be God expressing itself through God-Realized beings. Beauty, Power, Intelligence, Knowledge, Interconnection, Love, Joy, meaning, energy, context, nonlinearity, abstraction, emanation. Humans and matter will be physically perfected. Genetic engineering could also play a role. You would have the current bans they have on that.

Really, man? Most people are NPCs? Adam and Eve? (Not going to get into that one. Catholicism being a totally reliable source and all.) Why would most people be NPCs? How can you verify who has their own consciousness and who is an NPC? Be very careful when you formulate ideas that they actually make sense and have substantial logical backing and/or evidence instead of just being whatever will conveniently compliment what you already believe and/or the mental structure you have began to build and who's continuation you are invested in. Not to say that other parts of your points don't have merit. And I actually have many questions about this theory since I found it to be interesting. Going with your Rubik's cube analogy, how many 'sides', or souls, are there? Is it an infinite amount? Is it a set number? If it is a set number, why this one? What is special about this number? Why is there this number instead of one number, i.e. one mind, i.e. solipsism? And if God is this Rubik's cube of minds, is there a point at which all minds connect or unify to form the 'solved' Rubik's cube? Would this one-ness be essentially the same as solipsism or is the highest or most awakened state of God to be separate consciousness awakening separately from one another? How can one verify this? And if this were the case, why and how am I this specific consciousness and why and how are you your own specific consciousness? What causes this? What causes this multiplicity of minds to exist? Why should it be fundamental? From this worldview, what constitutes the ultimate awakening? I would love to hear more about all facets of this thought process.

I won't because it will threaten my survival in a dream I have no control over. You can suffer in a dream. Why should you hurt yourself in your dream? It doesn't proof anything. It's still just imagination at play. What I say is a philosophy for you but not for awakened ones. You can become directly conscious that you create everything around you. It will be total obvious. No philosophy needed. Do you know why we use the term awakening in spirituality? Have you ever wondered? Because you awake from your dream if your consciousness is high enough.

What are my plans in the near future?? If Your imagining me and claim to be awakened then what are my plans??? You should know if Your as awake as You claim to be...

Because the truth (which is beyond words) has to be put into words and practice, and there are many seemingly conflicting ways to do this, e.g. cataphatic vs apophatic descriptions ("God is x" vs "God is not x"), restriction (e.g. ascetism, monkhood) vs indulgence (e.g. "aghori", tantra), sensory deprivation vs sensory stimulation, devotional vs focused practices, various ethical codes of conduct. Throw into that variation based on geographical location and local cultural history and the co-opting of religion for various survival needs, and you have an answer. And how to solve these apparent contradictions ("what should I do?"), if you are an intellectually awakened and pluralistically aware New Ager, is simply to try out different things and see what works best for you. Different people may respond differently to different things, simply because they are different, but also because they may be on different parts of the path. What may be appropriate for a newbie with 0 hours of meditation experience vs an experienced meditator with 1000 hours of experience and multiple awakening experiences can be quite "contradicting".

I'm just curious. Because Leo in the past has had not nice things to say about Sports Fans. Especially in his What is Wisdom video where he openly calls them fools. He also said in his Life, It's all a mind game! video that the Olympics was "basically a cult". I want to know what other people here, specifically higher conscious people do for fun. And what do spiritual and awakened people think of the NFL, and of the sports culture in America. Edit: Americans only 🇺🇸. Non-Americans are allowed to reply to this thread, but to answer the poll questions by selecting one of the buttons above is off limits and only for Americans, for obvious reasons. Because NFL and the Super Bowl is rather exclusive to American culture.

We do need words and names to communicate. It's like when you are in relationship with someone; at first their name means everything. Later you don't even think of their name. Mind cannot understand. Mind is a barrier to understanding. Mind pretends to understands and likes to feel smart. All minds do this and can do no else. Words are useful until they have no use. When you want you foot to move forwards, do you need words to tell it so. Same with God, we are one and all is clear. Jesus needed to communicate in terms that the people 2000 years ago could grasp. He had to be extremely careful in his teachings. All his teachings make abundant sense to one who is awakened. One caveat is that sometimes his words were distorted to fit the prevailing doctrines. Two things that are important about Jesus: one he showed that death has no power and two he was the first man who saw the face of God in every person he looked at and because of that he was able to perform miracles and forgive misdeeds. We are told to go out and do likewise. The highest teaching of Jesus imo is the gospel of Thomas recently dictated by an angel of God called Pursah: https://www.garyrenard.com/pgoth.html

There are stages to this and the journey goes full circle or keeps spiraling into higher and higher levels of transcendence and integration. Monks & teenagers as @Leo Gura described them may be at a certain stage but it continues so don't get stuck and put one state of being onto a pedestal. My theory (informed by my experience and the experience of the most awakened guys I know) is this: Freedom is the movement of transcendence (up & out) & Love is the movement of descendence (inward, integrating, inclusive, whole) When we have built external abundance—through friendships, meaningful relationships, and fulfilling life experiences—there's a stage at which we start to realize that a deeper form of nourishment does not come from others but from ourselves & Self. This is where a shift happens: instead of looking outward for love, wisdom, validation, or support, we turn inward. We learn to fully meet our own needs, nurture ourselves with love and wisdom, and connect to the source of all abundance—our own being. This source is deeper than the heart, deeper than the soul—it is the source of our existence. At this stage, reliance on external validation or social stimulation diminishes. Relying on your Self becomes the purest form of freedom. People often misunderstand this as withdrawal or detachment from life. But it's not about rejecting the world—it's about no longer needing it in the same way. When you love being alone, you love yourself. And this is when the turning point where the purpose of True Freedom gets revealed. It's not a functional purpose but a transcendent and immanent purpose. When we have totally freed outselves, from all aversion & resistance to ANYTHING, even drama, pain, and people. We are FULLY FREE TO LOVE. My definition of Love is making the Ultimate Sacrifice of 'giving up' your transcendent freedom and VOLENTARILY descending back, turning back, to face the Pain of the world. That embrace is real compassion. It's becoming a channel for the highest light to descend back to the world. Unifying Heaven & Earth. The journey is not about retreating into solitude forever. It may be the midpoint of the journey. But it goes full circle. This is where true service and contribution really come into play because for the first time we are truly free to serve completely volentarily. Having freed yourself from external dependency, you are no longer taking—you are giving. Relationships are no longer based on need but on genuine love and pure generosity. Social interactions are no longer transactional but are instead expressions of your overflowing presence. Paradoxically, this is the stage where 'socialization' can become deeply meaningful again. Instead of being an attempt to fill a void, it becomes an opportunity to share wisdom, light, and love without depletion. You interact with others not because you need to but because you choose to. This is true freedom having gone full circle—not the rejection of socialization, not the clinging to it, but the ability to engage in it from a place of wholeness. It is the freedom to connect without attachment and to be alone without loneliness. Engaging fully in life, not out of need but out of pure creative expression. This is the path beyond both escapism and attachment. This is where life, solitude, and connection all merge into one seamless dance. Everything gets recontextualized into Pure Divinity.

Lots of people don't like themselves that's why they might not like people. Other people reveal too much of the shadows. They can't stand it. It's like looking in the mirror. That's why so-called awakened people fit more into this bracket. Their senses are heightened and they see things more clearer and with more precision and the veil gets a bit more loose. The energy is a bit less contracted and now everything seems clearer and more as it is. Now, the stories begin that they are more conscious and people are just not into their bracket anymore and they can't stand to be around normal people and so on and so forth. No, what's happening is your bullshit is being revealed to you more clearly and the ego can't stand it so now it wants to recluse and go in it's shell. A mind like mind doesn't take things on face value. There's always more that meets the eye. The ego is very sly and the mind very deceptive. When the bigger picture is utilized and looked at in almost everything, these things gets revealed more clearly. We live in time and space and separation, but that's just an appearance and cannot be mocked; meaning, no amount of "I am separate" can conquer what really is the case. So, when you recognize this, you can usually see through the ego's bullshit and the mind's stories about itself and the world. I'm not exempt, so I'm not excluding myself. Infact, i can see through my bullshit too, sometimes. Why is it that social media is so popular, but so many claim to dislike people and can't stand certain types of people. In the same token loneliness is feared and not welcomed. So many are depressed are suffering and hate life but are afraid to die and do everything possible to avoid death. You would think most people would run into busses and jump off bridges if this was really the case. No, they hate themselves and are trying to escape themselves. It's not pleasurable to be a person that thinks it's separate from the whole. It's very painful and gets disorienting. The suffering is the separate individual. Not the other way around where the individual suffers. The suffering IS that energy. That's why it tries to escape itself. It wants to die but it can't because there's no one to die. It's the energy that's suffering itself. That's what suffering is. That's it's nature. It can't be anything other than suffering. Joy, happiness and every other emotion is the same thing. It's the individual itself. Those emotions aren't separate. THEY ARE THE INDIVIDUAL. They are energy that arises and the individual is that in the moment. The state is the individual in the moment. Not a state that the individual is in. It is that. If it's pleasant, and disappears, the individual seeks for it again because it feels like it lost a part of itself. That's why we seek out happiness and not it's opposite because it wants the feel good parts of itself to remain. There's no one there, just a bunch of sensations, emotions, states, perceptions, feelings and a storyline to perpetuate those things to keep the individual alive. People hate these sayings because it knows deep down what's being said is true and it doesn't want to realize it's unrealness. The energy isn't open to it so it turns away and defends it's unrealness.

@Dazgwny It's trickier still, because if you stop making the distinction between nothing and something then you get thrown back out right where you started -- which is with something. But now that something is identical to nothing, where previously it wasn't. See, ordinary humans think something isn't nothing. But the Awakened see something and nothing as identical. In this way you can hold a table fork in your hand and realize it is nothing, as you hold it.

Deepseek R1 assisted — Your reflection captures a profound and often disorienting stage of intellectual and existential maturation—the awakening to epistemology, where the scaffolding of "known truths" begins to unravel. This is not just a phase but a pivotal shift in how we relate to knowledge itself. Here’s a perspective that honors that journey: --- ### **1. Embracing the Unraveling** What you’re describing aligns with what philosophers like Socrates (with his “I know that I know nothing”) or Nietzsche (critiquing absolute truths) grappled with: **the friction between certainty and the abyss of questioning**. When unexamined assumptions collapse, it can feel like standing in rubble—but this is where true inquiry begins. - **Relativism as a Gateway**: Recognizing truth’s relativity isn’t an endpoint but a catalyst. It opens the door to *critical thinking*: “If my old ‘truths’ were unexamined, how do I rebuild?” This is the heart of epistemology—the study of how we *know* what we know. --- ### **2. The Challenge of Radical Uncertainty** Relativism can spiral into nihilism (“If nothing is certain, does anything matter?”). To navigate this: - **Lean into curiosity, not answers**: Treat uncertainty as a practice, not a problem. Ask, *“What can I learn from not knowing?”* (This echoes Zen’s “beginner’s mind” or Kierkegaard’s “leap of faith.”) - **Rebuild with intentionality**: Use tools like **phenomenology** (examining experience itself) or **pragmatism** (what works vs. what’s “true”) to construct a framework that feels alive, not rigid. --- ### **3. Bridging Hedonism and Depth** Your history with “low-brow” pleasures and your current awakening aren’t opposites—they’re part of the same spectrum. - **Integrate, don’t reject**: Pleasure-seeking often numbs existential discomfort. Instead of judging past habits, ask: *“What did they protect me from? What do I now crave beyond them?”* - **Mindful engagement**: Even “dumb” entertainment can be a mirror. Observe what hooks you—boredom, nostalgia, escapism—and use it as data for self-inquiry. --- ### **4. Practical Anchors** - **Journal dialogues**: Debate your own assumptions on paper. For example, write a conversation between “Your Younger Self” (clinging to old truths) and “The Awakened You” (questioning everything). - **Study the mapmakers**: Dive into thinkers who’ve navigated this terrain—e.g., David Hume (skepticism), Simone de Beauvoir (ethics of ambiguity), or Alan Watts (playful spirituality). - **Community**: Seek out others in this liminal space (philosophy groups, meditation circles, even online forums). Shared inquiry lessens the vertigo. --- ### **5. The Paradox of Growth** This awakening isn’t a flaw—it’s a sign of courage. As Rilke wrote, *“Live the questions now.”* The discomfort you feel is the friction of old shells breaking; what emerges won’t be certainty, but a deeper capacity to *dance* with uncertainty. You’re not losing your mind—you’re rewiring it. The path is messy, but it’s yours. Stay fierce. 🌱