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Values Assessment Pass #5 This one was a grind to complete. Also the heart of the whole thing so far. So in the spirit of getting into the mud and just doing it, here are the results. The assignment: Find out what each of these words mean, specifically for you. Create a personal definition for each word. Keep it concise and hone it down to 15-20 words. There are 3 questions to get clarity on this: 1. What exactly does this mean to me? 2. What would it look like tangibly? 3. How would I know if I embody this value? --------- 1. Integrity / Honesty A. What exactly does this mean to me? My word matches reality. What I say is so is so, and what I say will be done will be done. B. What would it look like tangibly? People can count on me doing what I say I'm going to do. If I say I'm going to pay you XX by XX, it will be done. If I say XYZ happened, you can count on that being what happened to the best of my ability to put it into language accurately. C.. How would I know if I embody this value? I have peace of mind, knowing there is nothing to hide and no messes caused by me not telling the truth, or not following through with what I said I would do. People take me for my word without question. I am hyper aware whenever I'm speaking, checking to make sure it's true, and if it's a promise, that I immediately put in place what I need to perform as promised. 2. Personal Growth A. What exactly does this mean to me? I am always expanding who it is possible for me to be and what it is possible for me to do. B. What would it look like tangibly? Reading books, watching videos, and attending seminars on personal development, and giving my best. Helping others in their personal development in personal relationships and offering workshops, courses, retreats, videos, writings. C. How would I know if I embody this value? Getting results related to my life purpose such as holding successful workshops and retreats. 3. Health & Vitality A. What exactly does this mean to me? The physiological and energetic capability to fully participate in an active life. B. What would it look like tangibly? Waking up with the mental clarity and energy to immediately meditate and practice Yoga, and have that energy and aliveness last until I fall asleep at night, every day, with no chronic illness. C. How would I know if I embody this value? All of my bloodwork, body weight, body fat stats are within normal range, I can hike or play tennis for an hour without becoming very fatigued, and I can go through most days doing productive work without needing breaks and rests. 4. Responsibility A. What exactly does this mean to me? A place to stand from which all aspects of reality are self-created. What I used to take as "being responsible" is doing what is required or expected by others given my circumstances. Paying taxes, completing assignments, not taking unnecessary risks. I don't necessarily value this version of responsibility anymore. B. What would it look like tangibly? When anything unwanted occurs, rather than blame others or circumstances, I tell the people impacted that I am responsible and take actions to clean up the situation. For example, a kid gets hurt while playing at my house. Regardless of the circumstances, I internally take responsibility and take steps to handle it in the best interests of the kid and his family. It rains on our picnic. I am the one who has the power to take responsibility and make the best out of the situation, and have a conversation to restore integrity with anyone who was impacted by it. C. How would I know if I embody this value to it's highest form in my life? I see all of the showing as my own creation, even getting cut off in traffic, and therefore experience a feeling of love at all times. Something happens like getting cut off or someone doing something unethical in a business deal with me, I allow for it and am able to swiftly take actions to deal with it. 5. Intimate Relationships (Merged with Family) A. What exactly does this mean to me? Having people very close to me and sharing a mutual love and affinity. B. What would it look like tangibly? Having daily interactions with my wife, kids, and good friends as well as weekly interactions with my parents and siblings, where we are sharing our lives with each other, telling inside jokes and laughing together, having meals and activities together, doing projects together, and in the case of my wife, hugs, kisses, massages, sex, etc. C. How would I know if I embody this value in its highest form in my life? I'm hugging and laughing with people at least a few times every day (I would consider my current situation very fulfilling of this value). 6. Leadership A. What exactly does this mean to me? Having an inspiring vision for the future concerning other people, and taking responsibility for the choices and actions in actualizing that vision. B. What would it look like tangibly? Creating a clear vision and business plan for my retreat center and starting to build towards it, having conversations with friends and family about it, creating the team, registering guests, and leading the practices and conversations among staff and participants during the retreats. C. How would I know if I embody this value in its highest form in my life? I own a retreat center, with a staff of people making it work, and regular retreats happening in which I get to lead people towards fulfilling their purposes in joining the retreat. 7. Consciousness (Merged with Clarity) A. What exactly does this mean to me? Expanding the scope and accuracy of awareness of everything it's possible to be aware of, including awareness. B. What would it look like tangibly? There may be no objective tangible thing to see here. Subjectively, I experience more subtle and more accurate awareness of the 5 senses, clearer awareness of thoughts and emotions, as well as the ability to have perceptions beyond the standard physical senses, and most notably, a deepening of the awareness of awareness itself. I suppose that from an outsider's view, I notice things in tangible reality that most other people don't, and carry myself with a joy and lightness, a presence of being that comes with being deeply conscious. C. How would I know if I embody this value in its highest form in my life? I am able to flow between awareness of deep nothing and everything at will, as well as have accurate awareness of reality both within and outside physical sense perception, such as remote viewing and interaction with beings in higher realms. Rooted in awareness of awareness, I walk through life in the world but not of it, filled with a profound bliss and joy of simply being (this is something like my current state of being, but I see space to move much more deeply into it). 8. Freedom A. What exactly does this mean to me? Having the largest possible opportunity set for being and action in any given moment. B. What would it look like tangibly? Psychologically, it means being free from limitations of beliefs and limiting thought patterns. Physically, it's being in good enough health and fitness to be able to participate in an active life fully. Practically, it means living in an area in the world where law enforcement is practical and not overbearing, there is a sound monetary system and ownership rights. At the being level, it means not being tied to a particular identity or even a particular locus for perception. C. How would I know if I embody this value in its highest form in my life? With freedom, a balance needs to be struck. Giving myself total freedom to eat whatever I want leads to getting fat and a loss of freedom of physical movement. Living in a society with no rules leads to a loss of freedom to participate within the safety the rules provide. So there is freedom to choose my limitations... that would be it for me. When I have an awareness that any limitations on my being and acting are consciously chosen by me. 9. Fun & Humor A. What exactly does this mean to me? Noticing the absolute absurdity of reality, making light of and enjoying the situation. B. What would it look like tangibly? Deep, heartfelt laughter for everyone around me. C. How would I know if I embody this value in its highest form in my life? My shoulders are relaxed. I'm smiling. I'm laughing. People around me feel free to make jokes about anything. At least once a month, I laugh so hard it hurts. 10. Intelligence (Merged with Organization, Simplicity, and Elegance) A. What exactly does this mean to me? A sense of logical order, deep understanding, and simple elegance in the design of all things. B. What would it look like tangibly? Physical and digital spaces are impeccably organized, so that anyone can look at it and understand how to find things and see the logic of how it was ordered. There is nothing superfluous - everything has a purpose. Things and spaces under my responsibility are designed with quality and well-suited to fulfill their purpose, for example anyone can attend a workshop I designed and appreciate the effectiveness of how it was designed and sequenced for maximum effectiveness. C. How would I know if I embody this value in its highest form in my life? There is a beauty and simplicity, an elegance to all of my possessions and spaces, my appearance, my speech, and my way of being.

There is an order and harmony to the universe. The universe is structured and is clearly leading somewhere in a way that is not 50/50 but rather has specific inclinations, like a flower vine growing toward sunlight. We have all the minerals and rocks of the world, then all the plants and lesser organisms of the world, and then human beings themselves, which are the most complex and conscious structures yet. It seems we're leading somewhere, getting pulled into a divine sunlight which might destroy our selves or recreate them in a universal bliss and individual luminescence. The Daniel M. Ingram model of meditation has stages that happen cyclically, and the dark night of the soul is one of them. So it's not necessarily just a bridge that you cross to reach the light a single time, but an event as a pattern that recurs also with the light as something that recurs.

+ 1 hour bliss (Being - Thank you - 2 Hour Timer) (Rare candy app: nurse) (1 hour total) …………… Notes: since I can’t meditate like I used to I’m going to use the ho'oponopono prayer, broken down, as a crutch. As well as other Matt Kahn affirmations. I can’t see anything wrong with crutches if they help with entering.

I'm going to try the practice of no condemnation. Seeing everyone as sinless Imagine entire world is not guilty of anything U may find your own release from judgement in that moment That's where love and bliss are If u want to experience that bliss again u'll have to come to this place of no condemnation

Good for you. How many needles did it take up your ass to feel the bliss.

Yesterday I spent 6 hours melting into the bliss of God on the beach…

You need to let go of your expectations of how you should feel. Seek deeper and deeper conciousness without fear. To get to a solid bliss you need an ego death. If you've already had Samadhi once then the biggest obstacle holding you back is your understanding of what it will feel like again. The goal is ultimately to see with your eyes but to "be" fully your heart. When the heart sees the world it sees only itself. You need to also just let go of your anger and impatience mate.

Maybe I'm naive, but to me, the greatest joy is still living an adventurous, meaningful life. I can bliss out whenever I want, but I'm still so fucking young and have so much energy and potential - why not go on an odyssey and put on a good show, instead of sitting on your ass all day, doing nothing? It's not that I lack anything, I'm just motivated to do it for it's own sake.

@Someone here Bro, why present them as if there's a schism between Stoicism and Hedonism? There isn't, just your mind likes to chisel a chasm that isn't, instead of hemming in what is and isn't with your oven mites. A mind that likes flying in mental denial gymnastics like a hamster bike wheel, riding to chase Hedonism with haste into smithereens, needs a bit of Stoicism, to bring boiling toil to simmer to then stillness. Another mind too stone cold, itching for a cinnamon roll, told to hold in those boney base urges, needs a bit of Hedonism, cuz he/she gonna miss the bliss of life and thrive in the wrong way, in deep fried, thick mile sand oil. So! Like the Taoists, practice Daoism, cuz they so chill to pendulum switch and balance, symmetry and asymmetry, the D with the T-T to the !D-LIKE A T-BONED STEAK IN A MYTHICAL DREAM!

access concentration usually brings up a certain ecstasy in the body. if you dont, nobody can really answer it for ya.. its very personal.. you might need to experiment with the different suggestions you get. in my opinion, you're not there yet.. you should be buzzing with the intensity of your concentration to get to that bliss flooding your body. its not easy and i dont think being able to stay without thoughts for a minute or so is enough. you should just keep practicing. also, consider dropping that analyizing voice in your head thats counting how much time you spent in concentration and just stay concentrated - you need to drop everything ! dont forget that. dont make "not wasting your precious time" your goal here, but your self realization.

@RickyFitts This! So many people want bliss, but they don't want to resolve their traumas...

you're asking about finding bliss by meditating, not about how to fix a car engine. what kind of answer do you want? something very concrete to an absolutely vague question?

@Laxx Try a 10-day Vipassana retreat, and then you could reevaluate the benefits of meditation. You want bliss, but you don’t appear to have the required staying power at present.

Bliss can most definitely be reached via meditation. It is not merely the state of no thoughts. It is the state of recognising that you are simply a vehicle for whatever is already unfolding (God). Bliss is total surrender to God. Total surrender to your true nature.

Yeah, I know its possible, I've heard of similar stories, but it definitely needs something more than just no thoughts. Your level of consciousness can of course can be raised from means other than psychedelics, but it seems incredibly difficult to reach a permament state of bliss.

I live in a constant state of no thoughts, for whatever reason, and my experience is not any more blissful than if I was thinking. All I have is a more calm awareness, no feeling of crampedness in my head, and I am more aware of the present moment. But when I take psychedelics and reach far higher levels of consciousness where I am very conscious of love, oneness, and so forth, I feel indescribable bliss far stronger than any orgasm you could have. It's both physical and mental, and even metaphysical. It's just bliss in every conceivable way. It's sheer ecstacy. When many meditators talk about bliss, they are probably referring to the former, not to the actual incredible bliss that you can get from psychedelics. If you actually want true bliss, increase your level of consciousness, as Leo said.

@Laxx Here’s the truth. Everything is relative. You won’t notice bliss in the absence of pain. That is, if your everyday experience is relatively pain-free mentally and physically, the low levels of bliss from modest amounts of meditation will be less noticeable. Bliss is the realisation that you are not connected to the pain, that the pain is not yours. Ultimate bliss is the recognition that no matter how extreme the pain, it is not yours - you have transcended it by dissolving the self. Psychedelics allow you to witness this directly because they give you an overview effect of the suffering that is innate to being human, yet position you very much outside it. If you are not reaching this state then longer hours in meditation might help. For example, you could try sitting through the pain of 10 hours per day of motionless meditation without any back support, on a very basic cushion with very little padding. Switch things up a little Once seen it cannot be unseen. The feeling that you are completely outside the pain is bliss. You will laugh, you may even cry tears of joy. Eventually the pain itself will reveal that it was always illusory, merely an energetic blockage that was inextricable from your level of consciousness. Do this enough and eventually you merge with God. Your body is rebuilt to do the work of God alone, and whatever you thought you were dissolves to nothing.

The issue is not to silence the mind but to dissolve the barrier of the ego. the ego is supposed to be the thoughts, therefore we deduce that in the absence of thought there is no self. that's not true. it can be the not-self with thoughts and be the self with all its granite solidity in silence. when the self dissolves the mind takes on unlimited depth, and bliss occurs. this happens during meditation, but in my experience the ego has had to be completely vaporized several times before. this can happen with very serious and intensive meditation practices or with 5 meo. If you have not broken the granite block that is the ego, being silent for a minute will not help you much, only as a mental control practice

Any unresolved trauma or emotional wounding that there is in you is going to hinder your ability to feel bliss, it's going to cover it up. So having a quiet mind isn't enough on its own, you have to be aware of what's going on inside you on a physical, energetic, and emotional level too, you have to develop bodily sensitivity so that those unresolved traumas and emotional wounds, which are stored in the body, can become conscious and gradually unravel. And that can take serious practise, it isn't likely to be something that's going to happen overnight; it can be disturbing and painful when those unresolved issues do start to bubble up in you, too, it really isn't for the faint-hearted and it requires an uncompromising devotion to the truth, no matter how painful and troubling.

You can breathe your way to bliss quite effectively with a little practice. Not the kind of divine ecstasy that you would get on a psychedelic but still pretty sweet.

You would get more bliss from a morning run in the park than from meditating for two hours straight. Best is to combine both and practice walking meditation.

Bliss doesn't come from an absence of thoughts. Bliss comes from higher states of consciousness in which Love and Oneness is recognized.

There is plenty of bliss in spirituality. It happens in the absence of "me".

@Waken Love it. Very true. One of the wisest things I have read here. I admire the selflessness of your returning here to post this. I would probably refine some of what you’ve said. For me, it is about dissolving what you think of as yourself and surrendering to what you really are: God expressing itself through your form. We either stand in the way of God’s expression - wishing this or that to be different - or we surrender to it. If we experience enough suffering in our lives, then we might eventually come to the conclusion that “being in control” is and always was an illusion. It is when we relax into the flow of this awareness that “obstacles” - which seemed insurmountable at first - will fade away, and bliss can ultimately follow. Living life for oneself, or in fact thinking oneself to be real at all - is the primary cause of suffering. Being a vehicle for the expression of God’s perfection, and awareness of such, is the perfect freedom.

@JuliusCaesar The usual roadmaps I see of spiritual progress are of Service to Others, you have any idea how one for Service to Self would go? Do you think the basis of the negative polarity is in feeling infinitely separate(same as unification, but this facet doesn't include any love)? What's your opinion on this: "For 3D beings to polarize negatively, the goal is to solidify the ego so much that it breaks and there is a recognition of absolute sovereignty/power/authority. In this, the phrase "I AM ME" or "I AM" has a different meaning than what it is on the positive polarity. Since such a being feels separate from everything, it has no sense of guilt, in fact it's seen as something to be transcended. Morality is realized to be relative and in this way one sees there is no reason to stop themselves from getting what they want. Impulses are not restrained unless out of fear of punishments. Although impulses could be a big part of their life, they are not controlled by them. One negatively polarizes by expanding their ego onto others and therewhich increasing power. The only way to do this is by making the other submit their free will, and their ego to you. In this way you expand your self, which is very different to how Service To Others does it, as there they merge with each other(dissolve away) instead. Fear is also seen as a major thing to transcend just like on Service To Others path. One who is consciously on the negative polarity path, can also transcend suffering by the recognition of absolute authority(God) and further negative polarization. It's not suffocating to be on this path as one can be in a constant state of bliss from one's own power if polarized enough. As the positive polarity finds bliss in otherselves(love), the negative polarity finds bliss in the self(power)."