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I've really thought about this a lot when it comes to contemplating my Life Purpose and boy is this something that's going to be messy. Now that we're in a world that DEMANDS and integral approach to spirituality, psychology, philosophy, human transformation, science, politics, and planetary restoration and also now that 5-MeO-DMT and other psychedelics is becoming slowly but surely more talked about... I really can't help but contemplate how an integral spiritual infrastructure could really be built, particularly in Western, 1st world, secular countries. What excites me is that all the tools seem to be there. Granted, legality of psychedelics of course is still a big issue. However, as far as I'm concerned, I think even that obstacle could still be worked around. The practices are all out there, the psychedelics that help most for consciousness work are out there as far as what are the one's to use (again, acquisition of such substances is another matter right now). When I look at popular sages and spiritual leaders like Sadhguru (I'm going to use him & India as my example in this post because he's just such a good, yet rare, example) I see someone and something truly extraordinary. I see someone who clearly is a masterful 2nd tier systems thinker. He's able to influence and talk to an enlightened yogi whose been in a cave for 15 years (Blue/Purple), economic and political titans (Orange), rational left brained scientists (Orange/Yellow), rural masses (Blue), kids as far down as elementary school, urbanites in their 20s pursuing sex/materialism (Orange), and attract the liberal hippies from afar (Green). You can even see in his talks and discourses he talks to all of them differently. He's even able to lead his sannyasis and he's actually very integral and 2nd tier in his approach by creating a system within his ashram where he can bring in both men and women and have an environment that seems to unite them all and even lead conscious restoration projects. It's fucking incredible that one man can lead all that in yet still have 1 month out of the year to spend in the Himalayas each year (read that in his biography). At the same time though (not even getting into his good fortune of his full enlightenment at the age of 25 - past 3 lifetime of work... as far as I'm concerned I don't see why this can't be the case), look at how fucking rare a person like that is. Someone who can withstand that workload, has that strong interpersonal and 2nd tier leadership skills, is as masterful and downright talented he is in the domain of spirituality as he is (beyond his depth of psychic proficiency and so much more, which as far as my research goes, is fucking off the charts if it really is true), not having gotten power hungry, the degree to which he succeeded in terms of impact on the world, etc. Also consider that he's in a country that has over 5000 years of spiritual infrastructure/foundation! There's a spiritual science there for building fuckin' temples at how to utilize them as energy centers for human beings (Agamas Shastras). I personally agree with @Leo Gura (which I think he hammers home on better than even than Ken Wilber) on the point that spirituality and really, the world at large, must go integral and evolve and include and embrace technologies such as psychedelics and specifically 5-Meo-DMT, EEG technology, what's to come with AI, etc. and also embrace other personal development schools, schools of psychology, science, art, philosophical schools, etc. which A LOT of these teachers reject because their whole impact is based around creating a particular niche school which excludes other things! Can you imagine going into a Zen monastery in Japan and trying to convince a Zen master whose been in a certain school that 5-Meo-DMT can get you to realize Nothingness in 30 min or less and that it's a much faster and more efficient tool than grinding for decades (which is not to dismiss work ethic or portray 5-MeO-DMT as some quick fix) that, for most people who down that path, produces a semi deep awakening at best? He'd keisaku your ass out of there. Hell, I would imagine even Sadhguru would dismiss it as a perfectly legitimate path. Even Ralston, a deeply enlightened master here in the West that seems to have no real attachment any spiritual system or spiritual culture and grew up a lot here in the San Francisco where I live dismisses psychedelics! What happens when the human guru is replaced with a syringe and powder made in a chemistry lab? How likely is that guru to either accept that or end up abusing that? Not to mention, the more integral you get, the more you'll have to realize that each person is of course different in their unique set of problems, their strengths and talents, emotional blockages, personality types, interests, etc. which of course undermines a set and stone system/school/tradition because the whole point of tradition/school/system is that it's different from all the others, even just from a business standpoint. Not to mention, the larger the school and the more people you draw in, the more you'll have to dilute your teachings, practices, and the Greater Jihad to fit the masses. Granted, going back to Sadhguru, I think he's being smart by having his ashram where he leads sanyasins where he goes balls to the wall with them so that when he dies, he's planted seeds that will live on after him. Even with that though, look at how much corruption, dilution, shenanigans, and the collapse in the quality of the school after the main leader passes on. What happens when Sadhguru's vision just becomes some ideological moral objective for his followers in 100 years that blindly follow that rather than think for themselves? What happens when you're school falls behind in it's spiral stage and grows out of date and becomes obsolete and eventually becomes regressive relative to where the rest of the world is? This is not even mentioning the work that comes with transcending cultural paradigms. Lastly, how on earth does a spiritual infrastructure get built in a country like say in the USA where our culture is not one of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, but one of consumerism? We (I live in the USA so this is just an easier way for me to frame this) live in a country that as far as my (subpar) analysis and assessment goes seems to just be emulating the same pattern that lead to the fall of Ancient Greece. On the global macro scale, the USA is a baby country as far as it's age goes. If I were to equate this with a business example, we seem to be like just one giant MLM that's been parasitic on not just the earth but to other world cultures and countries. It's like a business who just aims for profits for the short and mid-term at all costs and get's wealthy in the beginning and stays there for awhile because its Orange, it's strategic enough to stay on top. In the end though the business falls apart because it wasn't based on those timeless principles longer lasting principles that undermine short-term growth. Not to mention, we don't even recognize our culture that much because consumerism is much harder to see relative to a lot of other world cultures. For better and worse, we have such a massive influence on the rest of the world. People in other countries (particularly in the 3rd world of course) still idolize America and wish to come over here for opportunity and a chance for them as an individual to thrive at Stage Orange and make something of themselves. We infect the world with our ideology and image of consumerism and Stage Orang mindset. Taking a step though, there are A LOT of pluses with that. So I'm not saying this to just bash Orange and the USA. Orange is multiplistic. It helped science and a lot of other fields and industries to really unfold which a lot of these countries really desperately need. It brought opportunity and set the stage for individuals to revolutionize and rebel against the excesses that came with Blue. At the same time though, we seem to be in a place without a strong nor up to date spiritual/metaphysical foundation/infrastructure which I think is really one of our primary achilles heels when it comes to the survival of this country and also the world since the United States is such an influential powerhouse. What happens to a family when the only breadwinner is dad and mom is a housewife and the kids follows dad no matter what because of the power disparity he has and dad is also a raging alcoholic that beats his wife and kids and gets away with it because he's the most powerful one in the house but eventually becomes so neurotic and dysfunctional because of his of his dysfunctional ego that he ends up in jail or dies in a drunk driving accident? Or if mom eventually decides to fight back and comes at him with a baseball bat? Is that really going to make the family any better? Or will that lead to the collapse of the family entirely? I don't know...

3-30-2019 28 The Preponderance of the Great line 5 32 Duration Line 5 councils me not to take on others Fate Some interesting commentary from hexagram 32 Duration: Unlike Cosmic Reality, the parallel reality created by the collective ego does not endure because it is based in the mistaken ideas and beliefs about the Cosmic Way. When a Person, through holding to such mistaken ideas and beliefs violates the Cosmic Harmony, the Cosmos responds with Fate. Fate is part of the law of physics, and has the purpose of restoring this Cosmic Harmony and of helping a person return to unity with the Cosmos. It does so by decreasing the ego in him, thus bringing him back to humility. The parallel reality is characterized by changes. These changes are brought about by the use of power on the part of humans and the Cosmic response to it in the form of Fate. Among the main mistaken ideas and beliefs that create the parallel reality are the presumptions that humans are at the center of the universe changes are the rule of life Nature operates through opposite forces to propel changes time is linear, having a beginning and an end the universe works on mechanical principles the Cosmos has a hierarchical order All of these ideas create discordant fields of consciousness which compete with the Cosmic Order and its Principles of Harmony. They separate humans from Cosmic Unity. When Fate is not recognized as help from the Cosmos to make a person aware of his mistaken ideas and beliefs, but is taken as Cosmic "punishment," the blame he puts on the Cosmos creates a new fate, thus perpetuating the misfortune. Note: The new I CHING; The Oracle of the Cosmic Way, shows how transformation, not change, is the true way of Nature, including human nature. This correlates with the Fourth Way philosophy that says in work on oneself, forced change doesn't endure in the way transformation does regarding ones being. Transformation of being instead of change of being.

I'm not questioning experienced depth, but how transforming and reverberating chemically induced trips are. What I can't rule off with psychedelics is that the euphoria, the experienced depth, the experienced infinite love are just chemically induced effects, not so different than alcohol making some people euphoric and all loving. The transformative effect that Leo is claiming may be caused by the lingering chemically induced euphoria. And it can last a long time, I did LSD quite a bit and I could still feel the emotional impact and instability it had for months after stoping taking it. I know he's going to say that his emotional state is not chemicaly induced but due to what he realized and witnessed in his trips but what I am saying is precisely that this emotional state is not due to that but to the chemical effect of 5meodmt just like alcohol can do that. Basically I'm going full circle because that's extactly how dogmatic people would dismiss psychedelic trips stating that's it's all "just a drug induced trip messing with brain chemistry". After LSD experiences I thought that the euphoria is caused by the truth of those experiences but after witnessing the lack of long lasting, pragmatic, transformation I went full circle hypothetizing that after all this euphoria is indeed chemically induced. Now at the end of the day whether we claim things or not we are still pursuing the same thing, it may be more clever for oneself to give in into the illusion that he's making progress along the path rather than favouring the witnessing of stagnation. Anyway the life is unfolding so better to see the upside rather than the downside but what we really want is truth. Sure it's nice having those trips, but are those trips contained in Leo's life or is Leo's life contained in the truth revealed by those trips ? During the trip it seems that Leo's life is contained in the infinite godhead but when coming out of the trip we wan't to survive to have more of those trips. So which perspective is right ? Keep oscillating between the two perspectives like the cosinus function and tell me if you get the truth of it.

That distinction is somewhat moot. A Zen student strives very hard before and even after awakening. According to your logic you would say that all Zen is artificial. And by that standard all spirituality and all growth is artificial. Which is not a good view. Seeking to embody and to be more fully conscious of God is not artificial, it is a natural part of this whole awakening and self-transformation process. How else could it be? When transformation happens in you, you feel it. I am not saying that I am 100% transformed. It's not different than after any meditation retreat. You would be back, you would be somewhat transformed, but you would also still mostly be the old you. And you will have to work to embody the stuff you learned and realized during your retreat. Radical transformation does not happen over night. Realigning the mind is like realigning teeth with braces. In practice, to become fully God-realized will require some force and some contrivance. It is not going to be an effortless, purely organic process.

@Leo Gura What I don't understand is how can you claim so quickly that those awakenings experiences transformed you ? Personaly when I was tripping I had few powerful experiences that I thought transformed me but after a few time I saw that I was always going back to baseline, so now I never claim that something transformed me, I would have to clearly see a change in my daily experience or behavior for an extended period of time -at least a year- for me to acknowledge a transformation and even then I would have to be honest on whether this change is really organic or artificially maintained through striving. This seems very basic to me, don't you see that ?

This is the Leo I have been waiting to see for a long time. Well done, you have done it Leo. I can feel by the smile on your face, the beaming energy you emit, the radiance of beauty, what a soul you have become. You look different. You sound different. You FEEL different. I just watched your YouTube video upload (white shirt) and am so impressed and INSPIRED. Leo, you have done it. All of that shadowy self has burned off. My goodness, seeing you has been the best part of my week. I can feel the energy just from here watching it. It is incredible. Solar plexus gut feels really alive and craves to listen to you. Leo, I am sorry for judgements I have made on you. I thought (secretly) for a long time there was a power trip cult thing going on......But through this video you have inspired me and made me believe in humanity again. I am ready. I am ready to take the meditation seriously. Yes, I have met Buddhists. I have met and am friends with a direct disciple of Osho. I am (was) part of a Jungian self development group for years and have met many people. But, I don't know why, your transformation has touched me the most. And I haven't even met you in person. I think it has affected me so much because I have seen the transformation over years take place. And your white shirt, yes Leo, it is a keeper in my opinion. You can wear black shirts, but they don't suit you. They never suited you. The white shirt, your Godliness, is unreal. What a fresh hit of oxygen to see you. I am looking forward, and am really 'ready' now to absorb the new Leo to help me on my path. Congratulations. You don't need me to tell you how much you have grown, you know it yourself. But it is incredible. Shocked, blown away, touched.

This is why focus is necessary. And separation is necessary. Bear with me here, because I know what I'm saying is blasphemous and taboo and oh so very PEDESTRIAN and low level. Ego death and actual physical death are the same thing. Thinking they aren't is creating yet another a duality. You exist as a limited form for a reason. That is the very thing that means you have the power to choose and make decisions and create things as an expression of life. That duality of life and death is exactly why you are alive. Getting rid of that duality means there is nothing. You have to choose, life or death. Light or dark. Pick one and love, appreciate and thank the other for it's existence because it is what allows you to be. Enlightenment is just a bounce back into going about your stupid life again, knowing that transcendence was ONLY an internal transformation and not an external one. Disappointing? Only to the ego. Still alive. Still an ego with likes and dislikes. Just a self realized one.

Welcome back. What has been your experience with Truth so far? For me, it's just "you." The "you" who is one with the no-self making a transformation into everythingness, and then back into the ego with love. That love is the indication that we are in the 'to love realm.' And, somehow, some way, we got to find a way to pass on this message through our actions. It's probably not as effective if you propose to speak. I'm busy throughout my day, but I'm always looking forward to working on my life purpose and making it action oriented. What you posted there reminds me of this saying from Buddha, "if you propose to speak, always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind?"

@Nahm If you had to name only 1 key quality that was vital in your transformation, what would it be?

@Shin This is the same hair transformation as Walt in Breaking Bad.

Rawjudah, Judas was the only son in his family that rose above a lineage of unfair power and spoiled chauvenisitc mind. Judas sleeps with Tamer, whom was actually a prostitute but lied to Judas. There is great significance in your user name. And the similarity of story of ancient Judah is the solution and narrative to your dilemma. Dear Rawjudah, after Judah had a child with Tamer, only afterwards did he reassess who he was and his Inner Essence. It is only then we see him do a heroic act of saving a brother of his in a sacrificial manner; the first good deed of his family to perform. So the transformation with you begins with the physical woman. You wish to Self actualise, but no you dont not really. It is an artifical longing you have; it is fashionable. Maybe you had strict parents that encouraged you to attain the best and now you are trying do that in self help. But deep down, you know this pursuit of yours for God is phony. You secretly desire power, material. Sex. You did not mention a girlfriend, you mentioned sex. And Judah was initiated into his Godliness BECAUSE of a sexual act. The sexual act led to a chain of events that brought him to his proper path. Once you are on your proper path, the journey to God might begin. For now, IT WILL NEVER BEGIN! You are disrespectful in your pursuit of God now, because you are not sincerely ready for it nor even want it. .....However, after the experience of sex and women, your journey definitly will begin. It is an inevitable destiny for you. Go for your desire. Attain sex in many ways. I will pray for you to have sex. Because in having sex, the sooner you will sober up and gain a new horniness, a horniness that a woman cannot relief you for; The horniness for God.

In my morning I CHING reading, I got hexagram 51 lines 1 and 5 which resulted in a second Hexagram 45. Sex energy In Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson, there are 3 categories of food for three brained beings. Ordinary food for the planetary body, air is the second being food, impressions (visual;sensory) are the third being food. Wrong use of sexual energy is articulated as expressing negative emotions as well as the habit of being fidgety. The necessity of Conscious suffering is buried under a mountain of words which many end up deciphering as Conscious intake of air and Conscious intake of impressions or in other words - being present. Transmutation of the sexual substance is also necessary but on the other hand, (no pun intended) complete abstinence is said to produce two distinct pathological side effects. Will Mesa using quotes from 'The Tales', elaborates on this- Transmutation of the sexual substance enables us to connect with other worlds, as well as allowing us to have direct connection with other people. This connectivity cannot and is not proper to the three lower three centers. We can see the world and other’s worlds directly, without the filters introduced by the functionality of the lower three centers. Hence the importance of transmutation of the sexual substance. For many centuries, monks of every age have engaged in the practice of sexual abstinence as way of transmutation of the sexual substance. However, as it is clearly stated in the book, abstinence does not work: “At the present time, very many of these ‘monasteries’ exist there, and these innumerable ‘monks’ who enter them do indeed strictly abstain from the ejection from themselves in the customary way of the being-Exioëhary or sperm formed in them; but of course, no sensible result at all is ever obtained from this abstinence of theirs, and it is not obtained, because the thought has ceased even to enter the heads of these unfortunate ‘contemporary’ monks that although it is indeed possible, by means of these substances Exioëry formed in them, to perfect themselves, yet this can proceed exclusively only if the second and third being-foods are intentionally absorbed and consciously digested in one’s presence, and this is possible exclusively only if all the parts of one’s presence have been accustomed beforehand consciously to fulfill both sacred being-Partkdolg-duties, that is to fulfill ‘conscious labors’ and ‘intentional sufferings.’” Two serious effects of this abstinence are also mentioned in the book: “The first kind of action of this definite substance consists in this, that it promotes the depositing of superfluous what is called ‘Karatsiag,’ or, as they call it there, ‘fat.’ And its second kind of action promotes the arising and the dispersing over the whole planetary body of what are called ‘Poisonioonoskirian-vibrations.’ “The consequence of all this is that in the first case these terrestrial abstaining monks become extraordinarily, as it is usually said there, fat, and sometimes one indeed meets among these fat monks specimens with such an abundant deposit of fat, that they could give many points to that form of being there which they expressly fatten in order to increase this same fat in their planetary bodies, and this form of being they call there ‘pig.’ “And in the second case, on the contrary, these abstaining monks become, as it is also usually said there, ‘meager-thin’; and the action of the ‘Poisonioonoskirian-vibrations’ which penetrate through them is chiefly evident in their general psyche which becomes sharply dual and the manifestations of which are divided into two diametrically opposite kinds – the outer, visible and for show, sensed by everyone around them, and the inner and hidden, which the ordinary beings there, especially the contemporary, are entirely incapable of ascertaining The or perceiving – namely, in their outer visible manifestations, these ‘Poisonioonoskirian-monks’ appear to be what your favorites would express as ‘bigots’ of a high degree; and in their hidden inner manifestations, not shown to others, what your favorites would call ‘expert cynics,’ also of a high degree.” I was able to verify these two facts during a four year stay at a Chan (Zen) meditation center. The fat monks all they cared about was to end the satsang so they could go to the basement to have a drink and a piece of cake. The thin monks were indeed expert cynics. Will Mesa also states- It is quite obvious from the quote above that transmutation of the sexual substance which is the result of the transformation of the first being-food, demands serious practice of “conscious labors” and “intentional suffering.” The only problem is that these two being-Partkdolg-duty are not specifically spelled out in the book, except only to say that the best form of “intentional suffering” is to bear the unpleasant manifestation of other beings during one’s shared existence with them.

Being a Human Being and Still Being the Absolute The development of consciousness has to do with living in this life from the perspective of the Absolute. The Personal Essence, the Pearl Beyond Price, has to do with being a human being and still being the Absolute. If you’re just the Absolute, you are not a human being. But you live in this world, you have a physical body and a mind, you have work and relationships. You need the Personal Essence in order to be able to live personally as a human being and still be the Absolute. So the development of the personal aspect has to do with integrating all of these things that are important for our life into the various levels of consciousness, and then into the Absolute. This is an actual process that has to do with the metabolism of the Absolute into the Personal Essence. Although it is rarely mentioned in spiritual literature, the integration of the person into the Absolute is vital because we live in the world and not in a monastery or cave. Integrating the person into the Absolute is more difficult than experiencing the Absolute. Integration requires that you deal with and metabolize your unconscious and your personal history. You have to really let all of the unconscious come out, to face all of your specific issues and areas of conflict and ignorance. Many traditions don’t care about integration but strive only to reach the Absolute. They don’t care about the personal life. The point for them is to know the Absolute and leave. In other traditions, and in our work, the point is to know the Absolute and live in the world as an expression of it. So how can you live a human life from the perspective of absence? That is the realm of development, change, and transformation within consciousness. Diamond Heart Book Five, pg. 145 Development of Essence from Being Impersonal to Being Personal Unlike other aspects of Essence, this personal aspect (the pearl) goes through a process of development, growth, and expansion. Here the concepts of development and growth can be seen in their true and literal meaning. This true personality of the being is born, fed and nourished. It grows, expands, and develops in a very specific sense. It is really the development of Essence from being impersonal to being personal. Others might call it God becoming a human person, an individual. Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 163 Experiencing the Pearl Beyond Price The pearl beyond price, the incomparable pearl, the personal aspect of Essence is central for many important reasons. It is actually the true essential personality. It is the person. It is experienced as oneself. When the individual finally perceives it, the contented expression often is "but this is me!" The sense is of oneself as a precious being. There is then a fullness, a completeness, and a contentment. It is as if the individual feels full and complete, realized. Nothing is lacking. No more search, no desire or wanting anything else. The person feels "now I have myself. I am a complete individual. I am full. I am fullness. I am complete. I want nothing else." Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 161 It is Possible to Experience Egoless Beingness Thus it is possible to experience egoless beingness, to be, as a substantial presence that is not a mental construct, and still live a human, personal life, in which love, work, knowledge, creativity and accomplishment make sense, a human sense. This true existence, this presence, this being beyond time that makes sense of human and personal life, is the Personal Essence. It is the reality of which ego is only a reflection. It is the truly integrated and developed human being. This is the beautiful presence that the traditional literature of work schools calls the “pearl beyond price.” The experience of universal impersonality of ultimate reality occurs when the separate individuality is transcended, when the separate individuality is seen not to be our true self. But this is the result of transcending the personality in its totality. Something different happens when we investigate the personality’s manifestations in more detail, exploring the hidden essential truth within it. The ego is a reflection of this true element of Being, the Personal Essence, and exploring the characteristics of the reflection can lead us to the reality being reflected. By isolating and understanding the elements of the false, we can begin to approach the elements of the real. Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 32 Knowledge of the Incomparable Pearl is Rare The knowledge of the Incomparable Pearl and the process of its development is rare even in the most complete spiritual teachings, and the traditions that know it do not speak much about it. This is why the overwhelming impression one gets from most spiritual teachings is that the goal of spiritual work is the realization of impersonal Being or the realization of the Soul’s relationship to it (as in the Christian tradition.) The literature regarding the Pearl is sparse, and when it can be found, it is usually couched in metaphorical and symbolic language. Sometimes the language is more direct and descriptive, but it appears metaphorical to most people, because they lack the direct experience. The story, “The Hymn of the Soul,” in Chapter Eight, is an example. There are very few direct references to the Personal Essence in the literature, and these are found mainly in old books not in circulation. In this chapter we will describe some of those references; although they are rare, they tend to confirm and support our own understanding of the importance of the development of the Pearl. Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 115 Relating Without Object Relations The Pearl beyond price can relate in a personal way without the need to activate past object relations. So its capacity is not only innate but also natural and spontaneous. Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 172 Station of the Pearl The station of the pearl beyond price is so significant because it is not a matter of a state of consciousness or a state of being; it is rather the condition of the actualization of one's realization in one's life. Being becomes personal being, a complete human being living fully the life of objective truth. Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 166 The Essential Structure that the Soul Develops as She Metabolizes and Transcends her Ego Structure The pearl can also be seen as the essential structure that the soul develops as she metabolizes and transcends her ego structure. Ego structure gives the ego-self the sense of being an autonomous and unique individual. But this structure is constructed through fixed mental impressions in the soul; hence it both dissociates her from her essential ground and limits her development because of its rigidity and fixation. The essential pearl provides the soul with a sense of individuality and personhood that does not depend on fixed impressions, but on spontaneously arising forms of essential presence that structure her experience of herself and give her the capacity to function as a person. The soul matures and transforms into a person of essence. However, the qualities and actions of this person are quite fluid and flexible and are objective responses resonant to the needs and inputs of the environment. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 223 The Pearl is an Ontological Presence The pearl is the real, complete, balanced, and rounded personality that psychologists believe they are talking about when they are discussing the ego. We must remember that the ego is a structure, or structured process, whereas the pearl is Essence, which means the pearl is an ontological Presence. We call it the Personal Essence because among all the essential aspects it alone is personal. It is experienced as having a personal flavor to it, in contradistinction to impersonal. All aspects of Essence, even love and kindness, are impersonal. But the pearl is personal. And this is its miraculous quality, totally unexpected and unfathomable. Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 162 The Pearl is the Actualized Individuation of Your Soul When you are who you are, when you are just precisely yourself, you are your “point.” Just that. This has nothing to do with any qualities, functions, capacities, and skills you may have. It has nothing to do with your status in the world, and nothing to do with living this life in a body or not in a body. It is your nature. The Pearl Beyond Price is the connection between this genuine center and all the capacities, skills, and understanding that are a part of your growth as a human being. It allows your capacities, functions and accomplishments to develop in a genuine way as an outgrowth of your spontaneous unfoldment. It is the result of living in the moment, living in a way that is true to who you are. This is your genuine personal life, your own development, your own growth. The pearl is the actualized individuation of your Soul. So the personal essence is connected with your unique function, your unique work in this life. To actualize your particular unique work in this life means to be your personal essence. It is the essence of all that you have developed and integrated in your soul as you live a real life. Everyone is born with the true self, with the point. Although we feel that the point is unique in each of us, the quality of the point is universal. Then how do people become so different in their personal lives? This is due to the particular development of their personal essence. Diamond Heart Book Three, pg. 66 note: Almaas refers to the soul with the feminine pronoun 'she'.

The thing with the LOA is that you don't get what you want, you get what you are (here I am talking about you the personality, not the true self), If someone wants money, you'll have to built the personality of someone who has a lot of money, even if you don't have, you can start to adopt this personality, in the begging you'll have to fake it, but then money will start to show up, and then eventually you'll start to believe it, so you won't have to fake anymore, Without knowing anything about LOA, I did exactly this when I went to college, My high school years sucked, I was shy and introverted, had very few friends and no girls, and when I graduated I had enough of that, I decided that when I went to college I would be someone different, I Had observed the popular guys from school, so I had an idea of how they act. When I went to college, since my first day I started to pretend that I was cool and popular, nobody knew me anyway so nobody would know that I was faking it. In one month my life was totally different, I had friends and girls, I was invited to parties all the time, it was like these things came from nowhere to me, I couldn't believe that, such a great transformation in such a short period of time.

Hi there @Iiris I love your journal! Opening up to others and being so honest and vulnerable takes courage, and it helps others when you really talk truthfully about your struggles... I had really deibilitating shame and social anxiety when I was younger (I'm 44 now), but with a lot of effort and persistence real transformation happened... I'm not some fearless James Bond figure, but these days I do things that would once have been impossible for me and they don't even phase me... TV interviews and making speeches and such... you've got this! Keep it up and you'll get the results you want.... I also love that you shared that Matthew Silver video... I used to live in New York and would regularly see him doing his funky thing in Union Square... that guy rocks! Hugs, Lucas

I agree. I see this in myself and others. Roots of what turns into belligerence, perhaps. Allow me to be so pompous as to theoretically give a solution to this problem in education that would involve distancing from left brain rationality to include the Chaotic right brain as well as whole body awareness. Starting with Carol Anthony's take on commonsense which she makes one word out of. Commonsense: is a consensus of all the senses. The commonsense comprises the five senses of inner perception and the metaphorical senses. In humans, the commonsense is the "inner judge," which discerns what is in harmony with the person's inner truth (and therefore also in harmony with the Cosmos) and what is not. It's judgement is based on the inner senses, and is in the form of feeling. Another function of the commonsense is that of being the Helper of Transformation (This applies only to humans). This function is referred to in the Hexagrams 15, Modesty, 16, Enthusiasm, 17, Following, and 21 Biting Through. As part of our animal nature, the commonsense gets blocked when a person's animal nature has been slandered as "lowly" or as "the source of evil". Why education needs to include instructing that we are '3 brained beings' - Zigzag Almaas: “For the process of understanding to happen, three elements need to be there at the same time. The element of disidentification is one of them, involvement is another. The third element is the quality of allowing. These elements can be there when there is harmony among the three centers—the belly center, the chest center, and the head center. When there is this harmony, it is possible to experience fully, to allow, and to disidentify. Now, what do I mean by these three elements? Each center contributes to the process of understanding. If the head center is functioning correctly, it means that space or emptiness is allowed. What is the significance of space and emptiness? Space and emptiness make possible the quality of allowing. When there is space in the mind, there is no self-image. You’re not trying to stick to something in particular. You’re not trying to go somewhere. The mind is allowing whatever is there to be there. So the head center’s participation or contribution is space, which is an allowing, a welcoming in a sense—space for things to happen without rejection, without trying to hold on. You become complete allowing. The heart center’s contribution has to do with its central quality, which is the personal essence. The contribution of the personal essence is the diving movement, the actual living of the experience. You not only allow it, you’re in the midst of it, you’re one with it. You’re really it, you let it happen, you feel it fully, you sense it fully, you experience it fully, right? That’s the contribution of the heart center. The belly center has its contribution, which is represented by the self, the essential self. The contribution of the essential self is the disidentification, the turning away. When you are truly functioning in the belly, you are completely present, and being completely present, you are being yourself. So you are not identified with the usual activity of trying to get somewhere else.” Diamond Heart Book Three, pg. 73 Almaas: “Distinguishing Physical Sensation from Essential Substance The capacity to sense oneself must become so refined that the individual can discriminate between physical sensation and the sensation of essential substance. It is not enough that the mind be quiet. It is also necessary for the body to be sensitive. The mind can be quiet while the body is deadened. The body has to be awakened so that the center of sensing, the belly center, can be activated. The belly center, or what Gurdjieff called the physical center, is the center of sensing for all parts of the body. Its deepest function is the subtle sensing, the sensing of essential presence, that the Sufis call the organ for touch. Touch is, in a sense, the most intimate of the physical senses. The skin must be directly against an object to touch it. There is no intermediary medium, like sound for hearing or light for seeing. So this subtle capacity is a very intimate one. Accurately speaking, it is sensing essence by being essence. It is the most direct way of perception. This capacity of touch, connected with the belly center, is very intimately connected with the embodiment of essence. It is the body center; its mode of perception is embodiment. Here, perception as touch, and being, are the same act. So this capacity is the most important one.” Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 130 “Functioning of the Essential Self in the Belly Center Yes, usually the belly center has to do with embodiment, with the capacity to sense oneself. However, the belly center is also the will center. In a sense, the ultimate function of the will is to surrender to what happens, surrender to the now. And surrender to the now means not to hold on to something. The true function of the will is complete surrender to what’s happening without holding on. That is will. The essential self, like all essential aspects, can function in any of the subtle centers. When one is being the essential self its location is usually the heart center. However, when the essential self is functioning in relation to identifying or disidentifying from any content of experience, it becomes associated with the belly center. The essential self is more like a potential for experience, and it also manifests as a capacity for identification. One of the results of that capacity for identification is embodiment. Embodying something means you are identified with what’s happening. An essential state is present. You are embodying it if you are it. The true self has the capacity to identify with something you are experiencing, but it doesn’t have to. It has a choice; it has the freedom.” Diamond Heart Book Three, pg. 79 I guess my notions about commonsense have turned into an argument for education and Culture itself as being too left brained and doesn't include much in the way of whole body awareness or including the heart in the process of perceiving and understanding. This might be relating back to your mention of the paradox of commonsense and introspection. I may have gone off on a tangent but this is my version of fun,,,, Given also that my blindspot is still mostly intact, there is probably some form of me not seeing the forest for the all the trees,,,,

I think you mean Divine Masculine, right? I studied the concept masculinity taught by David Deida and I also heard about Divine Masculine in one of the Teal Swan's videos (she says the Divine Masculine is about initiative, action, purpose, movement, responsibility, strength, focus, material abundance, fatherhood, generosity, encouragement, transformation and growth). I kind agree with her. I'll take a look at him. Thank you! Edit: I watch this vid and found it very fascinating.

@KMB4222 you're welcome. Just wanted to put a little note here: -When you become Truth, you will not have a self at all. That's why they call it: no-self. You will not have an ego: no external environment and no embodiment. You will become fully conscious and aware of this. -Then, you will make a transformation into being everythingness. You will become fully conscious and aware of this. You will become the entire universe. -Then, you will make a transformation back into your ego. When you finally become your ego, this transformation will seem "massive," like the only black hole in the entire universe. You won't just see it. You will become this. You will realize why they call it en-light-ment. As an ego, initially, you will probably think that it's infinitely massive and have a great distance, but no, when you were actually making these transformations, you were just BEing, and there were no distances (and no time), just transformations.

Have you noticed that the ppl who are famous and have experienced truth don't tell it to others directly? They tell it metaphorically. Even gurus who are not famous and actually live in caves, don't tell others directly. I think it's because they don't want others to be obsessed with it, and to continue to try to live a fulfilling life and to contribute to this world in a positive way. They don't want to ruin the process for anyone. Everyone is unique and will contribute to this world differently. It's because everything is you, and the truth is that no one likes suffering. (That's because when you experience truth there is no suffering--even though you're making a transformation back into your ego.) There you go. The statement in the () is part of truth. ? Also, the 10 Ox Herding Pics that was presented in one of Leo's clip points to the truth metaphorically. I like the 10 Ox Herding Pics told by Shinzen Young the best.

Writing about my trauma (chapter by chapter) from three perspectives mine, the other persons and a 3rd person point of view, helped to begin the healing process. I recommend watching some of Matt Kahn’s videos about healing afterwards which for me has personally resulted in huge emotional break throughs and true healing and transformation.

Found this message on: https://www.kriyayogalahiri.com (Message 24, https://www.kriyayogalahiri.com/kriyayoga/images/messages/messageuk/message-24.pdf) ... London, June 15, .2000 You are not your consciousness. You are nothing. You are the blank TV screen that does not get affected by the images coming upon it. Does the screen get burnt when fire is seen upon it? Does the screen get wet when ocean or rain appears on it? Do the bullets and bombs of the war scenes destroy the screen? You are the emptiness, the holistic existence, the energy, the intelligence. You cannot experience the emptiness, even though it is your real self, real space. Reality is existence not an experience. “You” must cease for this to be. Our intellect must open up for the penetration of intelligence. We share the same intelligence, just as we share the same atmosphere for breathing. Intelligence is meditation. Your consciousness is constituted by its contents – fear, anxiety, guilt, gullibility, greed, hope, pursuits, paradoxes, images, influences, indulgences, inhibitions, investments, beliefs, bigotry, conditioning, confusions and the rest of such ingredients of the mind. But you are not your mind. Mind is myth. It is not real, but it is valid. It is functionally useful in your daily practical living. You are not what you think. You are exactly that which you cannot think of. You are nothing. The courage to face and understand this void, is the beginning of a fundamental transformation in the human body and mind. The living sense organs of the body generate the mind. Mind, the myth, vanishes as soon as the body dies. A theatre company puts up a tent in a village fair and sets up a stage and also a green room for rest between performances. The players enact the drama in all sincerity and receive much appreciation from the audience. But they don’t get psychologically attached to their roles. They cease to be king, queen, Army general or villain and are nothing when they return to the green room from time to time for rest and recreation, to be able to play once again with vigour. And when the village fair is over, the company winds up the tent and vanishes from the spot. Emptiness is the green room, the mind is the play – stage, death of the body is the winding up of the tent to put it up again in another village fair, until the futility of the play is realized (jivan – mukta). Green room is the Brahma Stage and play are the Vishnu Vacant spot is the Shiva Live life in the stage-play (Vishnu lila), but be available to the Green room

@Shaun I've had moments recently where I've felt completely and absolutely trapped in a fucking living nightmare mate...feeling like I was schizophrenic psychopath...in tears in front of my dad. Part of it is not knowing whether it's from the meditation (ego backlash), just my head (since my mental health past isint great, neither is my mum's) or a mixture of both. I think my most helpful insights regarding emotions and mental health is, I know we are taught to embrace suffering when it comes...but do not mistake this to mean "welcome suffering". You don't want to be actually creating energy that will cause the suffering to come back. We should embrace all of reality as is *naturally* is...including your nature to want to be happy. There is a difference between experiencing actual authentic transformation and denial of reality. This is a trap within Christianity, the Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is; love, joy, peace, patience, goodness faithfulness, kindness, gentleness and self control. But because Christian's don't know how to actually contact the spirit of God authentically, they need to force themselves to *act* as *though* they have love, joy, peace, patience, goodness...etc. true acceptance is not manipulating reality at all. This includes not minipulating yourself when you notice yourself about to manipulate reality. Allowing, *especially* these subtle meta realities. Go to the doctor is you feel like it. If you feel like you want to blast music and smoke pot to feel better, then embrace it. If you then think "oh I can't do that, it'll make me dependant on grass to feel better" ...accept this thought to. And accept the fact that you want to accept these thoughts also. In one sense god is not within reality, ...so this is a also a subtle lesson about the impossibility of the task of "reaching" god. Subtle. How can you reach for something, that isint something? Hahaha

Seeing a higher level of interpretation in the New Testament in part, regarding the idea of the devil. Within the following long excerpt I just pasted below: The conception of the Gospels is that Man is continually being dragged down by evil forces, which are in him, not outside him, and to which he consents. By Man's consent to these forces in himself, progress in human life is prevented. The evil powers are in Man, in his own nature, in the very nature of his self−love, his egotism, his ignorance, his stupidity, his malice, his vanity, and also his thinking only from the senses and taking the seen world, the outer appearances of life, as the only reality. These defects are collectively called the devil, which is the name for the terrible power of misunderstanding everything that undeveloped Man possesses, the power of wrongly connecting everything. The devil is the aggregate of all these deficiencies, all these powers of misunderstanding in Man, and all their transmitted results. So the devil is called the slanderer or scandal−maker, from one point of view, and the accuser from another point of view. THE IDEA OF TEMPTATION IN THE GOSPELS PART ONE As we shall study in the next chapter the Miracle of the Transformation of Water into Wine, which in its internal or psychological meaning is about a certain definite stage reached by Jesus in his individual evolution, approximately just before he began to teach, it may be as well to consider the temptations of Jesus and the idea of temptation in its general significance in the Gospels in this connection. Now here it is necessary to grasp clearly something that is not usually understood. What has to be grasped is that Jesus had to undergo inner growth and evolution. He was not born perfect. Had this been the case he would not have suffered temptation or experienced such despair. Some religious people make a mistake in thinking that Christ had from the start such exceptional powers that anything was possible to him. But, as one instance, Jesus mentions the difficulty of healing a certain form of illness and says that much prayer and fasting is necessary before it can be undertaken. Later on we shall study some of these examples, but it can be said here that the most extraordinary views exist about the unlimited powers that Jesus had on earth, so much so that people even argue that if he were the Son of God, why did he not heal all sickness and convert the whole world? This is the same kind of argument used by people who say that if there is a God why are pain, illness, suffering, war, and so on, allowed on earth? The whole standpoint of both arguments is wrong. The idea of the meaning of life on earth is not grasped. In fact, the central idea of the Gospels is not grasped—namely, the idea of individual evolution and re−birth. Let us repeat the words used above to make the issue of this chapter as clear as possible: Jesus had to undergo inner growth and evolution. Let us start from this point. Jesus was not born perfect, as a fully−developed, a fully−evolved Man. On the contrary, he was born imperfect in order to carry out a certain long−prophesied task. He had to re−establish at a critical period in human history a connection between the two levels called" in the Gospels "earth" and "heaven", and this had to be done in himself practically, so as to reopen a way for influences from a higher level of the Universe of Total Being (which extends up through different degrees of the Divine Being to Absolute Being) to reach Mankind on earth and so make it possible for Man to have a possibility of inner development and also for some kind of intelligent culture to exist for a definite period or cycle of history. Of this period Jesus asks himself whether "faith will be found on earth" at its culmination. "Howbeit when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on earth?" Such are the words of Christ and these words suggest that he doubted whether faith would be found on earth at the end of this cycle. Jesus then had to bridge the human and divine in himself and in this way re−establish a connection between heaven and earth. He had to undergo all the difficulties of an inner evolution of the human in him so that it became subject to the higher or "divine" level. He had to pass through all the stages of this evolution in himself by trial and error, until it was perfected, through endless inner temptations, of which we are only given a few glimpses. And all this took place over a long period about which we only know something of the teaching he gave during the latter part of it, which terminated in the final humiliation and so−called catastrophe of the crucifixion, and a few details of the earliest part, but nothing of the comparatively long, intervening part. Here is silence. We do not know where Jesus was taught during this period or by whom he was given directions for the final drama he had to enact, the heralding of which was given to John the Baptist (who did not know him by sight) and the ordained culmination of which is referred to by Jesus in many places, and, in the Miracle of the Transformation of Water into Wine, in the words he is made to say to his mother: "Mine hour is not yet come". (He does not say "mother", but woman. ) Yet some religious people imagine that Jesus was crucified because of Pilate—as it were, by chance. This view is absurd. He had to play the part allotted to him. It was pre−arranged. Now in the earliest references to the development of Jesus it is said that he advanced in wisdom and stature. Jesus advanced by stages. In Luke it is said: "The child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was filled with wisdom, and grace was upon him". (Luke ii 52). Luke—who never saw Jesus—also records his first words when he was found in the Temple at the age of twelve by his father and mother after a search of three days. His mother is made to say: "Son, why have you treated us like this? Do you know, your father and I have sought you sorrowing?" To which Jesus is made to answer: "How is it that ye sought me? Do you not know that I must be in all that belongs to my Father?" Notice that the distinction between "father on earth" and "Father in Heaven" is made—that is, between the idea of the first earthly birth and the second higher birth which was the subject of Christ's teaching. Even at the age of twelve those who listened to him in the Temple were "amazed at his understanding and his answers". The idea, then, of Jesus advancing in understanding is quite distinct. And it is clear that a long period elapsed before he had advanced to his full inner stature and attained his supreme development, called in the Gospels the moment of his glorification. This final fulfilment of his evolution began when Judas went out into the night to "betray" him, as it is called, and when Jesus said to his remaining disciples: "Now is the Son of Man glorified". But even then, it was not yet attained for he obviously had to undergo two further and very severe temptations—the temptation in Gethsemane where he prayed: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt, " and the temptation on the Cross where he cried out: "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Here must also be remarked that Christ began to teach some three years before he attained glorification—that is, before his full development. Let us ask ourselves: How is inner evolution reached? All inner development is possible only through inner temptation. Three temptations of Christ by the devil are mentioned in detail in the early parts of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and referred to very briefly in Mark, in terms of "wild beasts". Nothing is said of this in John but the Miracle of Water into Wine is made as the starting−point of the teaching and miracles of Jesus. Let us study for the present the version of the three early temptations as given in Luke, in order to realize that Jesus had to advance by undergoing development by the method of temptation and so pass through stages of inner growth, by means of inner self−conquest. But let us first remember that the conception of Mankind in its unawakened state as given in the Gospels is that it is in the power of evil and this is represented by the idea that Man is infested by evil spirits. That is, Man is under the power of evil moods and impulses and thoughts, which are personified as evil spirits, whose object is the destruction of a man and of the human race. The conception of the Gospels is that Man is continually being dragged down by evil forces, which are in him, not outside him, and to which he consents. By Man's consent to these forces in himself, progress in human life is prevented. The evil powers are in Man, in his own nature, in the very nature of his self−love, his egotism, his ignorance, his stupidity, his malice, his vanity, and also his thinking only from the senses and taking the seen world, the outer appearances of life, as the only reality. These defects are collectively called the devil, which is the name for the terrible power of misunderstanding everything that undeveloped Man possesses, the power of wrongly connecting everything. The devil is the aggregate of all these deficiencies, all these powers of misunderstanding in Man, and all their transmitted results. So the devil is called the slanderer or scandal−maker, from one point of view, and the accuser from another point of view. But we shall see a little more clearly what is meant by the devil when we begin to understand what temptation really means. In the account of the tempting of Christ by the devil given in Luke, it is said that Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, "being tempted of the devil". This number forty appears in the account of the Flood, where the rain lasted for forty days and nights, in the allegorical account of the Children of Israel wandering forty years in the wilderness, and it is said also of Moses that he fasted forty days and nights before he received the Commandments written on tablets of stone. Here, in Luke, the forty days in the wilderness are directly connected with the idea of temptation: "Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness during forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he did eat nothing in those days and when they were completed he hungered. " (Luke iv, 1−2). Then comes a description of the first resulting temptation of this period of temptation, which is represented in the following way: "And the devil said unto him, If thou art the Son of God command this stone that it becomes a loaf of bread. " (Luke iv, 3. ) Let us take the superficial literal or first level of meaning. Christ hungered and the devil suggests that he should transform a stone into bread. "And Jesus answered and said unto him, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone". (Luke iv, 4. ) On the literal level this is just as it appears—a physical temptation. Notice, however, that it is said above that Jesus was in the wilderness forty days "being tempted of the devil". If we suppose the wilderness to be a literal physical wilderness, how is it that nothing is said about how he was being tempted all this time? One might merely say that he was starving. But in connection with inner development we must understand by the term wilderness a state of mind, a general inner state, comparable with a literal wilderness—that is, a state where there is nothing to guide a man, where he is no longer among familiar things and so is in a wilderness, a state of distress and bewilderment and perplexity, where he is left entirely to himself, as a test, and does not know in which direction to go and must not go in his own direction. This itself is temptation, for all the time he is being starved of meaning. Why should a man leave the familiar and go into a wilderness? He hungers for bread—not literal bread but that bread that we ask for in the Lord's Prayer, so wrongly translated as "daily" bread—namely, guidance, trans−sub−stantial bread, and, literally, bread for the to−morrow, in fact, meaning, for the development of our lives, not for our lives as they are to−day, now, but as they can become, the bread necessary for our support in growing, the bread for successive and necessary stages of understanding. (For the Lord's Prayer is a prayer about inner evolution and the bread asked for is the bread of understanding necessary for it. ) In such a state the temptation is to make bread for oneself— that is, to follow one's own ideas, one's own will—exactly as the builders of the "Tower of Babel" used bricks and slime of their own making, in place of stone and mortar. They thought they could make a new world from their own ideas. Why should one not fall back on oneself and so on life once more instead of waiting for something that seems doubtful? In Matthew the answer of Christ to this temptation is: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. " (Matthew iv, 4. ) See clearly that the devil has asked Christ to make bread by himself to ease his state—that is, not to await the Word of God. The devil says: "If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. " That is, nourish yourself by your own powers and ideas. But the mission of Christ, which began immediately after the temptations in the wilderness, was not to manufacture truth and meaning by himself, but to understand and teach the Truth and meaning of the Word of God—that is, of a higher level of influences. The test was as to his own self−will and the will of a higher level. He had to do the will of "God"— not his own will. He had to bring the lower human level in himself under subjection to the will of the higher or divine level. It is the human level here that is under temptation for Jesus was born of a human mother. To mistake the lower for the higher is the annihilation of a man, for then he will ascribe to himself what does not belong to him. A man will then be tempted to say: "I am God", and not "God is I". If he says: "I am God", he identifies himself with God from a lower level. This annihilates him. If he says: "God is I", he surrenders his self−will and makes the will of God "I" in him and so is under, and must obey, God— that is, a higher level. Notice that the devil is made to address Jesus in the words: "If thou art the Son of God... " and so suggests that Jesus can do as he likes, as if he were at the level of God. All this was in Jesus. It took place in him. And although this temptation can be taken quite simply as one relative to overcoming the appetites, in this case, hunger, it is clear that other and far deeper meanings lie behind the literal meaning and that they are concerned with those problems of self−love and power—and violence—in which human nature is rooted. Jesus had human nature in him from the woman—his mother. The task was to transform it. This is quite obvious in the second temptation, where Christ is offered all power over the visible world. The devil is represented as leading Christ to a "high place" and showing him all the kingdoms of the world in a point of time: "He led him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall be thine. " (Luke iv, 5−7). This is temptation as to earthly power and the deep vanity that lies in everyone. It is again directed to the self−love. It includes love of the world and its possessions. The devil will give Christ the world. Love of power (authority) and love of possessions represent two sides of self−love. Here the human level in Christ is represented as being subject to the most tremendous temptation conceivable in regard to worldly gain and possessive power. The temptation is described in such a way as to bring this out clearly: the whole world is presented to Jesus "in a point of time"—that is, simultaneously. Jesus is made to answer: "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. " That is, not the world and its possessions. The answer is from the same ground of understanding as that given in the first temptation. There is something apart from the world and the love of possessing it. There is something else that Man must possess. This higher level, both possible to Man and already in a man, is the direction in which his desire for power and glory must turn. But even although a man knows and is quite certain about this direction, he can still be tempted—and even more so. Otherwise Christ would not have been tempted in this way. His human side was still open to this temptation. It is not only the overwhelming effect of the senses and any immediate appeal to self−interest and vanity that has to be thought of here but perhaps the far subtler ideas of being able, by worldly means and outer power and authority, to help mankind by becoming a king on earth. We know that the disciples thought Jesus was going to be an earthly king possessing the whole world and give them earthly rewards. They thought from the lower level about higher things. They could not at first see what Jesus was talking about—namely, the reaching of a higher or inner level which has nothing to do with the lower or outer level of life. We must remember here that the path that Christ had to follow led to apparent failure in outer life, and outer powerlessness—and to a death reserved only for the worst criminals. He had only a few ultimate followers. It looked as if everything had been useless. Certainly we cannot expect to understand this unless we grasp the whole idea of two levels. But we shall speak more of this later on, and only say here that temptation in the real sense is about these two levels and relates to the passage from one to the other. If Jesus had been born perfect, he would have been beyond all temptation. He would not have represented the New Man or the Way to it. He called himself the Way: "I am the Way", for this reason. This is chapter 2 of Maurice Nicoll's The New Man Its easily found for free on the net in PDF

One influence on how I see Jesus: Jesus as Wisdom Teacher by Cynthia Bourgeault When I talk about Jesus as a wisdom master, I need to mention that in the Near East “wisdom teacher” is a recognized spiritual occupation. In seminary I was taught that there were only two categories of religious authority: one could be a priest or a prophet. That may be how the tradition filtered down to us in the West. But within the wider Near East (including Judaism itself), there was also a third, albeit unofficial, category: a moshel moshelim, or teacher of wisdom, one who taught the ancient traditions of the transformation of the human being. These teachers of transformation—among whom I would place the authors of the Hebrew wisdom literature such as Ecclesiastes, Job, and Proverbs—may be the early precursors to the rabbi whose task it was to interpret the law and lore of Judaism (often creating their own innovations of each). The hallmark of these wisdom teachers was their use of pithy sayings, puzzles, and parables rather than prophetic pronouncements or divine decree. They spoke to people in the language that people spoke, the language of story rather than law. Parables, such as the stories Jesus told, are a wisdom genre belonging to mashal, the Jewish branch of universal wisdom tradition. As we shall see shortly, Jesus not only taught within this tradition, he turned it end for end. But before we can appreciate the extraordinary nuances he brought to understanding human transformation, we need first to know something about the context in which he was working. There has been a strong tendency among Christians to turn Jesus into a priest—“our great high priest” (see Letter to the Hebrews). The image of Christos Pantokrator (“Lord of All Creation”) dressed in splendid sacramental robes has dominated the iconography of both Eastern and Western Christendom. But Jesus was not a priest. He had nothing to do with the temple hierarchy in Jerusalem, and he kept a respectful distance from most ritual observances. Nor was he a prophet in the usual sense of the term: a messenger sent to the people of Israel to warn them of impending political catastrophe in an attempt to redirect their hearts to God. Jesus was not that interested in the political fate of Israel, nor would he accept the role of Messiah continuously being thrust upon him. His message was not one of repentance (at least in the usual way we understand it; more on that later this week) and return to the covenant. Rather, he stayed close to the ground of wisdom: the transformation of human consciousness. He asked those timeless and deeply personal questions: What does it mean to die before you die? How do you go about losing your little life to find the bigger one? Is it possible to live on this planet with a generosity, abundance, fearlessness, and beauty that mirror Divine Being itself? These are the wisdom questions, and they are the entire field of Jesus’ concern. Reference: Adapted from Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 23-24.

From my experiences so far in such communities, I have noticed that they require seriously developed and thought out leadership roles. One self sustaining spiritual/addiction recovery community in Thailand was very well run but one thing I could not help but notice was the sheer variety of people that were attending for allkinds of different reasons. It became a strange mix at times and their was nothing that could be done about it. The "leaders"/those in charge definitely had difficulties managing the place with people coming and going all the time and some people living their from anywhere between 4 days- 2 years. There was one dude who kind of founded the place but their was no one leader, and I can't see how it would have worked that way if it was. There were 2 meditation teachers, 2 yoga teacher, 4 different life coaches, and different spiritual teachers teaching different workshops etc. I can't see how it would of worked without this collaborate effort and designating different people to fulfil different roles while having that tight nit group run the whole place and maintain a stable collective energy as a whole community. Personally, it seemed like a big task to pull off, but they seemed to do it well. Power to em. That said, it definitely can work and it was very inspiring, but I agree with others here. Personal self transformation has to happen way before you even consider building your own. I would recommend visiting some around the world yourself for your own personal growth first.