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If you want true bliss take some psychedics and let God show you that you're Love.

Hey everyone, I've been practicing Jhanas recently and I've learned how to enter the first one pretty well. I wrote this guide in my commonplace journal and thought I'd share it for anyone interested in entering Jhanas themselves. In this guide, we'll go over the steps you need to take before attempting to enter Jhanas, as well as the actual meditation. What is a Jhana?- A Jhana is a state of complete, perfect equanimity and happiness that comes from training the mind to withdraw from automatic responses to sense impressions….well, something like that atleast. Words don't quite do it justice. Bliss state, peak state, whatever you wanna call it. The best way to see what it is, is to see for yourself. The first thing to remember about Jhana's is that Jhana's are all about happiness. Jhana's begin with happiness, they operate in the domain of happiness, and they leave you happy. You can't enter Jhanas without happiness and because of this, 'striving' for a Jhana won't do. Zen Masters commonly say- when you stop wanting a bliss state, it will arise. This is the case in my experience. There are 9 Jhanas, all with varying levels of depth and profundity but for this we will only be talking about how to enter the first Jhana. Once you are able to enter the first Jhana and gain some experience with it, you will see very clearly how to progress to the others without my input. NOTE- Not everyone is going to be able to enter a Jhana on demand. If you don't have a regular zazen practice I'm not 100% sure how well you'll do here, so don't expect a miracle. But do keep practicing and soon, you'll be able to enter Jhana's no problem! NOTE- this is all based on my own experinece. It might not match up to what you have read in a book somewhere or even to what you might have experienced in your own practice. If this works for you, great! If not, try something else! Step 1- Practice being happy. I know this sounds dumb but hear me out. lol. Happiness is fully surrendering to 'what is'. Surrender is stepping directly into happiness. When you sit down on your cushion, and put your full attention on your practice, you step directly into happiness. This is the first step. Practice being happy. I recommend that you begin sitting zazen atleast 3 hours daily in one hour long time blocks. This will require some experience with sitting meditation as beginner meditators will have a hard time sitting this long without moving. The hour long sitting will allow plenty of time for surrender to take place and for 'the river' to be perceived (I'll explain more on this 'river' later). So Yeah, begin by sitting for 3 hours minimum each day, one full hour at a time. I recommend that you sit on a zafu (cushion) in a cross legged posture with your hands clasped together. This is important that your hands be holding one another and not separate. You can make the cosmic mudra, or any other hand mudra you like but don't be so fancy, you'll have to hold whatever hand posture you choose for an hour straight. If you have a hard time with these cross legged postures for this length of time, you may sit anywhere you like- a chair, a beanbag, whatever. As long as you are able to keep your back straight, chin slightly tucked and focus on your practice without falling asleep, day dreaming or moving around you'll be okay. Begin to practice being happy while you undertake step 2. PS- If you sit down and are overcome with thoughts and emotions, do not fight these thoughts and emotions. Don't try to make thought stop, and don’t strain. Just simply return to your practice again and again very kindly and gently. Don't get caught up in trying to get rid of anything. Surrender! Step 2- Practice abstaining from worldly (dopamine) based pleasures. Sex, Masturbation, sweet and savory foods, internet, TV, etc. Try to abstain from these as much as possible. Don't be a tyrant or anything. Take away the top 3 dopamine related pleasures you have and start with that. Do this for atleast 7 days. The reason abstaining from these ordinary sense pleasures is necessary is because dopamine related pleasures are often centered in and arise from a sense of lack. They begin with lack, fulfill that lack for a while, and return you to lack. It is an endless cycle. Jhana's are all about happiness. They begin with happiness, operate in the domain of happiness, and return you to happiness. Therefore worldly pleasures and the sense of longing and lack that they bring aren't needed for Jhana practice. What place does lack have in happiness? Also, Jhana pleasure is un-worldly pleasure. It is not dependent on the body or the world or anything outside of you. As I mentioned earlier, Jhanas take place IN HAPPINESS ALONE. They are not dependent on the condition of your body, your brain chemistry, the circumstances of your life, or any worldly concerns. Jhana's are openly available to everyone despite your conditioning. This is because Jhanas operate in happiness, which is inherent to everyone. It is common for practitioners to expect dopamine related bliss from Jhanas and because of this they spend a lot of time on the cushion waiting to be hit with an orgasm or something. Lol. Don't do this, it is a waste of time. Un-worldly pleasure doesn't operate on dopamine receptors at all. The type of pleasure that I am talking about here takes place on an entirely different set of circuits. One of the main reasons that we (human beings) are so addicted to worldly pleasure is because we don't even know that other forms of pleasure exist. I assure you that Jhanas operate on an entirely different set of circuts in the brain and until you experience it for yourself, you should just take my word on it. When you know it for yourself, you'll see very clearly what I mean. Step 3- Attempting Jhana So you've gone 7 days abstaining from your pet pleasures and sitting for 3 hours each day. By this time you are probably already in a state of deep happiness and don’t even need the Jhana. All of that lack from your sense pleasures is discarded and now we can focus on the meditation without having to fight our craving. From this point forward, discard your clocks and timers when sitting. Keeping time is not needed for this part of the practice so you can let go of all clocks and timers. When you sit meditation, you will sit happily and focus your attention on whatever your practice is. When you feel like getting up and ending the round, simply get up and end the round. Don't worry about how long you've gone on for. Focus on being happy while you sit. Being fully satisfied. Whether you're doing breath practice, koan practice, shikantaza, whatever it is. Begin focusing on your practice and do so happily. Peripheral awareness and spotlight awareness. This next step might sound advanced when written out but its actually not I promise, just follow me here. After a while you'll start to feel good in your body. Your mind might start wandering over to the good feelings and off of your practice. This isn't necessary though. All you have to do from here is put your attention back on your practice and allow your peripheral awareness to open up to the good feelings. For example, if I am practicing watching my breathing, I will keep my breathing in my focused awareness, and I'll also be aware that I'm feeling really peaceful and happy with my peripheral awareness. So in short, keep happiness and all your good feelings in your awareness while holding your practice simultaneously. This is not difficult to do and does not require the mind to do. Do not engage your intellect to try to figure out how to do this, you are doing it already just become aware of it. If you want a practical example of how you're doing it as you read this- focus your attention on your breathing right now and also feel your foot on the floor simultaneously. You see? Easy peezy. The spotlight awareness is on your breathing and your peripheral awareness on your foot. No mind needed. Your mind may try to enhance the good feelings in your body. Don't spend too much time enhancing anything though, it will do it on its own. The river begins to flow. After a while of practicing, while feeling the good feelings in your body, you will begin to feel a river flowing in your hands or in your feet. Its different for everyone so feel around for it. It shouldn't be hard to miss though. It will feel like, what TV static looks like. If you have ever taken LSD you will be familiar with this static river that is flowing through you. This river will typically flows through your hands. As you are doing your breath practice, become aware of this flowing feeling in your hands. Your hands might feel like they are inside of boxing gloves, or that they are bigger than they normally feel. This is good. Don't try to enhance this or anything just be aware of it for now. Makyo Begins- As you go deeper into your practice and concentration Makyo will begin to appear Makyo is hallucinations of various sorts which appear when the mind gets quiet. You may see the room in from of you start to black out, various colors float by, you may see the room melt, buddhas coming out of the floor, or whatever. Don’t worry about these and don't focus in on them. Bring your attention back to your practice The river roars- Eventually, the river in your hands will come to a point where it is steady and fluid. It isn't a small flow but not a big one either. You will be able to clearly distinguish the flow in your hands or feet and you'll easily be able to put your attention on it. Now that it is stable and steady, stop putting your attention on your practice and put all of your attention on the flowing river in you. So to clarify the whole thing- lets make a timeline of a sitting period while practicing Jhanas- You sit down and begin focusing on your breath practice or whatever practice you're used to. Each time your mind wanders, bring it back kindly and gently as normal. You'll begin to feel content and peaceful after a while (usually 30-40 minutes for me). Be aware of this but don't make it your primary focus, let it be secondary for the time being. You'll begin to feel some vibrating in your hands or feet or somewhere in your body, like a river is running through you. Become aware of this but don't make it your primary focus just yet. Keep it secondary. After a while the river in your hands (or wherever it is) will become steady and obvious. Once you notice this, put your whole attention on the flow. If the flow disappears or stops when you pay attention to it, this means that it wasn't strong enough to handle your full attention just yet. Go back to your practice and wait for it to recover, or simply try again the next sitting round. If the flow continues as normal or gets bigger when you pay full attention to it, this is a good sign that you can go to the next step. simply make the river the primary object of your meditation and the rest will happen on its own. There you go, enjoy your bliss! Some other cool facts and tips about Jhanas. -Since Jhanas begin with happiness, operate in the domain of happiness, and end with happiness- you may have as much of this pleasure as you can take without any negative consequence. -Since Jhanas do not operate in the body nor are they limited to the body, Jhanas may end in a single moment. If you are sitting and you enter a jhana, and the bell rings for you to get up and do walking meditation, you will be able to simply get up and do walking meditation. You will not be slowed down by your bliss. This is different from worldly pleasures such as drugs and psychedelics where you would be bogged down and slowed down by the bliss. Should someone need your help in a dire situation you would have to fight your bliss to help them. With Jhanas this is not the same. You may end the experinece completely in a single moment and simply enter it again later if you'd like to. This way we can live normal worldly lives, and be of use to our communities and experience unworldly bliss in our free time. -Sometimes you may enter the Bardo when attempting to Jhana. The Bardo is the place the soul goes when the body falls away. Sort of like an in-between place. Entering this place can be especially confusing, frightening or incredibly blissful. Don't worry about entering the Bardo should you enter it on accident, plenty of practitioners do this by accident on retreat. If you feel disconnected from your body and get frightened, simply return to the present moment. -Out of body experiences sometimes happen. -Don't try to 'hold' onto a Jhana. If you come to a place where the bliss begins to end, don't try to cling to a jhana or walk around with it in your daily life. Allow it to come and go freely. When it is here, great! When it goes, let it go.

It is. Especialy if your mind has good synergy with it. Iv known people that go paranoid if they take to much, but for me its just pure bliss. But the same could be said for any drug. I could totaly loose myself in LSD if i would allow myself to. Its just as amazing in its own way as weed. The fading into nothingness and the slight erotic skin sensation being the only thing left you feel while experiencing nothing but strange fractal paterns is pure bliss aswell. I could do it every weekend and it would probebly never get old... But i wont ? ill suffer like the grumpy ass i am.

Lol, oh I'm aware. That's how Leo does things to keep control over the dogma... his teachings are sacred, higher than Buddha, higher than Jesus... if only the people who had spent 70-80 years training their minds through actual training, insight, and contemplation had just gotten their hands on some DMT! But hey, don't take my word for it. Peter Ralston, who was once Leo's #1 teacher, told him repeatedly to lay off the drugs and do the work. And the results of that choice are evident. Leo is attached to the label of God and has built a kingdom of beliefs around it. Maybe he has experienced the void beneath the God state, but to express that publicly would be an admission that he has not gone "all the way"... and that's not good for his business model of guru. But as Leo says, verify it. There are states deeper and more profound than infinite consciousness. If you are happy to hang out in God-bliss-land, however, suit yourself.

Oddly enough, solipsism has never really activated agitation in the mind. It’s been strange observing how many threads and how much resistance on the forum there is about solipsism. I just have no problems with it. In my experience, realizing solipsism has an incredibly palpable heart element. Recognizing absolute solipsism feels heart wrenching, it’s like tapping into infinite interconnectivity and taking on the weight of reality’s pain, joy, sorrow, ecstasy, bliss, suffering, peace, love… it’s all just one. And that oneness is overwhelmingly beautiful and I suppose could be horrifying to the unprepared mind. Perhaps an acquired taste. Yet there is a very grounded element to solipsism, an intrinsic freedom and equilibrium it necessitates. Yes it’s on some level horrifying, but on the other-hand, it is utterly unifying. Every moment, a perfect union with all other moments and beings. I don’t know how to describe why such an actuality is so supportive, but it is, truly, supportive.

Especially with psychedelics, there can be all sorts of awesome experiences and peeks behind the curtain... Unity-consciousness, etc. Fun stuff, but yeah it can certainly be very scary seeing that the distinction between you and the entirety of existence is imaginary / has no substance! But this is a very ordered dream without real danger (but also without real safety) so there’s nothing really to fear, but in many cases of this sort of thing yeah terror is basically just par for the course. Ego-death and being God can seem to happen, at which point the fear is usually gone because it’s generally such an incredibly high state, but the “middle zones” can be quite terrifying and it can sort of follow a rule of “uncanny valley” where the closer you get to ego-death without fully getting there, the scarier it is. The advanced meditation paths of Buddhism, etc plan for this by recommending very good concentration and the ability to manifest bliss-on-demand so that any fear of emptiness is met with waves of overpowering bliss that kind of distract one from the fear or make them not particularly care. Even in the beginning I didn’t exactly think this was mere wishful thinking (if I did I probably wouldn’t have practiced much) — I had faith in the techniques — but until I started being able to enter jhanas, I really didn’t have any concrete basis for thinking it was anything other than make-believe... but bliss-on-demand can definitely be cultivated.

@Breakingthewall However, the dream world is (or at least very much seems to be) an apparent manifestation of infinite intelligence. It exists for no purpose (nor does it actually exist at all), but in a way that’s the same as saying the sole purpose is amusement. All it has as the vehicle for amusement is what you call you. Synchronicities and patterns and awe, gratitude, love, joy, bliss, meaning, and awesomeness and shittiness and all manner of diversity are the nature of the dream world. It’s interesting without limit, so that it can be interested without limit. Absolute freedom. All the intelligence there is, and this is what it imagines, selflessly. If it ain’t quite awesome, look a little harder (open your eyes), and trust it; trust the flow; trust feeling. Nothing is hidden unless something being hidden is part of the unified whole or, dare I say, the plan. It is ultimately without meaning, purpose, and even actuality, but it is ordered in a way that makes purpose not only really easy to find, but also easy to forgo.

I'm now interested more and more in self isolation. Just the way I was when I first joined the forum. It wasn't exactly bliss but it was real and comforting. It felt authentic. It felt like I could have deeper self-conversations.. What's the point of socialization anyway if nobody cares to truly understand or accept you? How do you feel comfort or even productive in a hyper competitive environment? What's the point if everything just leads to fights and fights and fights and misunderstanding?

This idea is based off of my other post titled Discipline is Ratshit - The Art of Blissipline. I often hear people talking about procrastination and how it is "bad" or must be avoided and dealt with. But rarely, do I hear people talking about how procrastination is actually a good thing. I mean think about it. What is procrastination really and what is its function? Here is what I am come to as a result to my contemplations on the matter. I may be wrong, so please feel free to contribute or disagree or whatever. What is Procrastination? (My personal answers from my Contemplations) Procrastination is avoiding emotional labor is the thought the first crossed my mind. But I realized that procrastination as a concept is much more broad than that. I came up with the definition that procrastination is the "process of delaying, postponing, or avoiding something." This means that if you have any thought of something and you either delay, postpone, or avoid doing it at the moment, you are procrastinating. This makes it seem silly to "eliminate procrastination." If we eliminated procrastination, then every thought you have of doing something, you would have to act on it right at the given moment. If I have a thought that I want to call my parents, then me not calling them would be procrastination. But I guess it really depends on how it is framed. For instance, you may be studying or you may have been procrastinating on your work, school, or life purpose. You then take action to do your life purpose, work, and school studies when a thought to call your parents or go out with your friends seeps into your mind. The thought to hang out with others may appear to be a distraction, or it could be viewed as a way to procrastinate, or your current attempts to grind to get your work done and stay busy doing schoolwork that you don't wanna do could be viewed as the distraction or the procrastination from facing your fears in calling your parents, etc. You see? Distraction and procrastination are relative to what your current highest love, bliss, and inspiration you have at the given moment. That is why being Blissiplined is important as opposed to being disciplined. Blissipline is simply being a disciple or student of what your highest bliss, love, and inspiration. It is being an employee of your higher-self. Whereas discipline is traditionally thought of as grinding through work to get it done. The discipline mindset views procrastination as the enemy, as something to "eliminate." But you are not really eliminating procrastination through your disciplined mindset approach. What you are really doing is procrastinating on your highest bliss, inspirations, and love for life. The disciplined mindset may view thoughts of inspiration to hang out with friends and call family as a distraction that will lead you to procrastinate, but actually, the real distraction is your not following your inspirations and love. You may think that grinding through your work or your 9-5 grind is your inspiration, which it actually may be your initial inspiration at first. I may have an initial inspiration to write a book. I may be flowing through it, but I may get to a point where that flow begins to turn into a grind. When it becomes a grind, I may not have that initial joy as I once did, and that is okay. The mind needs to procrastinate in order to critically analyze our choices and plans, as well as to keep us in alignment with our highest values, joys, and inspirations in life. If you are having fun and are in alignment with your higher self, procrastination is not such a bad thing as long as it is expanding you towards your higher-self and not as an escape to go into your lower-self. "Sometimes doing nothing very often leads to the very best of something." -- Pooh. Conscious Procrastination Vs. Unconscious Procrastination Conscious procrastination is "the process of actively delaying, avoiding, and postponing areas of your life that are no longer serving you, so that you can embody more love, inspiration, insight, and wisdom into your life, to better help you be in flow with your mission and highest bliss." This is what I was discussing above in that conscious procrastination is deliberately delaying our tasks so that way we can tune into where things in life are already figured out for us. On the contrary, unconscious procrastination can lead to negative results for our lives. I define unconscious procrastination as "the process of delaying, avoiding, or postponing something despite knowing that it will have negative consequences for you." I think unconscious procrastination is what people often talk about when they are wanting to "eliminate procrastination." They really want to eliminate unconscious procrastination but not conscious procrastination. Without conscious procrastination, we cannot be in alignment with our highest blisses in life. Society, as well as our mind, is always designed to keep us busy with problems, but our soul or spirit is always designed to keep us attuned to our intuition, passions, fun, cheer, excitement, joys, etc. Our soul/spirit is the child to our adult selves. Our minds are the rational adult and our spirit is the emotional child. None is "better" than the other. Both parts of our psyche are important. We need the child-like part to connect back with spirit, magic, and wonder, while also keeping the adult-like part to have the rationality to help us survive. The key is balance and how our relationships are with all the different parts of our minds. It is kind of the Id and superego in Freud's psychoanalysis model. We can't be too disciplined and neither can we be too impulsive either. I mean, we can but a "healthy" psyche is not at discord with itself. The ideal is for all parts of our minds to be welcomed and for all parts to be on the same mission to serve our higher-self. What I mean by higher-self is being in harmony with our intuition, heart, passions, joys, bliss, creativity, and all that makes us our best and highest versions of ourselves. Our lower-self is fearful, disconnected from feelings (hyper-logical), depressed, uninspired, addicted, etc. Conscious procrastination is about being on the path towards our higher-self. If that means to take a break and do nothing so that you can quiet your mind for an answer to come, then go do that. Productivity is a trap, which can make people believe that procrastination is an evil to be procrastinated with (see what I did there? lol). But in reality, the productivity mindset that unused time is wasted time has the energy of your lower-self if you can intuit that. How can you ever waste time if you enjoy time and are in alignment with your higher-self? Your higher-self doesn't need to work to figure things out. Your higher-self is always tuned into where things are already figured out for you. Your higher-self is your intuition. All you have to do is do nothing, connect with being, listen to your intuition, and have the courage to follow your heart. I hope all of that helped! I encourage anyone to contribute to these ideas here. All perspectives are welcomed!

Jesus is beyond belief. The love, awe, bliss, grace, all that you may attribute to him and being from him is felt and known because it is your own light, "I am the light, the way". That love is the most and only "real" thing, so real it transcends life, death, existence and non existence of teacher and student, god and man. You don't have to give up anything. Fear and reverence is a form of mockery and degradation, because the love that is the heart and the only reality of the reverence will burn away any fears or wrongly assumed beliefs of separation. I dare you. Love him more. He isn't a thought. He isn't an image and neither is love.

I posted this in the wrong thread! This is supposed to be in the philosophy, self-actualization section of the forum. Thanks. Sorry for inconvenience. Hear me out. I have been contemplating the nature of Value Theory, which tries to answer the question: "What is the Good Life, and how can I live it?" I have also been contemplating morality since living a Good Life is linked to the goodness and standards of conduct we bring to our communities. Please note that this here is the result of my contemplations on the subject. In no way is this absolute truth or any of that BS. I would encourage you all to contribute and expand/elaborate on my ideas here to tackle the issue of Value Theory and Morality. Thanks! To start, there are several theories in philosophy on what the Good Life is. There is hedonism, eudaemonia, desire satisfaction theory, and many more. I will focus on mainly these theories here. What is a Good Life So what does a Good Life boil down to? I mean what is it really that you want out of life? What do you really want? Cars? Sex? Drugs? Spiritual mindgasms? Here is my perspective, what you really want out of life is a feeling. That is what I find that it boils down to. What you really want is not a college degree or to travel the world, or to make millions of dollars. That is all material. What you really want is the immaterial. What you ultimately want is a feeling, the feeling of true happiness and bliss. This is related to my other post on how "Discipline is Ratshit - The Art of Blissipline." Blissipline is about being a disciple of your highest bliss in life. Whereas discipline is more commonly thought of as working your ass off and grinding even though it might not bring intrinsic happiness. Blissipline is more focused on intrinsic happiness (immediate bliss), whereas discipline is focused more on instrumental happiness (future, long-term happiness). Value Theories: Hedonism, Eudaemonia, Desire Satisfaction Theory Here is where hedonism comes in. What you really want is a feeling of bliss, of feeling content, excited, happy, and complete. Hedonism is the view that happiness is the ultimate good in that what a Good Life really is, is one that is lived happily. Most people misunderstand hedonism to be the pursuit of pleasure, but this is not true hedonism. Hedonism believes that happiness is most essential to live a good life, but happiness is not what we think. Sit down and contemplate what happiness is. For me, happiness is not a dopamine hit from sitting in a pleasurable hot tub. Although, that could be a form of happiness, I find that happiness for me means to be completely high on life itself - To be completely satisfied with the present moment and living true Heaven on earth. With true happiness, there is nothing to pursue because happiness is about being and not doing. All pursuits come from an implicit assumption that happiness needs to be chased. This of course implies that the chaser does not have happiness unless they reach a goal. But this is folly. Happiness is what is left when there is nothing left to do. The film Christopher Robin highlights this beautifully when Christopher and Winnie the Pooh say "Doing Nothing very often leads to very best of something." What this means is that "doing" is the chasing. When you stop "doing" and start "being," you are in alignment with your higher self and your deepest Blissiplines in life. All of this aligns with what true Hedonism is. Eudaemonia and desire satisfaction are closely related to hedonism, but they are distinct. For instance, Eudaemonia suggests that meaning is the center of life, and a Good Life is one that is meaningful. Desire satisfaction theory suggests that a Good Life is measured by getting what we want and desire. Eudaemonia is a good theory, but I think it boils down to hedonism. Why is meaning in life important? Also, who is it that is judging what a Good Life is and what a Good Life is not? If we look at someone else, we may say they lived a Good Life if we believed that they accomplished their goals and did something meaningful with their lives instead of wobbling around the Hundred Acre Woods all day. This is why the framing of the question of what a Good Life is essential. Eudaemonia seems appealing because our society is focused on productivity, goal-orientation, and less focused on recreation, leisure, and playfulness. But ultimately, if a person has a meaningful life, but they are not happy, did they really have a Good Life? I mean from our perspective, they appear to have a Good Life. Robin Williams comes to mind for someone I thought had a Good Life because I believe that his life was meaningful. But from Robin Williams' perspective, his life was probably a nightmare. I do not know this for certain, as I am guessing his point of view at this point, but if we take this thought experiment to heart, we can see that living the Good Life ultimately boils down to how happy you are and if you are following your heart and highest blisses in life. Difference between Hedonism and Desire Satisfaction Theory With desire satisfaction theory, I think this is more like how most people view hedonism. I think it is really easy to confuse desire satisfaction theory with hedonism, but here is the difference. Hedonism is believes happiness is essential to living the Good Life, whereas desire satisfaction theory (DST) states that a Good Life is one that where a person gets what they want. DST believes that desire is most important for living a good life. The issue with DST is that desire is always future-oriented. This is the common conflation between hedonism and DST. Hedonism is more about intrinsic happiness, where as DST is about instrumental pleasure and meeting our desires. The problem with DST is that most of the time, we don't know what we really want. Sometimes, we desire for something that does not really bring us true happiness in the end. For instance, you may have desired for a college degree, to be a video game designer for Ubisoft, to have millions of mansions and women, but we later find out when we have all of our desires that something else is missing. A lot of people end up having more desires and goals to chase - trying to get even more money and even more status, while not realizing that what you desire is not always what you really want. As Morgan Freeman says in Bruce Almightly: "Since when do people know what they want?" Think about that one. Morality I go back and forth on the nature or metaethics of morality. Metaethics tries to understand what the nature of morality is. Is morality objective? Absolute? Relative? Etc.? I have gone back and forth between moral objectivism and moral relativism. Moral objectivism suggests that morality is objective. This means that there are true and false, or right and wrong ways to act in the world. Moral relativism suggests that morality is ultimately relative, which means that there is no right or wrong, or true or false when it comes to moral conduct. The moral conduct according to relativists is subjective to individuals and collective cultures/societies. No society is more right or wrong than another. However, moral objectivism states that this is false. They state that morality has correct answers that are independent from sociocultural contexts and people's opinions. For instance, there is a right and wrong answer to if a certain mushroom is poisonous or healthy. This is how a moral objectivist views morality. They view morality as having right or wrong answers that are independent to what we may believe. The earth is appears to be a sphere from the perspective of being in outer space despite a flat earther's opinion. Also, beating a child is also wrong regardless of what we believe because the act of beating a child is not the healthiest way to build a society, nor is that act selfless. Morality is really all about a community and about selflessness. If morality is not based on selflessness, of living in harmony as a community, then the community cannot function. Morality is like the water to the garden. Without morality, the garden dies. There are right and wrong ways to grow a healthy garden if that is what we want. When a relativist says that "well who says that living healthy and selfless matters?" Well, it really doesn't in the ultimate degree in the same way that it does not matter what plant you eat in the jungle. However, there are right and wrong ways to be selfless, loving, and healthy relative to how we define them. The plant is poisonous or edible regardless of what you or I believe. I, as the moral objectivist say that there is a right or wrong in that the plant is either poisonous or it isn't. But you as the relativist may say that the plant is poisonous relative to your human organism but maybe not to some other creature. This is true. But this does not dismiss the fact that relative to human organism, and relative to building a selfless society, there are right and wrong ways to do that. It isn't just its all opinion. If you care about survival (which you mostly likely do), morality will be important if you want to live in harmony with others and contribute in a positive way to the world. Of course, survival itself is relative, but relative to how you want to survive and your values, there are right and wrong ways to go about them. If you value well-being (however you define that), there will be right and wrong ways in how you go about that. Of course, there are multiple factors like well-being relative to you or to society? and etc. Utilitarianism Utilitarianism is the view of how to act morally. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism that suggests that the most moral action is one in which brings about the most happiness to the world for the greater good. Utilitarianism also operates from the notion of hedonism, which I already defined as viewing a Good Life as being in harmony with one's bliss and happiness. In the same way, utilitarianism is correct because all morality I think boils down to how conscious a society is. The more conscious a society is, the more blissful and happy they will be. Today, our society lives in fear and in prejudice, etc. True utilitarianism wants to do the best actions to raise the consciousness of humanity. They want to maximize consciousness and happiness for the world. This theory of morality is true because if morality isn't based on what a Good Life is, then what is the function of morality? The function of morality number 1 is to survive in a community setting. The next function of morality is justice and promote social harmony for communities to live together. With social harmony, there are right and wrong ways to go about that. A relativist may argue that "Well my definition of social harmony could be to blow up the world in the name of my God." But if you think about that deeper, you just create more terror and more fear in both the short-term and long-term. The utilitarian is focused on consequences of actions, but a true utilitarian cares about both. Our actions can inspire others to follow, which if we led good actions, we lead good lives for the community at large. Remember utilitarianism is tied with hedonism. What we really are after is a feeling. True hedonists live in the present moment and strive to be happy now. The classic objection against utilitarianism is the it is subjective in that people can have the "ends justify the means" in that they care about the future of the world and consequences of actions. But a utilitarian devoid of the effects of their present actions is not a true utilitarian. Our karma is our actions tied to consequences. If we do something bad now to get something good later, we are fooling ourselves because how we act now attracts what we will get in the future. Anyways, these are my thoughts on all of this. You are encouraged to contribute to these ideas here or disagree. I would appreciate to hear your thoughts on what you think about Value Theory and Morality. "The flower doesn't dream of the bee, it blossoms and the bees come!" - David Lion Thanks!

Well, Leo is clearly not the happiest person around. I’m not saying he’s depressed, but you can definitely find other spiritual teachers who are at a higher state of bliss/ecstasy, which they got from deep meditation. But they didn’t get as much ‘understanding’ of reality (which is a mental thing) as Leo did with psychedelics. Instead, they achieved states of meditation with intense levels of spiritual pleasure, which is centralised in the body. I would like both, but I prefer the latter since I’m an idealist. I found that the vast majority of spiritual teachers are idealists, looking for an ‘experience’ of enlightenment rather than just ‘understanding’.

Unfortunately, this is a problem with all of morality. I feel like morality is neglected in spiritual circles. I don’t hear Leo or Sadhguru talk about morality too often, especially moral theories like utilitarianism, etc. I feel like happiness, meaning, and fulfillment go together. A truly happy life is one that is filled with joy, gratitude, and a sense of purpose. I think happiness can be more fundamental than meaning/purpose because meaning/person is something we develop over time. Think of a young child. I feel like that a child is not focused on purpose/meaning. They are focused on playing, having fun, imagination, and pure joy. I guess you could say those activities are meaningful to them, but I guess we have to clarify what then we really mean by meaning/purpose. What is the meaning of playing and having fun? A child has fun for its own sake and not for some purpose, mission, or destiny that want to accomplish. But i don’t know, I could be wrong. Hitler’s view was distorted and biased and very limited. It was very low conscious, and this was a reflection of Hitler’s consciousness, not very high. High conscious actions need no justifications. Higher consciousness is always inclusive and closer to selflessness and love. What Hitler did was selfish for the collective ego of Germany. Higher consciousness goes beyond the iceberg of Germany and merges to become one with Ocean. Hitler was in ego mode and not God mode as it was apparent by his actions. It’s a mixture of both I think. Consciousness is subjective but is also objective. It is subjective in the sense that we can create whatever kind of world we want. But it is objective in the sense that there are higher and lower ways to be in the world. For instance, life has no meaning. That is purely subjective. But if you want to live life and survive, there are objective ways to do that. A plant can be poisonous or it can be edible. It doesn’t matter what you believe about the plant. You can believe the poisonous plant is healthy. But you would be incorrect. That is the same as Hitler. He thought exterminating Jews was the highest good. But his views of good and bad, heathy and poisonous were flawed. Only a person of higher consciousness than another can know. Higher consciousness is relative to lower consciousness. Jewish people had higher consciousness because their consciousness was more inclusive of people whereas the Nazis was more violent and exclusive. It’s not hard for us to tell because we are of higher consciousness than Nazis (at least I hope lol). But then again, through conformity and manipulation, our consciousness can lower if we are not careful with what we are exposed to. The conspiracy theories of today show how much our consciousness can be lower and skewed. The employee will have a much harder time if their vibration is lower. The best way for employee to get out of wage slavery is by raising their vibrations. The actions and choices you make are a reflection of your emotional state. You can raise it or lower it. It’s up to you and the employee. When you become a disciple to what you love, you will find that that is the highest way to live. You actually don’t want to be in bliss all the time. You want to experience the whole range of emotions. But being in bliss is more about being in alignment with your heart and intuition. There is no mathematical proof for bliss. The only method is by finding out what you love most about life and doing more of that. But if you want something close to a mathematical proof for bliss, it is this: Inspiration + Action = Magic, or Be + Do = Have. But again the flaw with this is that emotions are being placed into a logical box. But that right there is as close as you will get to a method for bliss. Thank you so much for your contribution to this post and to my own personal growth. You are helping me to think and formulate my thoughts. May Peace be with you.

@r0ckyreed I know what you say comes from a good place, but that also, does not make it true. Hitler thought thought that the Aryans were of a higher consciousness and value than the Jews. So in his mind, exterminating the Jews was his subjective expression of love and his highest act of service he could provide for the good of Germany. Of course, I'm not in favor of Hitler. But by your philosophy, Hitler could have justified himself for his actions to be righteous. The problem with your thesis is that the level of consciousness is not an objective measure, it's totally subjective. Who knows if the Jews or the Nazi's had a higher consciousness? And tell a person who works full time at McDonald's, with no degree, little possibilities, to just 'raise his vibration'. And as a result of that he will just 'attract the bees'. Is this a likely outcome when applying your philosophy for people who work at McDonald's? And yes, of course, everyone wants to be in bliss all the time. But is your philosophy a gueranteed way of getting to this bliss? How many people in the world have achieved this state in their lives? You have to have some method to get people into that state if you want to 'build a conscious society'.

Correct. Nobody can truly know. But knowing does not need to happen to deliver the most value to the world. The best way to be of service and bring the most bliss to the world is to yourself be a model of higher consciousness and love. Look at my quote in my first post. “The flower doesn’t dream of the bee, it blossoms and the bees come.” What this means is that when you act on your highest inspirations and you grow yourself and develop to the highest version of yourself, you are able to serve others and help society raise their consciousness from that perspective. If you are at a low vibration you aren’t living up to full potential. If you were at a high vibration, can you see how this would be of the highest service to all involved? You can argue about anything, but it doesn’t make it true. The use of drugs automatically shows the kind of state of mind a person or society is at. Think of the most conscious person and one who really embodied their bliss. Would they really need drugs to escape their feelings and live in bliss? Remember, drugs don’t make one blissful. They are a temporary distraction and an escape from pain. A person who embodies their highest bliss has developed deep positive relationships with all parts of themselves. Drugs imply that this experience right now isn’t good enough. At least that’s how I see it. I have never needed drugs because I am high on life. That’s what true bliss means to me. The most conscious society is one that is high on life and on living to become the best versions of themselves. Following your highest bliss and blossoming into your best version of yourself are identical to me. This is identical as well to building a conscious society. ”Be the change you wish to see in the world.” -Gandhi

But you don't know what brings about the most "bliss" in other people. Maybe you can know which actions to take to bring about the best feeling in yourself, but why would your pursuit of this bliss be good to others and the community? How is this any different from a dystopian society where everyone is being given drugs to make them feel good so that society can be controlled and make sure everyone is in 'bliss'? You can argue that this is a noble position from the people who enforce it.

Yup! That’s exactly what I’m talking about! If our goal is to survive, there are certain foods we can eat and certain ones we can’t. If we want equality then there are ways to get it and ways to not, but concepts of survival and equality are arbitrary and relative to people and cultures. But it doesn’t means that morality should be ignored. I think Deontology is really interesting, and I think it is similar to utilitarianism. But deontology cares more about universal rules than it does about maximizing happiness and bliss for all involved. What I like about Deontology is that they care more about their actions than consequences. This morality is more geared towards the present moment of rightness and wrongness. The rightness and wrongness of actions are determined by how they hold up with our rules than with the consequences of our actions. However, this theory does not focus on happiness, bliss, and well-being as the foundation, and it focuses more on how our actions hold up to universalizable rules. One thing about deontology is that they treat people as ends rather than as means. I think a true utilitarian would be a little more like a Deontologist in this regard because our action are bound by karmic law, and wrong actions to get right results is a big flaw for utilitarians. Maybe I should change my title? Lol. I find problems with all of these moral theories. If I were to create my own moral theory, it would be a combination of deontology and utilitarianism. But I think rule utilitarians are closest to this combination. My moral theory would be to “act in such a way to bring about the most bliss and happiness to the world through universalizable actions.” With this theory, it assumes that if you focus on the process, then you won’t need to worry about the outcome. The process is about taking the path following your bliss and to inspire and raise the consciousness of others through your actions towards following your heart and higher self. It is about maximizing happiness and consciousness in the present moment through our actions and not through consequences per se. This theory will need more work of course. But the basic idea is that each moral action we take is in alignment with our higher self. It is a combination of virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontology. To be the most moral is to be most conscious.

Hello, This is a trip report of my Ayahuasca ceremony. I won't dive into the setting details, other than stating that it was in nature with a group and a shaman. After drinking the first cup, it was obvious that the medicine works by releasing the initial layers of unconscious mind into Consciousness. This is observed by sensing that the flow of energy in the body (whether physical, emotional or energy sense of the body) is more balanced. This observation is especially noticeable in the "Chakras", like between the eyebrows, in the center of the chest, solar plexus and more. This sense of energy flow was accompanied by complex Psychedelic visuals, that cannot be described by me other than the sense of purifying thoughts and beliefs form the unconscious mind. If I push the envelope on my creativity, I would describe the visuals as emotionally geometric shapes the resembles the visual representation of suppressing thoughts, feelings and emotions. As more and more suppressed thought is brought to surface, nauseous and nasty feelings in the body are felt, which is reasonable if the medicine oblige you to face your shadow and feel it. All and all, the first cup is quite manageable, even though it requires coping with some truth regarding the hidden aspects of our adopted identity. However, the second cup is where the real work knocked on my door and asked for answers. Ready? So after 'excavating' the initial layers of the shadow, it is time to face our most hidden and obnoxious thoughts and beliefs regarding our self and others. This is where I was forced to meet with the deep traumatic events of my life, and the conceptual architecture that erected as a result of this traumas. The deep layers of our subconscious is where fear, guilt, shame, hurt, dishonesty, illusion and attachment lurks. Encountering those aspect of my shadow was extremely painful to swallow, almost unbearable. It wouldn't surprise you that this is the part where most people are crying from the depth of the pain the reside in their emotional heart, and emit unreasonable voices of disgust and terror having to face shame and guilt, and of course, vomit their intestines out. This is purification of both body and mind, which are ultimately two sides to the same coin. During purification and afterwards deep insight regarding thoughts and beliefs can be gleaned, and it becomes obvious that every thought we hold affects the body, that in some way the thought form wishes to materialize in the body. For me, it was no different. Childhood trauma made me cry and emit voices of sheer helplessness due to feelings of rejection, shame and guilt. This was accompanied for me by extremely complex visuals both in shape and color, which I lack the ability to describe with words. Finally, I had to face the belief that I am this specific body-mind. I was "shown" that this is an illusion, that who I really am isn't some specific self, but both this self and every other self. In some weird way I cannot explain, I had visuals that showed me how self and other complete each other and cannot exist one without the other. Every experience of my self was possible only due to the experience of others, and vice versa. Even thought the distinction between self and other seem solid and separated, it is an illusion. The distinction between experiencing only one mind and experiencing another's mind is what enables the Self to experience different minds. This was extremely daunting for the attachment to the mind, which I sensed as some deep pain for being deluded so long. I cried. I realized that I could never hide aspects of my self from others, because I am others so the only one I am hiding from is me, which is a paradox. It is impossible to hide from You, because You is all there is, and You know when the self is hiding. Whenever we manipulate an other, whether it is by lying, misrepresenting, affectations, etc., we are only manipulating our self. The same goes, of course, for hurting or judging the 'other'. Thinking of our Being as some specific self is an illusion, a trick of mind, an attachment that distort the Truth. After realizing that the body-mind is not even a blip in existence, that who I am isn't this body-mind, I experienced a sensation of being reborn. I was relieved completely of my shadow and attachment to thought. I could not care less what others think of me, I only wanted to hug them and tell them that I love them. The perceptions of the body sensations and the sky in night was of pure bliss, joy and love, as in being grateful for just existing. I could not fathom that such sensations of freedom can be felt. Breathing was deep and profound, penetrating every particle of my being and the nervous system felt rejoiced, renewed and "electrical". I could sense profound sense of divine energy between my eyebrows for I finally saw reality for what is is. The magnitude of my enthusiasm and astonishment was out of this world, and I could not hold my self from saying repeatedly: Wow, wow, wow. To wrap things up, I would say that Ayahuasca differs from the classic Psychedelics not only because it is DMT which enables to dive deep into our shadow or unconscious mind, but allow us to flood the unconscious to the conscious long enough so we can see all of our hidden delusions and emotions. Mix this with the shamans music and way of touching our hidden and sensitive aspects of our self, and you get a profound experience. Don't get me wrong, Psilocybin and LSD can and probably will expose your subconscious, but usually not to depths of Ayahuasca. As for DMT in it's freebase form, the trip is usually too fast and too complex to glean serious insight regarding self and mind. But it is nice to make you curious. I would also say that if you "cleaned" your subconscious, than your trips will probably be lucid and without all this repressed emotions and horrific visuals. This is probably rare amongst human beings because we tend to be selfish and dishonest, so only mature and extremely honest individuals will have "lite" subconscious. Regarding practices such as meditation and contemplation, I cannot deny their ability to penetrate our hidden aspects, but if you want to reach the bottom of the subconscious, the root of the false self, they require intense focus and commitment. I really hope this post helped you in some way. Ayahuasca can be extremely complex and emotionally disturbing experience. But it can also mature you a lot, bring modesty to the self, and motivate transformation. It is also a heart opening trip because you can learn the deep truth regarding the illusion of being a specific self, which in turn weakens the attachment to mind and body. Much love

There's really no point in debating metaphysics with Leo, IMO. He did (and does) a bunch of 5-MeO and takes those subjective experiences to be the bedrock of reality. And because of the uber-solipsism bent, he is unwilling and unable to contend with alternative points of view that go against the Actualized dogma. And I know Leo is wrong, because I used my ultra-high-powered omniscience and Absolute Will to make it so! Just like he taught me All jokes aside, I do hope you "wake out" of your arrogant prison of beliefs, Leo. If you think Peter Ralston is not as awake as you (from my ultimate God POV, I can see he is likely magnitudes closer to the truth), you're just playing games with yourself. And as Wildflower pointed out time and time again, your metaphysical position that anybody who criticizes your teachings is not "fully awake" is nonsensical. If you were as awakened as you claim to be, none of us would even exist in your perception. You would be floating in an endless love-bliss-void of your own making. But seeing as there is still the duality in your teachings of believing there is any such thing as "Absolute Will," it's obvious there is more to go for you. And I don't know if there is enough DMT on this entire planet to make you see this directly. Hasta la vista, dudes. Beware who you deify.

Interesting. I need to find the source, but I believe there was a Buddhist teacher who said, "At one point, there may be only one or two objects to note. This state is very blissful, but it is still not the end. We must abandon even the bliss by noting it." Something to that effect, anyway. You are spot on to say that duality is necessary, because otherwise "no-thing" could not ever know or explore itself. It needs both sides of the coin to be what it is as a unified whole.

So you know what awakening is for everyone who experiences it and it's your story of it? Are you attached to the story there is no one to experience the story because are you aware that the infinite potential of the absolute includes all stories including there is everyone to experience it? Awakening is also the infinite fulfillment of I am experience if it is the end of personalized experience of it. It has everything to do with well being and the bliss of well being does influence behavior.

Well today I'm in a good mood and I'm not normally. And a good mood allows for humourous outlook on life as well as misery ("lies!", screeched in hush tones) I'm feeling good enough to feel my old good me which is still depressed The little bastard in my mind whispers though, Isn't bliss empty? -- Due to malnutrition of depression and physical illness, I've been untouched by colour or light, in hibernation from this embodied anxiety. Anxiety as manifested in being or action as opposed to feeling or thought, but right now I'm in a twilight between the depression and mania? Its obvious that me visiting home was the activation trigger... No, me visiting home is synchronising with this, making science impossibile Synchronicities make science impossible, removing controls

@Leo Gura These are deeply opinionated beliefs, Leo: Not trying to argue here, just saying that the direct experience throughout life has not included fear of death. “I” have done freesolo rock climbing, freesolo highlining (slacklining ~400’ above ground), and many other things that should have probably triggered a fear response but didn’t. Fear of death is not the only thing that keeps one alive. Another would be love of life The infinity experience from this perspective was like: reality dropped out infinitely in both directions, at full infinite speed. Yellow leaf? Yeah right brah!, that’s infinitely It (exactly that sensation) through and through, infinitely in infinite directions, and every other “point” is that was too. The mind is a perfect mirror at this point, no distortion to the reflection, so that equates to the entirety of everything appearing as itself in the same way as the “leaf”. Infinite bliss, laughter occuring because there’s nothing but love. How to even express it?! It’s so infinitely complete! “I” set intention before psychedelics that if I did physically die (and I accept that possibility very much) that everything is in order to make that process easiest on those around me. Dunno...seems unlikely that fear of death is actually a prerequisite for survival.

I wanted to start a mega thread where people can share movie/tv scenes that deeply move them. Feel free to share a little blurb about why you find the scene so moving. I'll start with a few, but I have a bunch that i'll post. Also, some people might question why this is in the high consciousness resources section. If there is a scene that moves you, you know you are in contact with higherself/love. For some us, movies have been some of the greatest sources of meaning in our lives. I get a wave of bliss when I watch some of these scenes I love this movie. My favorite romance movie of all time. I love the Christian Bale batman series too. Bruce is on the heroes journey and confronts his shadow. This is probably my all time favorite scene in any movie. The music and expression of the characters is just so perfect. Another lord of the rings scene. I will post a bunch more haha. My favorite part is when Aragorn claims people of gondor as his people... you can see that Boromir is able to let go and accept death because Aragorn takes over the mantle of responsibility for Gondor

There is no personal self which efforts, yet the entirety of Existence is made of Heaven. It’s whole and free, infinitely in all directions. It’s full with no need to read the instructions. Flavor occurs spontaneously in the mouth, hovering in Emptiness with no effort to be found. Aroma of the flower is untouched by desire and the sunshine is so fine that they all are inspired. The seeing of trees occurs where the trees are and they’re kissing this blue gem shifting with the stars. With a wide eyed awakeness of infinte bliss existing, there’s no thing beyond the whole thing that could possibly be missing. We stand on the ground of being with no known of how we can. It’s magic made of nothing, appearing as a man. He’s peering out of void into his whole Being with no separate ears here to hear it all singing. The sound that the Infinite gives to All is unbound in the embodied Body Now but we can’t know how. This is God, this is Love, but it misses the call by the simple naming of. So the Subject goes seeking for Love within the Object, lost in the Cosmos in thoughts of what It’s made of. Let it all go, or at least begin to, and find trust that this Godness must continue.