Leo's Blog Discussion Mega-Thread

[Leo Gura]

26 minutes ago, Thought Art said:

Well, I think a lot of us find it distasteful.

I know you do. Which is why I have retired it.

But in my mind it will always be funny.

You can't realize God as deeply as I have and watch a scientist smugly pontificating about materialism, and not see him as a rat, and laugh.

Edited 2 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Rafael Thundercat]

Wow, the timing of this quote could not be so accurate 

Actualized Quotes #775 https://share.google/sJGPzC37Y4mJakWIc

Just last nigth I was sleeping in the Hostel of a friend of mine and she trust me a lot. So a client saw someone with a lantern entering a room in the middle of the nigth ( just another costumer arriving late) but this guy got paranoic and thought was an invader. So the receptionist woke me up with this alarm news that there was someone entering the rooms. I am in Brasil so, no joke. I took a Facão ( very big knife used to cut coconuts) and got out shouting " Show up Motherfucker !!" Hahaah. Well was false alarm, but if it was real I dont know what would be the outcome. 

[Rishabh R]

@Leo Gura A suggestion from my side . You can take it or let the suggestion fuck off 😁. We already love you . You are loved by a lot of people . Actualized.org is one of the most beautiful things built on earth . It isn't an institution but rather a representation of transformation from basic self-help to advanced philosophy and beyond . 

Heck, I have observed many people don't do self-help properly leave philosophy and spirituality apart. But you did them not only that you reached us to how to do them properly .

So whenever you feel am urge to reply on this forum anywhere in an arrogant way, keep the device aside ,accept the feeling for 3-4 minutes and then reply . 

Just my 2 cents.

[Leo Gura]

10 minutes ago, Rishabh R said:

So whenever you feel am urge to reply on this forum anywhere in an arrogant way, keep the device aside

I will try.

[Nemra]

I have the desire to make fun of Christians because they think highly of themselves as if they know the truth. People that I'm surrounded by treat the Church as the highest authority. So, it feels good to me to mock their stupid seriousness. It helped me to focus to think independently in the past.

Nowadays, it's more distracting than helpful.

Edited 2 hours ago by Nemra

[Thought Art]

34 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

I know you do. Which is why I have retired it.

But in my mind it will always be funny.

You can't realize God as deeply as I have and watch a scientist smugly pontificating about materialism, and not see him as a rat, and laugh.

I think that is fair, and I can see the humour in it too. I think due to your position etc is just lands badly. You do have a good sense of humour often. 

[Rafael Thundercat]

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

I do not deny that I am arrogant. I am. And it is a problem I am working to reduce. But I can't fix it overnight. It is a serious internal process. Character doesn't change just because you want it to or someone tells you to. You can notice that in yourself.

Good to hear that from you. I am becoming aware also of many aspects of my Character that I cant change and maybe dont even want to change. Is likez I dont want to fake I am humble. That would not be fair for the truth that I am very corrupt and arrogant and as fucked up as many people around me. I can se the Devil lurking in me in many situations. I even waked up and got a Sword yesterday ready for figth with a supposed house invasor. I felt murderous for a moment and came back to sleep thinking " fuck man, you was ready for bloddshead" and I accepted that. 

[Thought Art]

@Rafael Thundercat What’s the point of this post? 

Edited 1 hour ago by Thought Art

[Basman]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

You guys miss the point that when I call someone a rat, it is a joke. You are supposed to laugh, not take it personally.

Calling scientists rats is funny. But people get so butt-hurt over it.

I can't even make jokes with you people because you misunderstand it and then hold it against me.

I call scientists rats to take them off the pedestal that you've placed them on. Otherwise you will be worshiping rats rather than God. A scientist is a rat next to God. Appreciate the poetry of that. I am not insulting people for no reason. There is an intelligence behind the madness.

It's too denigrating to be funny I think. Do you actually think they're vermin/filth? That's how it could be perceived.

Edited 1 hour ago by Basman

[Magnanimous]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

You can't realize God as deeply as I have and watch a scientist smugly pontificating about materialism, and not see him as a rat, and laugh.

Leo is there a point in spiritual growth where you've taken enough psychedelics and embodied enough you'll never want to take one again, or rarely?

Spirituality isn't a passion of mine. Although I see the value of getting enlightened and getting God-Realized at this point I'm only doing it to be happy and not because it's some LP. I'd much rather do other things in life than have a perpetual focus on this.

No offense.

[Nivsch]

26 minutes ago, Basman said:

It's too denigrating to be funny I think. Do you actually think they're vermin/filth? That's how it could be perceived.

The problem with science is precisely that it is partially true and improves our lives in many aspects, that when it comes to other aspects when science become dangerous or harmful, for example in certain chronic western medical approaches, people still see it as the truth and it is extremely difficult to convince them otherwise. This makes this problem far worse than appealing to religion, when its truthfullness is less obvious these days when we worship empiricism above all else.

Edited 40 minutes ago by Nivsch

[christopherjnova]

6 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

You can argue that it's arrogant. Okay. Fair. Yes, it is arrogant. But go find deeper analysis, see how long it takes you to find it. 

One clarification, Leo: I really liked Conscious Politics, and I find your work very insightful. My reaction to political clips you've shared shouldn't be mistaken for a dismissal of the series.

But there's something about the arrogance question that still eludes me. I don't particularly care about arrogance as a character flaw. What interests me is the epistemic trap.

Imagine telling Nietzsche that his Ecce Homo chapter titles, like "Why I Write Such Good Books," were arrogant. Suppose he replied, "Yes, I'm arrogant, but show me a better book." My question to Nietzsche would be: What book could I possibly give you that you would recognize as better?

I don't know whether that applies to you. But when you defend the comparative claim about Conscious Politics by challenging others to find something deeper, I wonder how you guard against that same trap.

In your original philosophy post, you wrote that your own mind is fooling you into favoring your own philosophy, and that overcoming this is the main obstacle. That's exactly the problem I'm interested in. Not whether you have a right to be confident, but how you ensure that confidence doesn't compromise your ability to recognize flaws in your understanding.

[Leo Gura]

34 minutes ago, christopherjnova said:

Imagine telling Nietzsche that his Ecce Homo chapter titles, like "Why I Write Such Good Books," were arrogant. Suppose he replied, "Yes, I'm arrogant, but show me a better book." My question to Nietzsche would be: What book could I possibly give you that you would recognize as better?

I can steelman your point to make it even better.

The correct response to Nietzsche is this: Even if it is true that your book is the best ever written, you should still not say it because it is too self-indulgent to do so.

I agree that writing a chapter: "Why My Book Is The Best" is in poor taste, regardless of its truth. Even if you are the best in the world at something, you don't need to announce it. It comes off as obnoxious.

Quote

I don't know whether that applies to you. But when you defend the comparative claim about Conscious Politics by challenging others to find something deeper, I wonder how you guard against that same trap.

In your original philosophy post, you wrote that your own mind is fooling you into favoring your own philosophy, and that overcoming this is the main obstacle. That's exactly the problem I'm interested in. Not whether you have a right to be confident,

Good question. I am open to someone having a deeper political analysis than me. If you show me an example of such, then I would look at it and if it is better, then I will admit that it is better. Of course that judgment is still circular in the sense that I can't escape my own judgment.

Look: there is no escaping your own judgment. At the end of the day, your mind has to take a stand on something. And any time it takes a stand on anything , it could be wrong. Could I delude myself that my politics is better than other politics? Sure. Of course. But this is not unique to me, this is a universal problem of Mind. Everyone thinks he has good politics. The solution is to actually have good politics. What actually is good politics? Of course this can only be decided by you, and you can be wrong about it.

When it comes to politics, I am always open to hearing new intelligent renditions of politics. But this is so rare that I almost never hear it. I crave new intelligent politics. No one is doing it. Online political discourse is grade-school level. 95% of it is stupid. I am happy to consider the 5% that is serious.

But you need to remember that I don't just say this out of arrogance. I have spent 20 years studying and following stupid politics. I know every strain of stupidity in American politics. I've considered it all, from far left to far right. That's why I'm so confident that it's stupid. When you deeply understand a field, you can immediately tell what is stupid and what is smart. A serious physicist immediately sees that Flat Earth is stupid, but a normie cannot.

Quote

but how you ensure that confidence doesn't compromise your ability to recognize flaws in your understanding.

It DOES compromise. Being cocky is dangerous. It is like playing with firecrackers. It is like doing a little dance in the boxing ring to taunt your opponent. It could be fun, or it could get you knocked out.

Edited 9 minutes ago by Leo Gura

[Psychonaut]

Or you are too cocky and think you are still the greatest of all time and then you pull a Conor McGregor and twist your ankle on the first attack of the fight. 

 

[Leo Gura]

If you are going to be cocky, you need the substance to back it up, otherwise you end up looking like a fool.

I am cocky in certain areas because I know I got the substance.

But even so, being cocky never looks good optically. I know that, which is why I am reducing it.

In the end, I am tuning my communication style so it is less abrasive and less threatening.

Edited 3 minutes ago by Leo Gura

[Basman]