What Peter Ralston Gets Wrong

[Willy Phallicus]

3 hours ago, Mellowmarsh said:

But here’s the kicker. If or when just one single person ever claims to genuinely know what they are talking about regarding the absolute nature of reality - then anyone can do the same, and not one single one of them will be wrong about their claim because all these claims are being sourced from the exact same place, namely a brain.

Any attempt in any arena of reality to sort fact from fiction is futile and foolish because it's all fiction.  The question is, which fiction do I choose?  Some people have hitched their wagon to some really crappy fiction and it makes them into assholes.  Some people are living some really great fictions and it makes their ride worth the going.  Yet the biggest problem most people have is that their 'facts' have locked them into a shitty script and they don't know how to get out or even that there is an out to their own sad little story - that probably was never really theirs to begin with - it was thrust upon them as fact before they could do anything about it.  

I could easily package up some bullshit and make a good living as a sheep fleecer - so here is the lesson - a truth sold is a lie well told.  Anyone trying to sell you anything is full of shit.  There is no secret occult knowledge that is going to set you free.  The Truth won't ever get you laid - that's what bullshit (game) is for playa.

It's not hard to get people to believe, they'll believe anything and that's the problem.  People will believe in anything but themselves - which the majority of gurus or teachers depends on to keep themselves from working a mundane 9-5 and living paycheck to paycheck like most of the cattle - and getting metaphorically or literally fellated by your followers tricks their asses into thinking they're doing good work.

I'm not trying to knock anyone who has benefitted from Ralston's work, there is some good stuff there but to me its just a modern take on ancient ideas.  Ralston needs you more than you need Ralston.

 

[Breakingthewall]

Experience is deceptive because it implies duality: the experiencer and the object of experience, what appears. The word "experience" refers to that, however you look at it.

Therefore, if you say that experience is absolute, you are saying that something inherently relative is absolute. You should first say that experience is the fact of being appearing in an apparently dualistic way, and that if you collapse that apparent duality, what remains is the fact of being, which is absolute and doesn't necessarily have to appear as experience. 

This point is essential because if you don't understand it, you will believe that reality is consciousness and you will be trapped in a duality that you will call non-duality. Experience is the reality being conscious of itself, not the reality. The reality is absolute and it's beyond consciousness. 

Edited 21 hours ago by Breakingthewall

[Mellowmarsh]

@Willy Phallicus For me personally, I’d be totally embarrassed selling water by a river. Or trying to coach people a life I think they should follow. It’s arrogant for anyone to think they know what’s best for someone else, especially to tell someone else they’re not enlightened yet, just because someone else is following a certain guru that doesn’t measure up to their own personal standard.

I personally enjoy self inquiry and then writing about what I’ve discovered to forums. It’s entertaining for me. I certainly wouldn’t dream of making my own personal self inquiry findings into a money making business. 
 

 

 

 

[Willy Phallicus]

8 minutes ago, Mellowmarsh said:

Or trying to coach people a life I think they should follow.

Lead by example is my stance - and do that without doing it - wu wei.

The journey can only be undertaken by the individual.  During that journey you may run into at least one individual who is on a similar journey as you who you can compare notes with.  I can almost guarantee that person is not going to tell you what author's books to buy.

That's not to say those things (books, manuals, teachers, gurus) are totally worthless but again, it comes down to the individual.

[AtmanIsBrahman]

12 hours ago, Mellowmarsh said:

. I certainly wouldn’t dream of making my own personal self inquiry findings into a money making business. 

Why not? It would make for a more conscious business than what most people are doing.

[Joseph Maynor]

18 hours ago, Willy Phallicus said:

Any attempt in any arena of reality to sort fact from fiction is futile and foolish because it's all fiction.  The question is, which fiction do I choose?  Some people have hitched their wagon to some really crappy fiction and it makes them into assholes.  Some people are living some really great fictions and it makes their ride worth the going.  Yet the biggest problem most people have is that their 'facts' have locked them into a shitty script and they don't know how to get out or even that there is an out to their own sad little story - that probably was never really theirs to begin with - it was thrust upon them as fact before they could do anything about it.  

I could easily package up some bullshit and make a good living as a sheep fleecer - so here is the lesson - a truth sold is a lie well told.  Anyone trying to sell you anything is full of shit.  There is no secret occult knowledge that is going to set you free.  The Truth won't ever get you laid - that's what bullshit (game) is for playa.

It's not hard to get people to believe, they'll believe anything and that's the problem.  People will believe in anything but themselves - which the majority of gurus or teachers depends on to keep themselves from working a mundane 9-5 and living paycheck to paycheck like most of the cattle - and getting metaphorically or literally fellated by your followers tricks their asses into thinking they're doing good work.

I'm not trying to knock anyone who has benefitted from Ralston's work, there is some good stuff there but to me its just a modern take on ancient ideas.  Ralston needs you more than you need Ralston.

These are people that I like to say are good introducers to newbs and also respected by advanced people.  It's like Kind of Blue by Miles Davis.  Is it the best Jazz album?  IMO no.  But what it does is fascinate newbs to the genre and also elicit a respect by people who have deeper knowledge too.

[Mellowmarsh]

5 hours ago, AtmanIsBrahman said:

Why not? It would make for a more conscious business than what most people are doing.

Why not 🤦‍♀️hmmm, because I have the wisdom to understand that no human being on earth is worthy of being idolised or praised. I live only for God, not man. For my love, there is no charge. That’s my motto.

My God, I can’t think of anything more fake, creepy,and cringe worthy than to believe my personal self bias subjective opinion is of any monetary value to someone else. I respect myself too much to go around selling to another what would or could only be my own subjective opinion. Or trying to give to people what they’ve already got, or telling people what they already know.

Gees, and then to have people bowing down to me as if I am some sort of gold plated overlord, urgh! The idea makes me feel physically ill. 
It’s not my kind of business. Money doesn’t define me. There’s no more conscious business to me than minding my own, which has been an enormous success btw. I have already consciously created my own business empire, it’s paid off extremely well because I’m smart. But I have no use for the money I’ve made because I’m a minimalist non materialist monk at heart, always have been, always will be. I just accidentally became very rich without expecting that to happen, or even caring about it happening or not, wealth and good fortune just came my way effortlessly in abundance, maybe because I never squandered it, or idolised it, idk. I’m also very healthy and that’s the only value that’s of any real importance to me, and being healthy means nothing else in this world matters one jot.

 

 

 

 

[Mellowmarsh]

18 hours ago, Willy Phallicus said:

Lead by example is my stance - and do that without doing it - wu wei.

Yes, do the whole 9 yards as a whole lot of saying something that at the end of the day says absolutely nothing at all. 
 

 

[Mellowmarsh]

20 hours ago, Willy Phallicus said:

to me its just a modern take on ancient ideas. 

True.

From the first to the last an endless spring. 

 

A person cannot claim any knowledge without that knowledge already existing first. The apple cannot bite itself.
 

Knowledge echoes through eternity, always here and never not here. Unwritten. Unspoken. 
 

 This illusory nature of Knowledge. 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

20 hours ago, Mellowmarsh said:

I certainly wouldn’t dream of making my own personal self inquiry findings into a money making business. 

I wonder if your own personal self inquiry is being put to other purposes though.... *constipated smiley face*

[Mellowmarsh]

Just now, Natasha Tori Maru said:

I wonder if your own personal self inquiry is being put to other purposes though.... *constipated smiley face*

I’m clean. 
 

I never forget to flush my own shit.  💩 

Smell your own. 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

24 minutes ago, Mellowmarsh said:

Smell your own. 

Very familiar.

An easy game