Peter Ralston re: Love

[DrewNows]

Could you imagine a discussion between  Ralston and Matt Khan 

[Danioover9000]

   It's like chocolate. Leo has had tiny samples of the entire chocolate spectrum while Ralston focuses more on dark chocolate and fewer on milk and white chocolate, conflating white chocolate for conditional love and milk chocolate for not being hardcore enough. The difference is just in experiences and ironically Ralston's attachment to his way of spirituality.

[Consilience]

One of the interesting things I heard at his workshop is an important principle for martial work which is being unemotional. Brendan was explaining how not letting yourself get emotional is an extremely effective principle for fighting. I wondered since then whether this approach towards martial mastery impeded Ralston’s understanding of what Love is.

[DrewNows]

19 minutes ago, Consilience said:

One of the interesting things I heard at his workshop is an important principle for martial work which is being unemotional. Brendan was explaining how not letting yourself get emotional is an extremely effective principle for fighting. I wondered since then whether this approach towards martial mastery impeded Ralston’s understanding of what Love is.

If anything, martial arts mastery is what brought him to his realization. I think It’s actually a choice, an interpretation, to use Love as a faucet of Truth. 

[Consilience]

14 minutes ago, DrewNows said:

If anything, martial arts mastery is what brought him to his realization. I think It’s actually a choice, an interpretation, to use Love as a faucet of Truth. 

Maybe. I think it was his intense interest and massive amount of hours contemplating though. From what he discussed, it sounded like consciousness work helped his martial more than martial helped his consciousness work. 

The thing is, if you’re suppressing emotions in the name of martial mastery then I doubt you’d awaken to what Love is. His energy in person did not make me feel love or compassion. While he had a very lighthearted joyous presence and I was thoroughly appreciative of learning from him, I wouldn’t say I felt love from him. Not in the way Ive felt it on mushrooms or LSD. Not in the way Ive felt about Leo discussing it or other teachers like Adyashanti or Ruper Spira, for example. The paradox is that the masculine and feminine are one and yet you can become conscious of one and not the other. Just as you can become conscious of infinity or nothing even though both are technically the same. 

Ralston is an amazing teacher, and I think having his masculine approach to sorta kick the seeker’s ass is great. But... Personally Im not afraid to criticize and analyze his approach, especially when Ive had direct experiences of reality which no other word could do justice other than Love. Beauty, acceptance, love, and compassion were not mentioned at his Experience the Nature of Being workshop, and yet in my experience Being cannot be fully acknowledged or understood unless one uses words like Beauty, acceptance, compassion, love in addition to emptiness, nothing, infinity, or void. It’s all one, but you cant suppress or exclude all of these facets. You CAN, but you’d be missing what Being actually is. 

Edited December 12, 2019 by Consilience

[DrewNows]

@Consilience thanks for sharing. 
 

You speak of resonance.No other word could do you justice but Love. I’m curious if he is married, he definitely could be limiting himself through his philosophy. But again I don’t think this means he’s suppressing or excluding anything, not in his current reality. I guess he’s just doing him as best as he can 

 

 

[TrynaBeTurquoise]

I wonder if Leo discussed psychedelics with him and what Ralstons attitude around them were. I assume he hasn't used them, but I could be wrong. If love is a facet that happens after truth, since to realize truth is love you first have to realize the truth, maybe psychedelics would've pushed him there. 

[Leo Gura]

5 hours ago, Esoteric said:

@Leo Gura Do you know if Ralston suffered a lot during the way to his awakenings? Have you talked with him about that? I get the impression he didn't suffer much at all. He seems like one of those guys that live isolated getting completely obsessed with like studying a molecule for 20 years straight. It's just that his obsession happened to be consciousness.

He is definitely hyper obsessive and focused. That's the key to his mastery, I think.

He is self-described autistic. So that shapes how he approaches awakening. He has a dry and cold approach. This has its pros and cons.

I don't know how much he suffered. In one of his old martial books he writes about getting depressed and going through a Dark Night after some of his deeper awakenings. So I wouldn't assume he didn't suffer. He just doesn't share that stuff much.

Ralston is an oddball. He is not a good representation of how awakening works for normal people. He ain't normal by his disposition. So be careful emulating him unless your personality type is like his.

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, TrynaBeTurquoise said:

I wonder if Leo discussed psychedelics with him and what Ralstons attitude around them were. I assume he hasn't used them, but I could be wrong.

I have discussed, but those were private converations that I don't feel I should share publically.

I will just say, be very careful what you assume.

P.S. Ralston was married and he has a daughter. He is a loving guy in practice, not some psychopath. So again, be careful what you assume.

[mandyjw]

Ralston and Sadhguru are both using the word "life" to avoid the connotations with using "Love". If you exchange the word life for love, then you have to accept all the stuff that doesn't look like love, all that looks like hate is love. That's a hard pill to swallow, and it turns away students as we see here on the forum regularly. However there's a huge cost to not using the word Love. There's also the feeling of coming home, the feeling of a greater "being" or "Self" looking out for you, the feeling of connection and oneness itself, how could that not be described as love? How could the entire process and purpose be overlooked? Love and God are horribly misunderstood words that no one wants to touch, that get you in a ton of trouble, but there's a huge benefit to having the courage to understand them and use them, in my experience anyway.

There's something more to language than we can say. 

[DrewNows]

@mandyjw I agree there’s something about love that describes the feeling of oneness or connection nothing else can, but it’s the energy or power behind it all that carries the unique will of being, source love whatever 

theres a danger and or greater responsibility for a teacher drawing people in, gaining followers through an over amplification, or seduction in a spiritual nature, feeding on the emotional needs 

Not to mention all the dogmatic religious baggage and history to tarnish the clarity  

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by DrewNows

[mandyjw]

3 minutes ago, DrewNows said:

@mandyjw I agree there’s something about love that describes the feeling of oneness or connection nothing else can, but it’s the energy or power behind it all that carries the unique will of being, source love whatever 

theres a danger and or greater responsibility for a teacher drawing people in, gaining followers through an over amplification, or seduction in a spiritual nature, feeding on the emotional needs 

That seduction you are worried about only happens when the teacher takes ownership of the power of love, or exclusive connection to it in some way. What better way to not take personal ownership of love and being the "one" to care for your followers emotional needs than proclaiming that Love is all that is and all that you are. That's the ultimate empowerment, when you realize that you are the only thing that is responsible for your connection to it. 

[DrewNows]

@mandyjw Getting lost in thought is the human condition. Some choose to give this attention right out the gate while others work with it 

[Matt8800]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

He is definitely hyper obsessive and focused. That's the key to his mastery, I think.

He is self-described autistic. So that shapes how he approaches awakening. He has a dry and cold approach. This has its pros and cons.

I don't know how much he suffered. In one of his old martial books he writes about getting depressed and going through a Dark Night after some of his deeper awakenings. So I wouldn't assume he didn't suffer. He just doesn't share that stuff much.

Ralston is an oddball. He is not a good representation of how awakening works for normal people. He ain't normal by his disposition. So be careful emulating him unless your personality type is like his.

@Leo Gura By nature, I am also hyper obsessive and focused. And also have a bit of Aspergers (it has its pros and cons). 

I have had my hard edges. When I was young (and Christian), I used to pray that God would give me a heart because I felt I lacked the kind of ability to love like "normal" people. The upside is enormous internal strength but felt like I was an empty shell.

I suffered very much during my dark night but others wouldnt know it because Im the type that keeps pushing forward no matter what. Deep depression was constantly with me my whole life up until my awakening. I can almost guarantee that Ralston suffered through his awakening.

The advantage I have over Ralston is that I did DMT 3.5 years ago and realized that love is the most important thing and that beauty is all around us if we just look. Love and beauty are inextricably connected. Love and beauty have become my focus for what I need to master in this incarnation and I plan on taking it to the peak of my potential. 

If one is awakened but they dont understand eternal evolution, love or beauty, than the only thing left to do is wait to die. If that is Ralston's state, I dont envy him. At minimum, how I invest myself in my life will be very different.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Matt8800

[DrewNows]

1 hour ago, mandyjw said:

That seduction you are worried about only happens when the teacher takes ownership of the power of love, or exclusive connection to it in some way. What better way to not take personal ownership of love and being the "one" to care for your followers emotional needs than proclaiming that Love is all that is and all that you are. That's the ultimate empowerment, when you realize that you are the only thing that is responsible for your connection to it. 

It’s still a personal claim, I am not saying it’s wrong, just that you can’t get away from ownership and being misinterpreted 

judging someone based off what their teachings are not, to me, is a mistake or at least something to be learned from 

Edited December 13, 2019 by DrewNows

[Leo Gura]

21 minutes ago, Matt8800 said:

If one is awakened but they dont understand eternal evolution, love or beauty, than the only thing left to do is wait to die. If that is Ralston's state, I dont envy him.

That is not Ralston's state. He's playful and heart-felt at times. He understands the beauty of the universe. He just isn't explicit about it. It's just that classic Zen style.

Even the harshest Zen masters are still filled with love.

[Inliytened1]

It matters more that in your own reality you discover that the fabric of reality is Love.  Because ultimately he is you.  All is One.

[VeganAwake]

It's Paradise its Freedom it's THIS!!

[Visionary]

I would recommend you guys to read the book of Peter Cutler - The Zen of Love.

This is a transmission. It will break your heart open like a walnut if you're open enough. Test it. You can download the PDF for free. This man has online satsang/transmissions on youtube (The Enlightened Way). His energy will most definitely be felt by you.

He's living proof of someone embodying Absolute Love. You can clearly feel the contrasts with Ralston.

You're welcome!

Edited December 13, 2019 by Visionary

[VeganAwake]

14 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

 

There is only one substance of which the entire universe is made. That stuff is Love.

 

❤