Daniel

Sure, I wouldn't disagree with that.

In reality, we have no control over whether we're triggered or not, and trying to control it only leads to emotional repression and denial - we turn into a powder keg of repressed emotion, and an explosive outburst becomes much more likely. What we can control is how we respond to being triggered - we can become more unconscious and react from a place of inner resistance, or we can bring attention to that inner resistance and allow it to release, and then respond from a place of non-resistance. Sometimes the best thing is to simply walk away, but it can also feel like the hardest thing because there's something in us that so badly wants to lash out in some way.

@Jonas Long @Joseph Maynor Fascinating stuff, there's a lot more depth to that quote than I realised! Thanks for sharing the video, Joseph, very illuminating stuff.

Interesting. Also a little disappointing.😆

Jean-Paul Sartre would agree.😄

You were only initially demoted, weren't you? I thought you only got banned after you tried to bring members of his forum over to this one.

Maybe, but that wasn't the point I was making.

@Reborn A big red flag for me was when he made a comment a few months back about how humility is bullshit and sometimes arrogance is justified, I thought that spoke volumes about his mentality. Ugh, anyway, I don't want to turn this into a Leo-bashing thread, so that's the last I'll say on the subject.

Pretty much.

The whole thing just seems symptomatic of a culture of instant gratification to me, it just seems like more pleasure-seeking without thinking about the consequences of your actions for yourself or other people. It seems like a very shallow pursuit to me. Does seem that way. I get the sense that he's actually deeply damaged and dysfunctional.

Mm, I personally wouldn't make a person a moderator who even uses the word 'game' in that context (I find that whole scene rather insufferable and immature), but there you go, Leo obviously has very different values to me. A forum tends to get moulded into the image of its creators, it seems to me, people will often ape the behaviour of the leader - which is unfortunate in the case of actualized, because I don't think Leo's a good role-model as far as his general conduct goes.

This is very true, and moderators do provide the service free of charge (well, I'm assuming?) so I guess I shouldn't have too high expectations of them really, and I should try to keep things in perspective. It's a minor bugbear really, I just felt like getting it off my chest. It's a fair point, I really should acknowledge and appreciate the effort and expense that you guys put into it more.

This complaint doesn't just relate to this place, it's also applicable to a couple of other forums I go on, including actualized.org. It wouldn't be a problem if the moderators that were selected were mature, responsible people, but far too often that isn't the case - often they're egotistical, condescending, or just plain obnoxious and tiresome (Leo's selection of moderators in particular I just find baffling at times, so often he seems to select people who really aren't well-suited for the role - maybe there's a dearth of good candidates, I don't know). But because they're moderators, you can't hide their posts, I'm assuming because this would in some way hinder their ability to moderate? I know it's not very important in the grand scheme of things, it's just a feature that does bug me because the behaviour of some of these people really gets under my skin at times, and I'd like to banish them to my ignore list so I don't have to read their nonsense but I can't.

@Someone here So you're essentially inferring that God exists, is that right? It sounds like you believe that God exists, whereas I asked how you know It exists.

We know that we exist, yes, but do we know who or what we actually are? We tend to believe that we're this temporary form that will eventually die, that has a particular name, personality traits, history, etc., but this is where we're mistaken. I've got no idea, quite honestly - I have certain beliefs about how and why it all arose, but they're all just theories, I don't know them to be true. Is it all the work of God? Who or what even is God? Again, I've got no idea. I'd go along with Jesus' assertion that God is love, and that therefore all manifestation arose out of love, essentially, but again, that's little more than a hunch.

Hasn't been my experience in practice, I've found that there have been times where it's been beneficial to ease off a little, and persisting with the practice has actually been counter-productive.

How do you know this?

It could be, but it could also be your intuition telling you that you need to ease off so that you don't completely overwhelm your nervous system. One thing I found out the hard way is that the body and mind do have their limits, I ended up feeling fried and having to take an extended break from meditation because I'd been pushing myself too hard.

😉

Interesting slip of the tongue.😄

As you said, this place is a bit of a sausage-fest. And maybe people are reticent about speaking up because the person who said it is the forum's founder and supposedly an authority, so maybe they think they might be missing something. Whereas to me it just looks like shameless, extremely poorly-judged attention-seeking, and the people attempting to condone it are just enabling this sort of behaviour the same as the people who defend Leo when he starts acting like a condescending, abusive egotist.

I doubt you'd be so blasé about it if you were a woman. I find it highly offensive, and I'm a guy.

@James123 🙏🙏🙏

Oh yes.😍 And yet we tend to be so afraid to let it all go, because we think we'll be nothing without it. Which, of course, we are - but oh, what a nothing it is.😍😍😍

I did do some vigorous stretches before, now you mention it.😎