Comments by "Peter deWolf" (@StoneShards) on "The Perfect Mode of Being | Jonathan Pageau | EP 156" video.

The "church", religion, as corrupt as humans can make it, serves a critical function: to promote noble aspiration in the common people through a conceptualization of "God". Once this is accomplished, the undercurrent of materialism loses some of its pernicious influence, allowing the evolutionary impulse freer passage. This avoids the dead-end of materialism/atheism. But, logic has to be rescued: the existence of God is deducible: Nature exemplifies the principle of hierarchy. Specify any hierarchy; the "god" of that hierarchy is the top-most point. GOD is at the top of the hierarchy of Existence. I don't have to BELIEVE God exists, I KNOW God exists, as certainly as ANY hierarchy exists.
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When you are the master of your Attention, there can be no "distractions"; when you are the master of your Intention, there can be no "obstacles". The Way is made clear by this mastery.
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Properly speaking, there is no such thing as "good" and "bad" in Nature. Human judgement creates the "good" and the "bad" out of "the way it is". I'd advocate eradicating the arrogance that prompts you to make judgements of "good" and "bad". I mean, "Who the hell are you to second-guess Nature?!"
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You know, you can only accomplish what you BELIEVE IS POSSIBLE to accomplish, because, disbelief presents a rational DISincentive to pursue the accomplishment. When it comes to what is inside you, you can claim sovereign dominion: your word is law! Attitude! Bring it angry! Nerves originate pain sensation, so, KILL THE NERVE, psychically, intentionally, imaginatively, symbolically, every which way you like, the more the better, don't allow doubt...FEEL the nerve, imaginatively, DIE! Relax into the pain and let its intensity EXPLODE IT! Make such symbolic imaginings as you are led to by the moment, because your intention is fixed. They must be YOUR PERSONAL SYMBOLS for best results.
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"You have to sacrifice yourself to it..."? Yeah, if have insufficient control of your emotions you won't be able to manage the near-perfect exclusionary focus required. But that's a poor reason not to try...you can't succeed if you don't try.
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"Heaven" is a state of perfect powerlessness, which is, of course, "bliss". At the end of the day, you crave the perfect powerlessness of sleep. But, in the morning, we're done with it! Being awake in physical existence means you can DO STUFF, so sleep is boring. Outside of physical existence, you can't DO ANYTHING! That's the central advantage of incarnation. Experience of physical reality creates an anchor in the fabric of existence. It is MEMORY! @@ YOUR memory...everybody's memory...is LOCATED in the fabric of existence. This "fabric of existence" IS the ONE MIND. You operate the one mind as well as you are able; then, you learn and become more able. But, you don't really have a personal "mind" of your own. This conception is very inconvenient, as it blurs the truth.
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There are three basic modes of mentation: observation, concentration, and vacation. hehehe...nooo, not THAT kind of "vacation"...These can be used in combination, as needed/desired.
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"Meaning" is the "holy grail", the "siren's call", the "mystery of beauty" we are continuously drawn to but can't figure out what it IS; "responsibility" is always some sort of burden. I understand the rejection of the latter...
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After endlessly traversing the paths laid out by his academic training, he finds himself trapped in THAT labyrinth. The hair-splitting is an attempt to escape it. The more entrenched in that world, the harder it is to escape its constraints. He needs to practice liberating himself from himself...Stop imagining that everyone has his own personal "mind"! Then the structure of the psyche is easy to observe: Awareness is the interplay between Intention and Attention. YOU CAN control intention and attention, and, thereby, ENTER THE PLAY of awareness and reality. If you surrender to pain in perfect relaxation, the pain transforms to unattached sensation. This is what I experienced having my eye teeth drilled without anaesthetic--I was learning self-hypnosis, at the time. As muscle tension would just begin to build, the pain began to reassert itself...relax, relax, re-relaxing the muscles would blank the pain immediately. For me, this event was a crucial life experience...I'm STILL learning from it 40 years later.
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Man is the Microcosm of the Universe. Each of us "contains" the "whole" of existence, while also being within it. A pattern of the whole informs DNA, itself. You can take this wherever you want! Build your personal symbolism as you see the clearest way to do it; then, it becomes a direct reflection of yourself that you can learn from, perfecting the symbolism in the process. "Expertise" is that mysterious extra something that comes from long, intense experience in a discipline.
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If you genuinely dearly love your family, religion has nothing to offer you. There is no clever route to "eternal reward", no payment you can make, no special words you can say to hide your heart. What other purpose can there be than to become perfect? You don't need to know how the symbolism of one religion compares to another, or what great author said what. You only need to chase yourself relentlessly until your self stops running.
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