Maps are funny things. Everyone thinks they want one until they realize it leads straight through their own basement. I like her staircase though. Most of us just keep redecorating the same step and calling it transcendence.
Thank you! Yeah, the funny part is most people who are interested in stages models tend to assume they are the top of one… probably including me. Just curious about your own writing process for your articles, how much do would you say is ai generated?
Lol, none. Just a old tired mystic with too much coffee and not enough detachment. If it ever sounds like a machine wrote it, that’s just the ego trying to automate enlightenment again.
Peter Crone has a comment related to this, that most people are busy "becoming the best version of their limited selves", which to me parallels your assessment of redecorating the same step and calling that transcendence, kinda like making our jail cells super cozy and comfortable so that we can pretend to convince ourselves that we truly belong in that self-imposed jail cell to begin with?
Yes, 100%. Peter’s showing people how to stop wallpapering their illusions. The mind builds the prison, calls it personality, then wonders why enlightenment feels like an eviction notice.
Awesome interview! I just finished her book and loved it. The meditations at the end are truly an amazing resource. I’m really intrigued to dive into more of her work around tapping into higher consciousness and receiving a healing symbol. Deeply thankful to have come across this work through your platform. :)
So kind of you to say, and thanks for giving it your time. I’m very grateful for Jeff for putting her on my radar. It’s one of the benefits of having a community that’s interested in a lot of different things and adept at finding them.
Wow, the way you frame the 'expanding onion' holarchy for human development really stands out; while the more mystical stages usually make my logical brain raise an eyebrow, your consistent push for clear maps of concsciousness, much like your other posts, is genuinely thought-provoking.
Good question. I’m not entirely sure, but the unpopular answer might be that they were at a blue level with occasional access to the much higher level states. But still placing them within a blue context.
Incredible unfolding of dual states. Thank you for sharing Tara's perspective with us! "Ignorance is bliss" is a distortion that afflicts those in our society who hold the greatest power to effect change: Climate change? All seems well from the upper deck...
Thank you so much for this Tom and Jeff (and Tara, of course!). I've been waiting for (manifesting?) this conversation for the past year and it didn't disappoint.
Related to the beautiful practice that Tara encourages of sending love, I am recently of the opinion that there is a missing piece to it, one that I discovered through the Buddhist practice of Tonglen. Are you familiar with that?
In essence, it is an alternating process (with the breath) of sending and taking, breathing in the hot, dark, heavy experience of suffering, either one's own internally or various stages of expansion to include the "outer" environment, and breathing out the cool, bright light of love and compassion.
I had a bit of an "Aha!" moment the other day, comparing this practice to looking in a mirror, or listening to an echo in a canyon. Taking in the suffering, without resisting or rejecting it, is a bit like looking in the mirror and accepting that what we see (or hear) is a direct reflection of what we ourselves have sent out, and actually becoming grateful for the universe offering us such added depth of insight and perspective to the limited view that our eyes are able to see always looking outwards. Taking that fully in is a way of meeting ourselves as we are, honoring that suffering, and meeting it with a compassionate embrace.
Then secondly, since we now know that whatever we send out today is what is reflected back to us in the "future", sending out love and kindness. The image I have in my head is a person looking at a mirror while frowning, seeing the frown in the mirror, taking that in fully and feeling it, without judgement, and then choosing to send a smile TO the frown in the mirror.
Or a person standing in a canyon, yelling out "F U!" at the top of their lungs, then taking in the echo that comes back at them without resistance or anger or rejection, and sending back an "I love you" in response.
Maps are funny things. Everyone thinks they want one until they realize it leads straight through their own basement. I like her staircase though. Most of us just keep redecorating the same step and calling it transcendence.
Thank you! Yeah, the funny part is most people who are interested in stages models tend to assume they are the top of one… probably including me. Just curious about your own writing process for your articles, how much do would you say is ai generated?
Lol, none. Just a old tired mystic with too much coffee and not enough detachment. If it ever sounds like a machine wrote it, that’s just the ego trying to automate enlightenment again.
Peter Crone has a comment related to this, that most people are busy "becoming the best version of their limited selves", which to me parallels your assessment of redecorating the same step and calling that transcendence, kinda like making our jail cells super cozy and comfortable so that we can pretend to convince ourselves that we truly belong in that self-imposed jail cell to begin with?
Yes, 100%. Peter’s showing people how to stop wallpapering their illusions. The mind builds the prison, calls it personality, then wonders why enlightenment feels like an eviction notice.
I was such a pleasure to see and hear you two having this conversation with Tara! 💛
Probably wouldn’t have happened without your focus on her book.
🙃
Awesome interview! I just finished her book and loved it. The meditations at the end are truly an amazing resource. I’m really intrigued to dive into more of her work around tapping into higher consciousness and receiving a healing symbol. Deeply thankful to have come across this work through your platform. :)
So kind of you to say, and thanks for giving it your time. I’m very grateful for Jeff for putting her on my radar. It’s one of the benefits of having a community that’s interested in a lot of different things and adept at finding them.
Tom, with deep compassion and respect I invite you to believe that bliss and enlightenment are attainable in this lifetime!
Ha- I am super hoping so!
Wow, the way you frame the 'expanding onion' holarchy for human development really stands out; while the more mystical stages usually make my logical brain raise an eyebrow, your consistent push for clear maps of concsciousness, much like your other posts, is genuinely thought-provoking.
Thank you! Your username may resonate with my exploration of the holarchy here https://open.substack.com/pub/whatsimportant/p/rainbow-onions-and-turquoise-gardeners?r=2613wg&utm_medium=ios
"a source of profound optimism" sounds pretty good!
Damn right! I feel it too.
:)
Do you believe we are moving along the stages on a societal level?
Where does that place indigenous cultures that seem to have had more wisdom than us?
Good question. I’m not entirely sure, but the unpopular answer might be that they were at a blue level with occasional access to the much higher level states. But still placing them within a blue context.
So would that mean on the whole modern society has a higher percentage of the population at higher states?
Incredible unfolding of dual states. Thank you for sharing Tara's perspective with us! "Ignorance is bliss" is a distortion that afflicts those in our society who hold the greatest power to effect change: Climate change? All seems well from the upper deck...
Thank you so much for this Tom and Jeff (and Tara, of course!). I've been waiting for (manifesting?) this conversation for the past year and it didn't disappoint.
Related to the beautiful practice that Tara encourages of sending love, I am recently of the opinion that there is a missing piece to it, one that I discovered through the Buddhist practice of Tonglen. Are you familiar with that?
In essence, it is an alternating process (with the breath) of sending and taking, breathing in the hot, dark, heavy experience of suffering, either one's own internally or various stages of expansion to include the "outer" environment, and breathing out the cool, bright light of love and compassion.
I had a bit of an "Aha!" moment the other day, comparing this practice to looking in a mirror, or listening to an echo in a canyon. Taking in the suffering, without resisting or rejecting it, is a bit like looking in the mirror and accepting that what we see (or hear) is a direct reflection of what we ourselves have sent out, and actually becoming grateful for the universe offering us such added depth of insight and perspective to the limited view that our eyes are able to see always looking outwards. Taking that fully in is a way of meeting ourselves as we are, honoring that suffering, and meeting it with a compassionate embrace.
Then secondly, since we now know that whatever we send out today is what is reflected back to us in the "future", sending out love and kindness. The image I have in my head is a person looking at a mirror while frowning, seeing the frown in the mirror, taking that in fully and feeling it, without judgement, and then choosing to send a smile TO the frown in the mirror.
Or a person standing in a canyon, yelling out "F U!" at the top of their lungs, then taking in the echo that comes back at them without resistance or anger or rejection, and sending back an "I love you" in response.
Thoughts?