This was so beautiful John and Vivian. I’ve been wrestling with the idea of enlightenment as well through my work and I recognize very much how some conceptions of enlightenment can lead to spiritual bypassing. I remember being very inspired by the search for enlightenment until it started dawning on me that I was actually just longing to be free from something. I wanted to escape the dreadfulness of ordinary life. Until at some point it started dawning on me that liberation is not a freedom from ordinary life, but a freedom from the desire to escape ordinary life. As I started facing reality as on ongoing process, the idea of enlightenment started losing its appeal to me.
In the most cases, seems to me, this search, resp. ultimate telos/aim was/is/will be “triggered“ by religio-philosophical institutions. Its is heavily and significantly “framed“ (E. Goffman) by “communitas“ (during ritual performances on the communal level) and the “organs“ of all kinds of social institutions.
One cannot be in the world but not of it without a basic sense of self. The ego is necessary no matter how transpersonal one's experience is. Some basic presence is needed to chop wood and carry water. Ego is a continuum between deficient emptiness and inflated narcissism. Balance between them is essential.
Jung describes “Christ” as a symbol of the “Self”. After everything superficial has been stripped away that is what’s left. Which leads to another question! Does one deserve to be there? Have you cultivated enough embodiment to rest in that? A key difference between the Mystic and the Psychotic imo…
Carl Gustav Jung developed the concept of “individuation“, which somehow seems to find a middle way between an “abstract, yet also holistic absolute“ and the “real realities of the manifold“. And as Jung had some fable for ancient Greece and Egypt, maybe he was inspired by the arch-symbol of the Ouroboros. - Some more stuff for further considerations on the whole vital/basic topic of the “consciousness of there-being“ (Heideggerian Selbst-Bewusstsein des Daseins auf der Lichtung des Seins). Makes sense, no sense, non-sense...? - Sokrates: “We searched for the truth. We could not find it. Let's talk again tomorrow!“
Thanks to Vivian and John for this uniquely deep and releasing coversation. IT was incredbly valuable to me. You explained with words what I long was unablässig to find Word for. Now your Dialoge helped me to understand why. What i experienced was beyond terms and came from other realms or spaces. Now i feel very "erleichtert", so much ease and love. The Moment of both of you Breitling a Pause touched me deeply. Thanks for this! Stay blessed and alive and led by love and eternity. You are both amazing. Thanks!
I would love to see a conversation with Loch Kelly. He is a spiritual teacher in the Buddhist tradition, having studied with Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. But his teachings are around awake awareness and nonduality, not the Buddhist tradition exclusively. Would also love to see you talk with Eckhart Tolle, Sam Harris, Jayasāra, Gangaji, Adyashanti, Rupert Spira, Tara Brach, Steve Taylor, Richard Lang, or James Low. Any of those would be thrilling! Just love seeing more nonduality represented on this channel, and any of the traditions that espouse it (eg Advaita Vedanta, Dzogchen, mysticism, etc.) Keep it up! And thank you! Namaste and God bless.
❤ This was a fantastic conversation and I especially loved orbiting more clearly defining what it really means to be “enlightened” and what real integration actually looks like. I think a lot of us intuitively know what this looks and feels like because we have so many examples of what it does not look like. We have a lot of work to do but conversations like these make me feel like we’re getting much closer to discovering some pretty profound truths about ourselves.
Hi John and Vivian . In relation to the development and experience of the transpersonal i would recommend being aware of the potential for losing ones way in two different manners other than inflation. When first experiencing the transpersonal the ego needs to be restructured like you touch upon, but in here is the possibility of "getting trapped" between a chaotic new experience of the transpersonal and a nonfunctional map to the outer world. This would result in a hellish state most likely not that long but can be extremely profound. The other way one can get lost is literally dissociating because of the shift in experience. You are probably aware but i just wanted to mention it. When the ego is restructured there is a similar opportunity to construct a map for the transpersonal. I dont know if you have touched upon that in other videos - this would include several access point for dialogue, construction of ability to move effectively, seeking understanding and gratitude. Lots of love, Jonas
John, I always enjoy hearing you give sincere & heartfelt compliments to the people you speak with. Thank you both for this convo. I feel a sense of comfort when hearing Vivian speak 😊
Although we have two higher beings engaging in the abstract concepts, tears are falling as memories of spiritual evolution come up right alongside this carefully "mapped" discussion
I have to say, I really admire Vivian. Her dedication to truth, beyond any kind of particular orthodoxy is truly admirable. I really enjoyed your last discussion and this one is starting off on a powerful footing. Thank you 🙏
I fully share the idea of the transpersonal as a state not of perfection, but a feeling of wholeness. Isn't the personal feeling bound to our epigenetics, to feel complete in the sense of joy when we can share our capacities perfectly with the world, even though we see our own limitations of things we will never have or be? For instance, some of us feel blessed to have good hands to be a good osteopath (as I am), without even the willingness to be in the twilight state of ‘enlightenment’. Isn't it all about discovering what on the soul level we are meant to be, to share your talents in the world with honor, which gives rise to bliss and a fullmeaning life. “Ikigai” (生き甲斐) or “Shokunin” (職人), the profound aesthetic and ethical commitment to one's talents. We are not all destined to become spiritual teachers, coaches, or 'light workers’, after one or two shakti experiences in an 40 degree heated Indian Ashram. Someone who cuts fish is also not a 'sushi master' overnight, or after a 3-month course with a chef. As Marcus Aurelius speaks; That which is allready there has no need of anything; not more than law (ethica), not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.
Hello, this was a very clear dialogue, and I can find myself in what have been said! To you John en Vivian I wish you a wonderful path and the energy of clarity, THANKS !
17:00 I really appreciate this perspective. I wonder if the implicit order auto updates every instance to keep its adherents safe from being ground to pulp by the chaos and human arbitration of explicit order. And if it does, who or what might be doing it? Is it silly to think entropy could fuel such a thing?
I wonder if the work of Dr Jeffrey Martin on persistent non symbolic experience can enhance further the distinctions explored here. Please consider bringing his considerable mappings on this topic to the conversation.
Lovely Vivan and awesome John, What I'm kind of missing here is more metaphor and giving examples for the things you touch upon. The topics can get extremely abstract and, at the end of the day, you both expressed commitment to the applicability of your work. I would love it if your next conversations could be more graspable in the way that Awakening from the Meaning crisis argument was presented in a graspable and wrapping one's head around-able way. Thank you! 🙏
My biggest bugaboo is waste. I believe waste is UGLY. But just lately, I have learned to accept that...waste happens. A person cannot survive without processing their waste, created from their living. I think this is an answer to perfection.
at 13 min the two meta drives for self, a transform between hourglass and spinning top, where the horizontal projection moves in and out. A cone origin reappearing in the vertically orientated increasing size of pipe example, where the projections of the diamond (of the spinning top) horizontally are cones when a circle is drawn around the tips, and where the hourglass opens to the vertical.
I respect and honor people who have cares for people who need help. People's presence of this cares are what ameliorate people who need help, because there are people who can do this^^ The architecture of psychological model is difficult thing, people who can do this is what I would like to respect and honor. Of course, independent of my support feelings, Dr.Vervaeke and his fellows and guests are great people ^^ Dr.Peterson is also great man I honor and respect.
I've had experiences that came upon me unbidden, without long history of meditation. I don't hot dog it around and many who do are BSing others, who BS themselves too for deeper reasons.
Lots of great comments will be given, one I'd like to give quickly by pointing out the sacred pattern of time, by which I mean that simply the number one clip came out 6 months ago, n.2 three months ago, and now the trilogy episode. The sacred and the appreciation of ceremony is as important as sleeping and eating.
On the next conversation I wonder if you guys would be able to talk about if God is everything and how is God connected to evil or what is that relationship?
Shear pin self, meant to be brittle and break properly, so when the perimeter which moves faster transmits a shock of energy back to the slower moving yet more powerful origin, the expensive and delicate unfolding mechanism next to the origin doesn't break. Not too soft and not too hard, reverse engineered three leaps as three pieces that leap together again, to be between the vertical as the horizontal, adding larger pipe outwards (UTOK model) in this vertically orientated spaces between, that self mediates and is mediated by, perimeter slowing and origin quickening. Could be useful in seeing anima for a masculine person as closer to the origin and powerful, with self mediating between anima and an objectified masculine perimeter (anime for the feminine expression) or the two hemispheres of the brain, etc. Trust is like a shear pin, but between people where they can take turns being rational and emotional for each other, where trust is also a bottle of wall dissolver that can be stolen while a wall is built, more of a individual in a patriarchical collective kind of way, by removing means of engagement for that individual.
John at 9:30. Tolstoi made it obvious from the beginning that Ivan Ilyich neither lived correctly nor well, but it only began to matter on his deathbed.
1:17:39 the pause-respect post-ponderance here is truly touching. Latin sapere led to English sage; PIE *sap- to taste. Vi\;/ seems to ΞI`•_|-aura the taste of life. May IIIΞ flow along akin cx၁
Thanks for the great conversation! Unfortunately my english is not so good that I understand everything. I heard also between the sentences and beyond what Vivian mentioned in the end. A Question: the new book that you mentioned Vivian....is it already issued...or which one you mean?
I make no claim of being enlightened, but I've lost count of the mystical experiences I've had through 16 years of meditation. So since it's related to the video subject, if anyone is interested, I wrote an 11,000+ word essay on my views on meditation and mystical experiences, including talking about people I believe to be fully enlightened in a meditation sense for current humans-- primarily talking about mystical experiences that always have bliss and phosphenes which I see as likely an absolute prerequisite to full enlightenment/sahaja samadhi/full kundalini awakening-- which I describe further in the essay. That's all the algorithm will probably allow me to say.
Epicurus, the Greek philosopher, said, "Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?"   
01:09:34. People are sleep when they die they are awoken, meaning they come to attention, regain consciousness. So practice the art of dying before your actual death. Consider yourself of the people of the grave. There is a substantial reality behind appearances. Remove the veil so you can witness beauty. The cosmos is meaning set up in images and anyone who understands that is among the people of discernment. Quran 50 (Verse 22) “You were indeed heedless of this. Now We have removed from you your cover; so today your sight is piercing.”
Students remember thy shared "i" AM, came with sincere conversations given just for thee, and thy shared Feet resting upon. What is a REBELLIOUS HOUSE?
Con-science, an inhuman power assuaged by a statistical knowing. Consilience thru science where objectification of self can be bounced off of, to move collectively, which is powerful and needs folding back into the world as care.
Minute 52, "if I hear someone saying I´m enlightened, I will say: probably not" says John. I believe that's the reason why Sufists doesen´t say the are Sufi. It is against the tradition. You just embodies it.
It sounds to me that you are re creating the Tantric position, that is a non transcendental way of looking at enlightenment, perhaps you should talk to Rupert Spira or Christopher Wallis.
How would a “healthy personality” deal with the egotistic would-be dictators, leaders running our geopolitical world? Is it wishful thinking to believe that a human being with a “healthy personality” can navigate the difficult realities of work, mortgages, responsibilities of children & parents, illness, accidents & injuries, etc.
And God decided this person who has been sitting around meditating on nothing, breathing and stretching for decades. I’m just gonna enter him for 30seconds so he can write a book.