⚡️ Enlightening Bolts

🏛 After Socrates: In this introduction of the series, Dr. Vervaeke explains the differences between Imaginary and Imaginal, as well as the concepts of Predictive Processing, Reciprocal Interpretation, Dialogical Reflection, and the Salience Landscape. Join Dr. Vervaeke as he attempts to follow "After" Socrates in a quest towards true and applicable wisdom.  Watch it here. 

⏱ One Sec App To Delay Distracting Apps: Fight the social media algorithms and win back control over your social media usage.  Try it here. 

⛓ 6 Small Things You Can Do When You Lack Discipline: One of the biggest problems people face is the lack of discipline — they have goals or habits they want to achieve, but lack that discipline needed to stick with it. Here are 6 tips to tackle this issue.  Read it here. 

🎇 Image of The Week

This painting is remarkable because it was done by Henry Ford. Henry is paralyzed from the shoulders down. He made this painting by holding the brush in his mouth.  Follow Henry here. 

⚾️ Swing For The Fences

Lately, I've been traversing a land of fierce productivity.

A dear friend & collaborator has scrawled a simple phrase on his whiteboard: "the effort is the reward."

And I cannot help but nod in agreement, for I too have felt the truth in those words.

Like a swimmer drifting with the current, I find that my effort is not a drain, but a source of energy, propelling me forward.

Each stroke is a step closer to the destination, the gardens of possibility that bloom with every drop of sweat and every inch of progress.

It's as if the effort itself sculpts me, carving out new pathways and revealing hidden depths.

I feel constantly reminded that I am learning, growing, becoming.

And yet, I know that the true extent of my capability has yet to be unleashed.

Perhaps I've been hesitant, afraid, or lost in distractions.

But now, those doubts and fears seem to be falling away.

And perhaps it's time to truly, honestly, fully, swing for the fences.

❤️‍🔥 Real Fearlessness

Slowly digest these insights from Chögyam Trungpa:

"Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willing to share your heart with others."

"There are times to cultivate and create, when you nurture your world and give birth to new ideas and ventures. There are times of flourishing and abundance, when life feels in full bloom, energized and expanding. And there are times of fruition, when things come to an end. They have reached their climax and must be harvested before they begin to fade. And finally of course, there are times that are cold, and cutting and empty, times when the spring of new beginnings seems like a distant dream. Those rhythms in life are natural events. They weave into one another as day follows night, bringing, not messages of hope and fear, but messages of how things are."

🤓 Learn This Word

Polyvocal: A way of describing metaphors that keep talking to us from different perspectives in different voices all saying in some ways the same thing. The problem is we strain to hear what they're saying and we can almost figure it out but not quite the point at which you completely make the metaphors fit together

⏳ From The Archives

A hand-picked classic HighExistence article.

 57 Things Terence McKenna Said Better Than Anyone Else Ever Has or Will 

“When you take into your life the gnosis of the light-filled vegetables, the psychedelic plants that have stabilized the sane societies of this world for millennia, the first message that comes to you is: You are a divine being. You matter. You count. You come from realms of unimaginable power and light, and you will return to those realms.” — Terence McKenna (1946-2000)

Terence McKenna was something of a modern wizard.

An American philosopher, ethnobotanist, and psychonaut, McKenna’s entrancing lectures covered everything from shamanism, language, imagination, the Internet, and consciousness to religion, dreams, the origins and evolution of life, culture, alchemy, alienation, chemistry, sex, art, and literature.

Terence McKenna was an astonishingly polymathic mind, and at the center of his dazzling web of interests was the psychedelic experience, specifically the effects of psilocybin and DMT.

Perhaps the most stunning thing about McKenna was his masterful facility with language and vocabulary; I daresay he was one of the most poetic and eloquent orators ever to walk this Earth.

One of the few individuals capable of ‘effing the ineffable’, these Terence McKenna quotes capture the interests, imaginations, and identities of all who listen. Similar to a feeling of kensho, listening to Terence talk was an experience that would change the way your inner universe worked.

The master orator of legendary phrases like “nature loves courage,” and “dream the impossible dream,” he could light a fire in our hearts. And though he thought our world was in crisis, he helped us find our light, love, and deep appreciation for this incredible gift of existence.

If you’re prepared to pour rocket fuel on the embers of your soul and venture out into the extremities of the knowable, we’ve got 57 of his best ideas, ponderings, and quotes for you to sample.

Hold on, this is going to be a whirly, dizzying ride.

 [Continue Reading] 

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