I initially came to write on the Kave because a lot of the things written in the Jed books and similar, I simply could not understand and was looking for some kind of clarification to apply in real life situations, which somehow never worked and still don't. Upon further reflection, I believe Plato's intent for this site was for like minded people to share from behind the "iron curtain of the mind" or more recently to "waking up with a changed perspective". I simply am not there so anything I write would be a waste of all of our time. Thank you.
Crystal, I truly understand the desire for real world application of non-dual principles and teachings. It became my raison d'etre and changed the course of my life because I couldn't shake the conviction of its potential for helpfulness (the ultimate measure, I believe) to the context and quality of the human experience.
What is critical is not to conflate causes with symptoms. In psychosocial work, almost all clients arrive wanting to do something about their symptoms - the unpleasant experiences predicating their search for help. They want help with their symptoms, while expending vast amounts of energy protecting the very causes of their afflictions. ("But mah true self!" aka 'ego')
...Isn't this exactly why Pharma has been so successful as a commercial model...?
"Don't change anything! You do you! Just take a pill!"But there are no free lunches, physics is as real as the Earth we walk upon - BUT the stories we share about the experience of that are, for the most part, utter bullsh!t.
And you simply can't affect - with any degree of conscious awareness - the underlying root of a situation at the level of stories about the way they manifest. That's what the Red Queen tried to do, by painting the roses red. Going back and re-planting red roses involves a lot of work (rework and patience, for the Queen, who needed them red and needed them NOW) - but if you insist on 'solutions' right now - well, how often do we all get out our buckets and brushes and start slopping paint...?
...Isn't the world you see a very clear portrait of this same process, writ large...?
Sounds ridiculous at this level of abstraction - but that is exactly how it looks from the awakened perspective.
In the context of the Kave, the first question is: have you experienced the initial insight of 'no self'...? Have you passed through the Gateless Gate, wondering how it ever even became 'a thing'...?
If that's as far as you've gotten, then you are on the brink of what Jed called "the first step".
It's only the first step because the hard part is what comes afterwards, when you smell something cooking, start to feel the heat - and realise it's you that is on fire.
And you need that fire, because it is from its ashes that all possibility springs - including that of actually changing the world.