ic: " ...yet does this mean we are generally burdened with having to definitely live an X number of additional lives? How best to optimize maximum experience? Awareness in the present?"

Tom: Yes, there is too much to learn (at the being level), too much growth required to accomplish it all in a single PMR lifetime. X may be larger or smaller based on how quickly and effectively you are able to learn. Maximizing your growth rate - the evolution of your consciousness -- requires three mutually interdependent things to work together -- much like the mutual interdependence of wisdom, experience, and knowledge as discussed above. The first is awareness. Awareness of yourself, of your intent, of your consciousness, of your fear, ego, and beliefs, of your potential choices, of what is important and what is not, of how you interact with your environment. Awareness of your environment including other people, being present in the moment, being aware of what others are thinking and feeling, as well as of their needs and how you might affect them, being aware of a larger reality and your place and function in it, of where you are going and how you are going to get there. Awareness of the dynamics of relationship from the perspective of the big picture. That is a lot of awareness to develop. The second is to let go of fear and ego (wants needs, desires, beliefs, and expectations) -- from this, competency, focus, trust, and effectiveness develops to allow the being to optimize the productivity of its interactions and understand the purpose of its existence. The third is to embrace change and uncertainty -- make a constant and consistent effort to change, to grow up, to internalize, absorb, integrate, and organize the results of one and two above into a new way of being, a new perspective. a new reality in which a new you exists. Your reality evolves and expands as you evolve and expand. This last one requires a long term view, a desire to improve yourself more than your situation, gumption, stick-to-itiveness, drive, energy, and focus over a lifetime.

That's all. A short list. Get all that done and you will maximize the value of your daily experience and be off to a good start.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Claudio, you are correct - dreaming represents another reality frame specifically designed for our learning. It is no more or less real than PMR - just different. One learns differently there. We should take advantage of all our learning opportunities. There are learning advantages and disadvantages to any reality frame that are very dependent on the individual and the lesson. YAD (You Are Dreaming) is another poster who learns much in his dreams. The main game is PMR with dreaming filling in doing what it does best.



Tom C

Ted, Tom. I vote for this post to go to the archives. I propose to create an archive thread dedicated to ways to achieve individual evolution and contribute to lower the entropy of the system. I would call it "Ways to Lower Entropy".
Tom, from your answer to ic, it's good to know that I am following a good path to evolve.

Tom. Thank you for your prompt answers and to provide paths for improvement.

Claudio

_________________
"Every moment can be as good as you want it to be."
"Experience is the ultimate teacher."

> http://soprano.com <

Appreciate the input & sharing the word.. the mountains and rivers rejoice..
..will redouble efforts in awareness.

insanecoder,

Yes, things are very much different now. We now have mass societies and in fact, a world society of sorts, although much fragmented and internally conflicted. Not just very localized societies where the master could select pupils and teach them on the basis of their readiness to understand the teaching. Now it is very much a matter of figure it out for yourself, with the help of your own guidance, or catch it the next time around. We have the Internet for near instantaneous world wide communication, being to being with relatively little control as in even the mass media of the recent past. There are over 6 billion of us and vast stress on the ecosystem of the VR, whether visible to everyone or not. Besides the ecological stress, there is the ideological/religious/political strife and stress. What is happening to the climate; global warming or a new glacial cycle or political gamesmanship for economic advantage? The free will choices of the 6+ billion IUOCs made in the near term future does enter into the resultant path of the VR. We have had more locally based indications of major problems that were ameliorated by US citizens making better choices than might have been as Tom has mentioned. Does this give you a hint that this is an idea whose time has come on many levels and for many reasons. Do we suffer a rapid population decrease or a more gradual adjustment to the carrying capacity of the VR planet? To quote Bob Dylan, you don't have to be a weather man to know which way the wind blows. Have you ever heard of the Chinese curse, may you live in interesting times?

Even the leavening of a few who understand the bigger reality can have an impact as those with the understanding also have reduced fears in order to act by knowing that PMR is not all there is with only a one time shot at 'success' for each of us.

By the way, didn't you edit your just previous post as I was writing this. I started out answering a different statement there than now appears there, pointing out some of the things I have specifically referred to here? Now you have left only your closing statement. I am leaving this up as it is pertinent to the situation and this thread.

Ted

Yes I apologize for making you seem like you were posting to yourself :)
.. you are quite quick on the draw, I suppose I removed my rantings briefly after things ranted.. I intuit the answer, why then pose it? opinions I gather..

Is the Toe supposed to be revealed?


If this is an evolutionary system then why allow knowledge of it to seep in? The Scale of Seepage is increasing.
This compromises the integrity of the system's purpose (Psi Uncertainty)

As the scale of seepage continues, are these signs of desperation that the system is nearing the end of a cycle?
So there is no harm pumping in some extra juice?
A last chance effort to get those IUOC's who are close, a final push? before, Kaboom!


OM

OM: So there is no harm pumping in some extra juice?
Major pumping required. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6KKMsh4Ek8
A little humor, very little.
Love
Bette

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

I dont know about Kaboom.. but any end is certainly also a beginning..
Hopefully graduation ceremonies will have a large number of attendees..
:)

I love searching and finding gems like this.

_________________
-"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find... you get what you need"

I wholeheartedly agree Justin. I think a person could spend a long time just running queries and reading threads like these.

IC,
My take on this (the original question) :
There have been MANY people throughout the history of the human experience telling us about the true nature of this virtual, and very ILLUSORY, reality, and the interconnected nature of our existence. Tom was NOT the first. Although they may have used different metaphors to describe the "big picture", the messages and maps given to us over the course of history are very similar. In spite of all the "help" we have received, and in spite of all the "road maps" pointing the way towards "lowering entropy", "evolving SPIRITUALLY", and "growing up", STILL the message has, mostly, fallen upon many "deaf' ears. Sometimes, the message is just a tiny seed that may take root later and blossom in only a small few of all the people that hear of it.

Apparently, there is a HUGE difference between knowing the path, and WALKING the path. and it is easy to underestimate the power of this virtual/ illusion/ simulation, to fool our senses. So we will continue to receive "nudges", hints, and tip-offs, by way of the psi uncertainty principal. But it is up to the individuals to choose for themselves whether or not to accept or ignore these directions and nudges.
Its not easy to buck all of your cultural belief systems and go against the POPULAR view of this as a (strictly) MATERIAL existence. Or the alternative concept of following religious dogma in the face of overwhelming evidence that there is more to spiritual growth than just lighting candles, donating money, and praying in church for an hour or two every Sunday.

_________________
LOVE is the answer

peace
patrick

Maya's pull is strong.. unless you are ready to seek the Truth, all this is as good as a lie..tis true.
The conjecture is really about whether it be more fruitful to not know intellectually and come to a realization through the toil of experience as opposed to have been intellectually handed the information from which realization may occur through backtracking through one's experience or being more aware of it as more trials approach in life.
Does one need to know the intricacies of this VR system to come to the realization that LOVE is the highest experience?
I think not.

The intellect is wiped by the next iteration..

Our own senses lie to us, we are just interpreting data relative to our level of understanding. Even our instincts lie to us, and tell us to react with fear first, where there is nothing to fear. In fact there is one school of thought that tells us that "the emptiness you fear, is LOVE".



No one can Hand it to us. Even if someone has information to share, it is still only data that will be interpreted based on knowledge and experience. Some of the data that I acquired when I was young had no importance to me until much later in life when experience proved to me that it was, in fact, VITAL information. When more "pieces of the puzzle" came into my awareness, and through trial and error.



I tend to agree with you here, there ARE people that instinctively KNOW (I think children know), but it is lost through cultural assimilation, as they "learn" from the fear filled environment. While others arrive at the realization through "The warriors path" later in life.

_________________
LOVE is the answer

peace
patrick

Tom puts it in a nutshell for everyone as he responds to IC above. It's One of the best gems in the forum.

The only thing that we can do in the face of illusion is to remember ourselves, be present. Or as Jesus said, Awake, sleep not!

Always work at becoming more aware of oneself (who and what we are and do) and chip away at the unconsciousness in ourselves which will lead to more awareness, more quality and higher levels of being.

OM