For all my "friends"

Like you, I have many friends in "This Thing" being written about week after week for YEARS! Some are Buddhists, some are Advaitists, some are Christians, some are Atheists, some are Philosophers, some are Scientists, some are Psychologists, some are Psychonauts, some are Gurdjieffians, some are a bunch of other unnamed-here whatevers, yet very few of them truly understand that unless you have, right now, a firm foundation in various scientific endeavors, perhaps mentioned below, you are really just "playing at" whatever you THINK your "spiritual" or "psychological" or "philosophical" (or whatever you call it) tradition proposes for all those who get interested in, and at some point begin following it, "seriously," by reading all the "work books" (multiple times,) "commentaries of followers" (perhaps only a few times, if that,) and even some of the "stuff and nonsense that grows up around all that" (hopefully, just quickly scanning/skimming, or better yet, avoiding entirely, and then putting all of it into its rightful hierarchical place.)

People can spend their entire lives, reading, hearing and viewing books, magazines, transcripts, audios, videos, and delayed-reaction email/message Internet groups, etc., and yet get NOWHERE with all of This, and never understand the truth - both about their own lack of growth, and the Whys and Wherefores of that lack of growth. It is quite well understood that, unless you have gathered around yourself an "Active Community" (however large or small) of "like-minded" (hard to define, but you will Know it when you Meet it), semi- or actually-conscious people who are at least as interested as you are in OUR endeavors, then you have missed the most important line of work for those born to "This Thing" whatever it might be called. Some people DO know and understand this, YET, even today, they have never sought out, found, or gathered their OWN Active Community. That is, they were led up to the doorway of Something Real, but never gathered the strength of character to Break on through to the other side.

There are people who will read this and argue with something or other (that's "natural," i.e., expected, and mostly mechanical) but consider what has occurred in just the last 60 years of human development - out there in the world of the masses - particularly in the SCIENCES (particularly Math and Physics), and more particularly in the science of the body (soles of feet to crown of skull and everything in between), and the brain (from the top of the spinal cord to the frontal lobes - and that 1/8" thin, 2.5 square feet when laid out flat, surface of gray matter that is reading and comprehending this right now, and has an abundance of reactionary thoughts about all of it very likely - and everything in between), as well as the solar system (moons to sun), the galaxies, the universe(s), as well as a reasonably learned understanding of the Quantum World - as strange as it all might seem to you. For one to even imagine they are progressing in "their thing (of apparent choice) without a firm foundation - knowledge, and hopefully some non-imaginary understanding - in all of these areas at least, and more if you can handle it - is like putting the brakes on the rocket bike/time machine that We Are... once you can Grok that notion without a smirk on your face.

By the way, there is sometimes a need to LEAVE one's previous group and search for, or START another, for there is always a need to move beyond what may have worked before, in order to acquire the New.