Leo Gura

What self-expressive creations would you create if you had $100 million dollars and no worries? Start doing that now and forget everything else.

@blazed You won't understand unless you have a psychedelic breakthrough. Words cannot describe it. The thing is, I don't need to draw any lines. I'm not ideological. I am a researcher. I try stuff with an open mind and see what works and what doesn't. It's as simple as that. But people take all this stuff ideologically. I don't care about any of that. It's up to you to discover how to escape the matrix. I'm just sharing things that have worked for me. Make no mistake though, the matrix is far wider and deeper than you ever imagined. You need all the help you can get, and you really don't have time to waste on ideological position-taking.

@PetarKa A) In the absolute sense, there is no goal to life and nothing needs to be done. When we talk about self-actualization as an important goal, we mean this pragmatically. It's a stepping stone. You can become a heroin addict if you like. But that would be a foolish move because you'd end up hating your life. There is nothing wrong with hating your life in the absolute sense. But in the relative sense, it sucks. B) You're right. If you could just fully let go, you would have no need to self-actualize because you'd already have self-actualized. It's sort of like you're asking, Why should I set a goal to become a billionaire if I'm already a billionaire? Well, are you? Once you are, you can drop the goal. But you're not, so here you are. Life if your chance to grow up and become fully conscious of reality. That's what this whole game is about. It's just a game. But you're gonna play it whether you want to or not. And it's gonna kick your ass pretty hard when you play it poorly.

@Dodoster Hindu and Arab mystics have a long history of hashish use for spiritual purposes. The problem with weed is that people do make it a chronic recreational habit. They seem to get addicted to it.

@mp22 It's good, but it's not nearly enough. You can use it as training wheels, but then you gotta transition to serious mindfulness meditation with noting.

@username Start by planning a 4 or 7 day retreat. That will be hard enough for you.

There are subtle differences which you won't be able to appreciate until you've practiced a lot. For someone in your position, they all refer to basically the same thing: just different forms of awareness. Start practicing. That's the important part. Things will clear up then.

@username Have you done any retreats at all?

No, it's not like that for me. I have a lot of monkey mind still. I'm a very conceptual sort of guy. My brain is always on, being creative. So it's very hard to shut off.

Existence and non-existence is a duality. Infinity transcends and contains both existence and non-existence. It's EVERYTHING and nothing. You're not going to grasp this with the mind. So it's pointless thinking about it. You can experience it though. If you stop philosophizing and get to work with self-inquiry or meditation.

I've used Modafinil. It's pretty amazing. Similar to Limitless. Creativity at genius-levels. But it does cause heart rate increase, which probably isn't healthy long-term. Microdosing LSD or mushrooms is the better alternative. They are healthier and cheaper. Although this also shouldn't be over-done as the full long-term health effects are uncertain. The best thing is go totally clean. Clean up your diet, kick all chemical, develop your mindfulness a lot, and you'll be higher than a kite naturally.

@Outer Of course you CAN. The trick is, you won't. It's very hard to re-create a retreat environment at home, especially as a minor. @Afonso What kind of excuse is this? You're a minor so you cannot travel? There are retreats everywhere these days. Probably some close to you. Many Vipasanna retreats are free. Do your research.

Without noting, it's highly unlikely you'll be able to stay mindful. You're just going to go unconscious. Mindfulness with noting will make you much more aware of individual sensations. It's hard work, but it pays off big time.

Have you even done a 4 day retreat? You're not gonna be anywhere near capable of pulling off 40 days unless you have years of experience doing retreats. This is not something you're gonna macho your way through.

There are many ways to skin a cat. You could do 30 mins of each. Or you could alternate days. Or you could start doing mindfulness with noting while doing your chores, like brushing teeth, showering, crapping, eating, driving, walking, etc. Or you could alternate weeks, or even months. Or you could invest 2 hours per day instead of one. If you've never done mindfulness with noting, a whole solid month of it would do you lots of good.

You're free to do it however you want, but if you're doing a serious meditation retreat, you'll want to avoid journaling. The mind is your enemy here.

That's what happens when you don't have a proper conceptual understanding of enlightenment and its various stages. She went through 12 years of hell, and then quickly died of a brain tumor.

The root problem is that you're disconnected from being. You're running away from the void. The only cure to this is to face the void once and for all. How you distract yourself, whether physically or digitally, is beside the point. You're addicted to excitement. Even very mild forms of it. If you spend 10 days sitting and doing nothing at all, you'll see just how bad your situation is. It's WAY worse than you ever imagined. Go do a Vipassana retreat. It will be a huge eye-opener for ya. The true test of whether you've conquered loneliness is whether you can spend the rest of your life all alone doing nothing and still be deeply satisfied. If you can do that, your relationships will become magical.

Just do it anyway. What else you got to do? You can meditate lying down, or even half-asleep. You can reduce the formality of your technique and just be mindful of body sensations or sounds.

Good chillout music is delicious on AL-LAD.

@Lenny Is there a "you" aware of physical body sensations? Or just physical body sensations (without any you)? Work with any field you like. But realize, there is no you experiencing it. Be very careful with your wording. Don't be sloppy here. When you say, "Forehead", what exactly does that mean? Is a physical body sensation an actual forehead? Where is this sensation occurring? How could you know if you didn't have a mental image of it? Is a physical body sensation equivalent to having a physical body? And if you're drawing a line in the visual field, what do physical body sensations have to do with it? What is connecting the distant object to the terminating point of that line? Slowly and clinically deconstruct the phenomenal field. Notice all the things you're assuming about it, which are just pure fictions. 90% of what you assume is there, isn't.

@Gladius No. Sit down and meditate/self-inquire.

Mind is not going away so long as you're alive.

The brain/mind is a very complex system. Ego distorts personality, but never entirely. The personality always shines through. Personality is not grounded in beliefs. And even after deep enlightenment, there will still be many beliefs held by the mind. A dog has no beliefs, yet it has recurring behaviors. Behavior is not directly grounded in beliefs. Beliefs modify certain high-level behaviors only. Think of it this way, if you change the president or the CEO of a giant corporation or country, the culture of the company will not be wiped out. It will largely remain intact. Removing the ego is like the removing a bad CEO. The company then starts to naturally flourish and be itself.

Ego and self-concept are fairly similar. Self-image is more specific and refers to literally the mental images you have of yourself. How you picture yourself in your mind's eye. Personality is really different from all the above. Personality will remain even after complete enlightenment or complete ego death. Notice that even dogs and cats have unique personalities.