Donald

@carlo Let go of control

In brief , I had the same issue when I started. It's pretty easy to judge your self like , SHIT I'm thinking I must stop, Instead just let your mind do whatever it wants , there are no limits , just try not to control the thoughts . Even trying not tocontrol is basically doing something, so that's the paradox. Whatever is there just accept it , thought, feeling anything , if you fail start again, love the part of you that fails . That's DO NOTHING in a nutshell ?

Human brain is hardwired . The "old" part of our brain does the job. It works based on triggers, your traits trigger a sense of familiarity in the baby or maybe you smiled and the baby smiled back in this case empathy ( mirror neurons) . Try to smile to a baby chimp , you will get the same result ?

It depends in wich level of self actualization you are !!! First he tells you take 100% responsibility, then surprise surprise No free will , He tells you How to get shit done and then how to cut distractions . The whole point in these video is being !!! Do not confuse slowing down with presence , you might slow down but still you keep on doing shitty activities. You must be able to connect the dots . Micro and macro, macro and micro . Take it this way , he simply tells you to make a strategic planning, changing your daily routine (micro) so that you can see the greater good, ten years ahead ( macro) Clear?

Ideally, early twenties

There's nothing wrong with masturbating per se , but ask yourself why your doing it , and the answer will be ( if you're wise enough) that's a craving!!! 1000+ hours , careful and focused work , there is no " short cut" to it.

I usually meditate for 30 min every day with a pillow cross legged and my spine upstraight ( in the floor) I was wondering how would it be if I just sit down the floor bare foot and deal with the pain ( it may sound neurotic) Today I gave it a try , for 43 min than I gave up, the pain was literally overwhelming. But at the last 10 min or so I felt something strange . Like everything was flowing, the pain , the surrounding . At that moment I just tried the thought flattening technique , trying to flatten the thought of "Me" and I couldn't really find the "I" . Like I was literally transparent. It felt like the pain was not happening to me but it was flowing through me, everything in my perception was flowing through me . Like there was no point in space where "I" was located. But it was only for a couple of minutes and then boom the pain just hit me and I said SHIT!!! I must get up!!!?

Jonathan Haidt has some brilliant topics on this . He uses the metaphor of the tiny rider in a very big elephant or as Hume puts it : " Reason is the servant of our passions" . In other words people use reason to justify gut feeling. When it comes to innate behaviours concerning moral , we must assume that Locke was right ( wich I believe is not the case ) . " You cannot study the mind while ignoring culture " That's true because when it comes to moral West and East have so many different views. One is more individualistic , being concerned in only the harm-fairness logistics , but the other has a whole different web of moral behaviour ( considering society more important than the individual ) and so on . Society shapes your world view , therefore your moral behaviour.

It's because their whole life is based on gossiping , who's over who and status . Judgemental people will always lack integrity. Just use those people's behaviour as a list of things that you should not do or behave .

Did she knows about you being jealous ? If not just take the time to talk to her and be very specific on what bothers you . The solution is not breaking up , it is finding out why are you jealous and work on it . Like , really work on why are you jealous. Breaking up means you are escaping from the problem , finding out why are you jealous and work on it is the hard work right ? So do the hard work?

Feelings are still there, whatever the form they might come up . If you still label and give meaning to a feeling you cannot be enlightent , label after label after label and so on . They just flow with life offering no resistance, there is no such thing as a good feeling or a bad feeling .

At the end it doesn't matter what people will say , does it? Being normal is overrated , when I first told my friends that I was meditating every day , they gave me a blank look and they assume that I am a very religious guy ( wich is not the case ) , see !! people lack the information but at the end the hero always accepts the call . Will you?

There 's a saying : "There is no wrong meditation". Just try to make it a habit , a 100% commitment, no days off , meditate every day for the rest of your life . Can you do that ? Consider it as a skill , the more you practice the better "you" become .

Hello to everyone I have been in meditating for almost 1 year now exploring with everything that's out there ( mantra , guided meditation , do nothing , breathing and so on ) and I will sit on the floor one pillow and crossed legs wich was extremely painful and stressful for 30 min ) . So I tried strong determination sit and I stopped the clock at 53 min but I wanted to try something more exciting So for my next strong determination sit I decided to try something different , before my session I visualised a gun in my head wich would kill me if I moved before the alarm goes on and this time I aimed for 90 min and man did it work!!!! Each and every time I had the sensation to quit throughout the session I thought of the gun pointed in my head . I was under stress and as the time kept on going I felt a deep connection with reality . Maybe because I was tricking my mind " surrender or die" so this caused my ego to accept the offer. Conclusion : Under stress our mind will do the most amazing things, under stress our ego diminishes allowing us to come upon unique experiences

@Leo Gura Thank you for your feedback. I will work more on compassion ?

@Lorenzo Engel Thank you for your feedback I think that one must experiment new things , after that experience my meditation sessions have become easier because I don't offer so much resistance .The imaginary gun gave me a sense of extreme resistance and I used that trick to see my limits . In my opinion only when you experience resistance you can accept it as a part of the equation and work on it .

And why we tend to be so dogmatic as a society? Not being judgemental just raising a question.

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@wasabelll The very first step is to take 100 % responsibility for your life , do not blame external circumstances. That being said doesn't mean that your parents don't have anything to do with it . Maybe you have narcissistic parents hence they cannot define their ego boundaries and lack of empathy. So whenever you did something good and wich needed to be praised , they simply failed in responding/reading to your emotions and criticised you for no reason whatsoever. Or when you did something wrong they praised you instead of constructive criticism. Parents more often than not are dogmatic , rigid and have a " tunnel vision " about reality. But you also are a product of that " tunnel vision " I suppose that deep down you think that every one will be unresponsive to your needs ( just like your parents did ) . The best thing for you is to rearrange and doubt the map of reality that you have from the past ( childhood ) , that map is outdated . The childhood map of reality will not fit your needs of adulthood. That simple mindset change will make you feel better. Hope that my ideas will be helpful !!!

Harsh criticism will follow us on every change/growth that we achieve .The point is that as a society ( Balkans in general ) have such a non reactivity when it comes to spiritual growth

I have been using the " do nothing technique and it's been fruitful because I am aware of the fact that the monkey mind has reduced and I feel good about that . Now here's the paradox, by feeling good and somehow in peace is there any risk of self sabotage and reaching the upper limit ?

@Vaishnavi It happens to be confused, When I first knew about Self development for the first two months I was literally overwhelmed by the vast range of ideas/habits and knowledge I could gain . Without noticing I was creating a vicious circle, I was in my little bubble all the time . I was running after " achievements " . And the best advice is to build a meditation habit , 2nd reading habit and the rest will follow. ?

In one of my session I had this profound doubt about reality. What is it ? Can I trust my senses? The term reality is a mind projection or a result of first experience. 99% of things comes to us as second hand experience. Imagine if you never ate a lemon and I tell about it , your beliefs and idea of a lemon will be based on a second hand experience. Now imagine the reaction that you have when you tasted the lemon ...all of the ideas and descriptions that I gave you are irrelevant compared to that first experience of yours. Now let's apply example in real life , How many things come to us as second hand experience ?

@Emerald Wilkins I wrote list of things that I know from first person experience and things or ideas/phenomenas that I didn't experience myself. And I was very careful on that ( at least I think so) and came to the conclusion that 99.9 % was only a result of second hand experience ex. Earth is rotating ; I never seen earth rotating in first person or Antarctica is completely frozen , I never saw that neither. And so on , the point is that what we consider as truth comes as a second hand experience and that is a strange feeling ?

@Cabot I wake up at 4:45 am Step 1 DO NOT SNOOZE Step 2 Be aware that of your surrounding and take a minute or so to feel your body ( don't fall asleep ? Step 3 Plenty of water Step 4 Shower ( cold or hot ) Step 5 Meditation ( 30 min ) This is a simplified module that I use and I have to be at work by 6am . Try and experiment different ways and see what fits you ☺!!!! Ohhhh almost forgot ...DO YOUR BED ?