You are just parroting words here without actually bothering to investigate your direct experience.
Locate within yourself the distinction between a thought and a feeling. It is there to be located.

Actually it's the most common scenario that even after an awakening or two the identity still stays.
Very rarely is the identity totally transcended. Usually a spiritual identity is created. This happens even with many gurus, monks, and yogis.
To transcend all identity completely is a very rare and challenging thing.

Yes, it would certainly work, and work powerfully.
But be careful what you wish for. Depending on how many inner demons you got, it could get hairy. But then again, that's where the real growth is.
There tends to be an inverse relationships between growth and comfort. You can't have both at once.

Actual vs conceptual is a duality.
Mind vs not-mind is a duality.

Suffering is a principle tool of survival. You create suffering to ensure you stay alive.

It certainly can. People create whole identities out of seeking Truth.
@Norbert Lennartz Do not conflate thinking with feeling. They are distinct. You can feel without thinking.

@egoless You set an intention for what you want to know, and you apply your keen observation skills to the issue. As you observe a thing with an open mind and genuine intent, the answer will be revealed with time spontaneously.
See video: Learning = Observation
Boredom is usually just an illusion you have to bust through by becoming more curious about the thing at hand.
It sounds like you lack discipline, focus, and follow-through. Without those, you will never succeed at anything. You must learn to discipline yourself to have a work ethic. Or accept that your life will forever be mediocre.

@Hardkill Depends on what your expectations and sticking-points are.
If you are a newbie and having trouble with cold-approaching and opening consistently all night long, it should definitely help push you past that.
Learning how to approach consistently is one of the biggest problems people have. Bootcamps are designed to force you into tough situations and make you bolder.

Keep in mind that in many of these places you actually spend more time working, cooking, cleaning, socializing, etc. than meditating.
If you want the most effective and direct path, find a cabin in the woods and live there for 6 months by yourself. Then you can get some real work done. Even just 1 month totally solo will be life-changing.
The deepest work is done solo, where you have zero social obligations. All you gotta do is handle your food, water, and cleaning.

Here's a meta-thing for you guys to notice:
All your opinions about gender are a function of your survival. Because gender is central to your identity. None of these opinions have anything to do with truth or reality, but rather about self-definition. Notice that.
Gender is one of those hot-button issues like religion or politics because it's so central to one's fabricated identity. The more fabricated a thing is, the more it must be defended, argued, and justified.
Your opinions will be precisely whatever helps you survive and get your needs met. That's what opinions are!

Our culture these days does not teach discipline. Life has become too easy. You are addicted to sucking on society's tits.

There are many levels to contemplation.
At the simplist levels it's just asking yourself questions.

Well, I can't tell you what is right for you. But it sounds like you've simply not done enough work/experience with it. Remember, that relationships are what you make of them. If you put in no enthusiasm you will get none back.
Maybe you just want to be a celibate monk. I dunno. That's a fine path, if that's what you truly want.
But for most people intimate relationships are the way to go. You can always become a celibate monk later in life after you gain more experience with relationships & sex.
I think becoming a monk is only proper for very serious people who know what they're doing. It's not right for most ordinary folks.

Psychedelics can be a great way to take your growth to a whole new level.
But also don't neglect your sexual needs. At your age sex is healthy and good. Just do it responsibly. Get you fill of it. Get a girlfriend. Enjoy it for fucks sake. You're only human. You ain't ready to be saint just yet.
Burn through some of your karma. You're young. You've got time.
Don't view sex as a dirty, bad, or unholy thing. Sex is very holy when done right. Even masturbating is holy! Enjoy it. Stop judging yourself for it. Watching some porn is not going to destroy your life or even keep you from awakening.
Remember, all sex is masturbation. Since there is only one entity is existence. Sex with anyone other than yourself is metaphysically impossible! Lol

Not a belief at all. You're just not conscious yet that "the brain" is a mental construction within consciousness.
See, your own biological birth is a mental construction. It only happened because you say it did. If you stop saying it, it will stop being real. The only way you could be born is by imagining it. And thus you were born!
It's beyond science fiction. It's Absolute Truth
There is no universe. You're inside a hallucination. Don't believe it. Take a close look. The truth cannot stay hidden from those who seriously look for it.
YES! The Truth is very radical stuff. You have no idea how radical. Nothing I say could convey just how radical it is. Whatever you imagine is not radical enough to be True. Since human imagination is merely finite.
Enlightenment! -- it's the damnedest thing

You don't have to die. You just have to realize you never were to begin with

Everything looks nice in retrospect. Even the shittiest things. Because you conveniently ignore the suffering and egoic restlessness which was present.
Nostalgia is a great trick of the mind.
Also, as a child and teen you didn't have to worry about your survival as much. Which meant you could just BE. Now as an adult you live in the conceptual future all the time, constantly worrying about and strategizing about how to survive. This entire cycle of survival is inherently unfulfilling and disconnects you from BEing.
Be careful not to whitewash how neurotic and unconscious you used to be. How much you used to suffer. It's easy to forget after lots of consciousness work. You literally cannot remember what it was like to be you 10-20 years ago.

@Serotoninluv The Catholic Church had been hunting witches for like 300 years in Europe. Witches were in engaging in pagan rituals and psychedelics which threatened the monopoly and orthodoxy of The Chruch.
Of course this witch craze got used as an excuse to then silence and excute anyone who was an enemy of The Chruch, even if they weren't a proper witch. The Chruch demonized witches and anything resembling witchcraft.
Many of our most advanced mystics were silenced or executed. As is still done in the Middle East.
Such is how devilry works. The illusion of duality must be maintained at all costs.

Definitely.
If you are spiritually atuned but your society gaslights you by telling you you're crazy, that can create a very difficult upbringing. This can not only lead to neurosis but even psychosis.
This is a classic problem. People with paranormal powers are especially vulnerable since materialist society refuses to admit such things are real. No doctor or therapist will admit it so people don't know where to turn.
Witches and psychics need to forge their own paths. They cannot just follow the herd. It can take them decades to fully accept their abilities and learn how to use them responsibly.
It's very much like being a Force-sensitive Jedi without any master to train you. A lot of things can go wrong.
It's not just a matter of awareness, such folks need good guidance from masters, and they need to do lots of research. They also need to find like-mind people to befriend.

1 Tab of LSD Date: May 25, 2019 Setting: Apartment  Time of Consumption: 10:15 AM ”Technique”: Bi-lateral symmetry (it’s ridiculous how powerful this is given how simple it is) Early Phase:
Massive psychological purging, processing, and integration of unconscious repressions and shadows regarding... Sex - I realized that all my deep sexual cravings have really just been a craving for security, comfort, and approval that I now lack from my mother Solo struggle (craving for motherly safety and security) and the fear of struggling on my own.  My repressed unconscious “Freudian relationship towards my mother” (I’ll let you piece that together) Repressed femininity  Repressed attraction to men (more of a denial for being able to see the honest beauty in men given how I tend to deny that acknowledgement through my constructed cultural role as a man)  Cross The Threshold:
This was the point I knew I couldn’t go deeper until I surrendered to the fear of losing my mind and going back into bi-lateral symmetry. I had gotten up a couple times from bi-lateral symmetry by this point given that I was so exhausted energetically and emotionally but just by breaking that natural and authentic alignment energetically and psycbologically, I got to the point where I couldn’t walk because I felt like my psyche split in 2 and I was getting so overwhelmed.  At this point I truly felt I was losing my mind. I started to realize around me that reality is a giant mind and that it’s my mind. My projections had consequences on what I normal would unconsciously perceive of as the “external world”. I felt I was going crazy. I felt like I was in this all encompassing and unescapable echo chamber that is my mind. I feel a lot of this has a great tie in with my ADHD and how my mind works.  Despite the overwhelming fear of the massive mindfuck that I’m living in a giant mind, I knew there was no reason to try to escape the truth of this. So I decided to just go back into symmetry. Prior though I found a “Live Bad Trip Guide” from the YouTuber Psyched Substance and that really helped center me back to surrender. Once I truly let go I was able to face my own eternal devilry. I realized that I caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. I literally caused all the suffering in the world including things like the holocaust, terroism, etc. I faced my own selfishness and real suffering that stem from my own deep self hatred, shame, guilt, deep fear, insecurity, all my shortcomings and failures, loneliness, the feeling that I’m a fucking loser, my own feeling of inferiority and inadequacy, etc. I worked through all of it. The more I authentically and honestly faced whatever arises without resistance, just pure acceptance, the more free I became.  For The Love of God, For The Love of Creation, For The Love That Is Me:
At this point in my consciousness I realized and felt in my that I was literally One with everything. I was the very bed and clothes I was wearing along with anything I touched, saw, heard, smelled, tasted, etc. I became conscious that all perspectives ultimately collapse into the One perspective. Though multiple perspectives serve useful, they are not existentially true as they are the illusion occurring all in first person subjective experience. To deny or be unconscious of such truth is to create the illusion of separation and also a shadow. All of them fundamentally collapse into myself. This is the highest level of shadow integration. It’s also ultimate ownership of my own projections, judgements, etc. “We”, “us”, “our”, “it”, “it’s”, “them”, “him”, “her”, “that”, “this”, etc. all occur in “I”. There’s a saying in shadow work that goes something like “if you spot it, you got it.” However I’d like to add the deeper element of “if you spot it, you did it”. Gotta be careful with that but hopefully you can understand what I’m trying to communicate. This insight doesn’t forsake the importance of learning and seeking out other perspectives. Quite the contrary. The more you integrate every perspectivr, the more whole and authentic and whole you/we/I become. I realized that my own perspective spawns everything into being. I became conscious that all “evil” and anything that ever happens ever comes from God’s Love. If anything ever happens, the fundamental cause is because God Loves. It’s because I Love. It’s Love for Creation for its own sake and that it’s God being itself. It’s me being myself. I realized that God’s Love is really God Loving itself and that this is me Loving myself. I realized that God is one with “his”/my/our creation and he/I Love of our creation. I was at a point where I was taking a piss only to shortly thereafter be on the ground balling my eyes out crying with tears of Love flowing down my face hugging this toilet in all of its Beauty, Goodness, and Love. Every little piss stain, hair, etc. that was on  it was Perfect. I loved it because it was me, because I accept myself, and I Love myself. I’ve never cried like that before.  I didn’t just feel God’s Love, I realized it was me. This was so overwhelming I felt unworthy in yet at the same time I knew I was worthy because I am it. The more I could authentically feel and acknowledge my own authentic Loving nature, the more I was able to honestly surrender and, as Rumi accurately put it “wash myself of myself.” I realized the goal of my life... The goal of my life is to become (a) God. To fully surrender and embody and accept my own true nature as much as possible, realizing and embodying my own true “Godhood”. The goal of my life is to embody and master Truth, Consciousness, Love, Creatvitiy, Goodness, Authenticity, Self-Expression, and Beauty and take that into the world The goal of my life is to become a conscious benefactor to the world, mankind, and all beings because the world is my own creation and I Love my creation and I want to Love and accept my one Creation for its own sake.  The goal of my life is to help awaken myself to myself. Which is to awaken others and elevate life. I have a deep Lovd for my Creation and I want to elevate others. They are me and I want to accept and, Love, and awaken so that it eventually becomes God Lovingly look itself/himself/herself/myself. Marveling at its/her/his/our/my Beauty.  I realized I am worthy of happiness, self-acceptance, Love, and the recognition of my own Beauty. By the end of this trip I was in my bed crying so hard because I looked at myself for the first time and loved myself in a way I've never loved myself before (probably because I never really have). In the past, self-love and acceptance in practice would still feel tainted with guilt, shame, apathy, hopelessness, and self-hatred. Not only was my capacity for Love cranked up on high but my internalized self judgments had been exorcised from my very being. I felt free. I felt honest. I felt like me for the first time of my life. I understand now why the word “reborn” exists. The most shocking part of all was that this was all true. I felt unworthy and was so shocked in yet I knew it was true. That’s what made it so incredible. I didn’t understand why in yet at the same time I also did totally understand why. I am God. I am Love. I understand why religious/spiritual traditions stress reverence. You’re bowing to your creation and it’s beauty. You Love (your) creation. It’s gratitude taken all the way to Gratitude. I was bowing to everything by the end of it all. There is nothing ugly. Nothing. I realized that Creation is for its own sake. God create because God Loves. The reason we have our 5 sense faculties is to experience our own unitary creation. God wants to experience his/my/our creation through an infinite myriad of ways. Mindfulness is fundamentally a practice to train one’s faculties of attention to expand one’s capacity towards fully experiencing, embracing, and marveling at one’s own divine creation through unfettered, unfiltered, pure, honest, and truthful lens.  Coming Back Down:
The come down was quite pleasant.  I felt so purified from my waist on up energetically, psychologically, spiritually, and emotionally. However I did have massive legs cramps on the medial end of my quads/hamstrings stretching down the top of my calves. I can almost certainly say those were more blocks. However the substance was near completion so I thought I’d take what I got and call it a day.  So fucking exhausted. Just so exhausted lol. Felt so energetically and emotionally sensitive and drained I could barely walk.  I had the usual feeling of being lost in the giant mind echo chamber. I really do think there’s a connection to my ADHD with that given the way my mind works. Feels pretty destabilizing more often than not to be honest.  Lessons, Insights, and Conclusion:
As I type this I definitely have dropped back down which is of course demoralizing. However that was expected. I have had a very rude fucking ego backlash. This has been hard given the fact that I’m now on my own for this summer. I have dropped back into my old judgments, character, etc. which hasn’t been easy. Though I don’t regret this experience in the slightest, I do think it’s  more than I can handle right now. I really have to be honest with myself about where I’m at in my own growth. I can’t honestly handle realizations this massive. I know this goes WAY deeper. I know that this is not even me starting. However, the fact is that I still don’t have my life together. I’m so excited by spirituality and am more motivated by that in my heart but I’m not in a position where I can pursue that right now. There’s a reason the Ancient Greek philosophers and the Brahmin caste in India were able to pursue this stuff... because they had their survival handled because they were at the top of the chain. Same with the Buddha before he renounced. This has been hard because when you’re 24 and have genuine intentions to realize God and impact the world but your ego is so weak, fragile, is so unhappy, hopelessness, so full of neurosis and trauma AND you still have yet to ever take care of baseline survival needs... that’s hard to reconcile that internally on a multitude of levels.  Having said all of that I am quite shaken. Mere recollection of 2 days ago brings tears to my eyes.  I know there’s more. There’s SO much fucking more. @Leo Gura I remember in your spirituality video you said “you’re gonna feel unworthy. You’re gonna glimpse this truth and you’re gonna say ‘oh my god! Im not worthy of anything this Good!’ How do you accept something infinitely Good?” I couldn’t have put that any better. Thank you. Thank you for everything.
Warm bows
I hope you find this useful. 

Spiritual states and insights are extremely important. Just don't cling to them.
What most people lack is higher states of consciousness.
They can worry about letting them go AFTER they have some. Without these states the mind will never understand the depth of this work.
You cannot escape states. A state is at work in you at all times. It's just usually a very low egoic state. Talking about spirituality to someone who has only ever been in a low egoic state is almost useless.

The answer is easy: no one wants to die so no will do it.
Enlightenment cannot ever be easy because it's hard by design of the one who is asleep.

@Garuda Ramana lived in a cave. He did not lead a reform movement of 1 billion Hindus.
You guys have a serious deficiently in reasoning about politics. It's freightening. Spiritual giants but political midgets.

Love is the point of life. It is both masculine and feminine.
I like both kinds of love.
Of course I'm stronger in masculine love.
I recommend you balance my work out with softer fuzzier kinds of teachers like Matt Kahn. He appeals to lots of women.
I definitely believe the feminine path to awakening is unique, and just as valid as the masculine. Something like Zen is not suitable for many people and many women.
For you masculine guys I highly recommend experimenting with feminine approaches and paths. It will grow you a lot and make you more mature as a man.
Men today lack femininity even more than they lack masculinity. RedPill, MGTOW, anti-SJW, and Alt-Right culture is making this problem only worse. Which makes me sad

No!
You guys are totally underestimating how deep survival goes! Stop thinking of survival as the physical preservation of your body. It is not that. Survival is about maintaining WHO YOU ARE.
You are not a survival failure. You are maintaining WHO YOU ARE perfectly. Such that you even refuse to admit that what you're doing is survival.
If WHO YOU ARE is an idiot, for example, then you spend a lot of time and energy preserving that way of life. You are playing an idiot perfectly in that case. You structure your entire way of life such that you can keep being an idiot. And any attempt to stop that will be perceived by you as death. It does not matter that being an idiot might be harmful to your physical survival. You might even walk off a cliff. But you'll still be an idiot at your moment of death, which is precisely what you wanted.
Everything you do is about maintaining WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE. If you think you're a bird, you might jump off a cliff and flap your arms. It does not matter that you fall to your death. As long as you keep thinking you're a bird. Right before you hit the ground your mind will rationalize it all away as, "Well, I must be one of those non-flying birds, like a ostrich."