EternalForest

4:40 Oh dear... The most intellectually honest scientific standpoint would indeed be to say "We have no way of knowing if there is life after death". How does he know that the afterlife doesn't play by the laws of physics as we currently know them, including what we know about dark matter? Compared to the information we'll likely have 500 years from now, science is still in the stone age. He's speaking like he understands things about metaphysics that, in reality, he has no way of knowing! 15:48 It would seem pretty blasphemous wouldn't it? 18:20 Actually, all aspects of science should be held to scrutiny. How do we know that one day our understanding of atoms doesn't turn out to be false?

@Preety_India I suppose it could be selfishness, but I view selfishness more as exploiting someone or trying to get something out of somebody. That wasn't the case, they just pretended like I never existed.

How does one live in the moment while avoiding hedonism? Lately I've been contemplating what the best lifestyle is. Not necessarily the best life, or the best life purpose, because ultimately purpose is subjective. I'm moreso referring to someone's overall outlook/philosophy on life. The first choice that would come to many people's minds is "living in the moment", not worrying about past or future worries, and just enjoying what's in front of you. But I sense that leaving such a philosophy unchecked leads to hedonism. Why work out or diet when you could just sit and enjoy yourself, eating your favorite foods in the moment? Why work when you could spend all day playing? Why build a great future when you could just live a fun present? The flaws of this philosophy are obvious, through hedonism, trying to exclusively make yourself happy in the moment, you become unhappy because the overall quality of your life is now mediocre. You can't know play without work. But at the same time, so many people have forgotten how to relax, they've forgotten the purpose of leisure time. I'm having a bit of trouble balancing this, living in the moment while keeping an eye on the future, so to speak. any thoughts are well appreciated.

@assx95 I suspect I have become hooked on it. What I'm lacking is the motivation to seriously pursue my purpose, which would give me lasting happiness and true fulfillment. I'm pursuing it as a hobby, and because its so enjoyable it blinds me to the serious work required to make it my career. I'm fulfilled simply by doing it, it is its own reward.

Amazing resource, he could probably write a book on all the wisdom he gained from these books.

Surely if I am you and you are me, I'd be able to read your mind. But I cannot, I can only recognize what's in my own mind. That's why the whole "You are God." thing doesn't resonate with me, because if I'm God I should have the power of God. But I don't, from my honest perspective I am a limited human, who sometimes receives creative inspiration from what some might call a "higher self". But from my point of view, I'm not in awareness or control of anyone else but myself, let alone God. Can anyone help me understand this?

I've seen all suggested videos and responses and will delve into them soon. Thank you all.

I will contemplate this.

@Leo Gura I would like to be proactive about this. Deconstructing materialism is definitely something I want to get serious about, because there are interesting "cracks in the veil" I've noticed over the years, especially when I'm in certain mindstates. I find myself vacillating between the rational worldview and the nondual worldview quite often. What I lack are the direct spiritual experiences to make the nondual one hold more weight, because the way my mind is wired, logical arguments are more convincing than a Stage Turquoise teaching, but in a way the Turquoise teaching "feels" more true. In this way, I'm at odds with myself. I think I'll end this thread here, I've gotten enough out of it. Thanks for your responses by the way, I know you're on a retreat and all.

@Leo Gura It would help if there existed a human who could prove that these things are indeed possible. Until then, it's just a story. I'm trying to be intellectually honest. @Commodent God can view them all yet we can't? I thought we were God?

@blankisomeone Well there's a difference between feeling empathy for someone and being them. I've also felt empathy for people so strongly I might as well have been them in that situation. Perhaps that's part of the key to understanding this, but I think I'm missing the point.

@blankisomeone Non-dual teachers claim I am them, and they are me. This is like the non-duality mantra, yet I honestly have no idea what they're on about. For a while I've lied to myself and told myself I did, but I've recently realized...I really don't. Like, not at all.

@TylerJ I define being "me" as the unique collection of my own knowledge and experiences, which no one else shares exactly. @zeroISinfinity I'm sorry, you're proud of me for what?

@Applegarden I don't particularly desire it; I'm speaking in hypotheticals. But let's assume I really want it. How would I go about acquiring it?

@LordFall @Leo Gura I never said reality didn't have great aspects. But we could easily keep all the great elements and do away with all the elements that cause suffering and ignorance. Is that so much to ask?

@Osaid In that case I'd say God's pretty unsympathetic to not just tell us there is no purpose rather than have us finite beings run around in circles trying to figure out what God's "purpose" is. And I recognize that God speaks to us in more ways than words, but considering that's the most direct way for most of us, I just wish God would be more direct.

@MsNobody To be hopeful, the autopsy results weren't conclusively linked to the virus being the cause of death. Here's what NY Times stated: "Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Tuesday said the death, of a 17-year-old boy from Lancaster, Calif., was from the coronavirus. Hours later, it walked back that statement, saying the death would be further evaluated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The case is complex and there may be an alternate explanation for this fatality,” the health department said in a statement." Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/us/california-coronavirus-death-child.html

@Leo Gura I understand all that, but my biggest question is why? Why would God do this?

@Inliytened1 Even if I accept this infinite power I still can't, say, flap my arms and fly. If everything's imaginary why can't I just imagine anything I want to?

@TylerJ I'm not saying I can't receive messages from your mind, its that I can only get those messages if you want to give them. I can't make you do anything you don't want to do. So then how am I...you?

@XYZ I'm curious, how exactly did you choose it?

Lately I've been getting nostalgic about 2017. This is the year that I discovered actualized.org. I remember during my days off I would put on his videos and listen while calmly looking out the window on bright sunny days and just be amazed at the amount of wisdom and deep insights I was hearing. Over the years, the videos have gotten better and better, and I've grown to love the metaphysical and spiritual content. But at the same time I think there was a certain magic in Leo's more motivational content from 2014 to 2017. It was such an inspiring feeling listening to him back then, it felt as if he was speaking directly to me when he explained how to escape depression, how to use meditation to improve your life, how build a foundation for success, how to conquer your emotions, and how to see the big picture of life and take action to accomplish your goals and life purpose. I remember those days so fondly, listening to his guided meditations while staring at the beautiful summer sky, taking long meditative drives while being motivated, dreaming and having a sense of wonder, being positive about the future ahead. The newer videos are valuable too, perhaps in a different way I can't fully recognize yet (above my current level), but I was just wondering, does anyone else get nostalgic about Leo's early content?

Rewatching Understanding Impermanence right now after doing some deep contemplation on the state of physical media and data all being impermanent. No matter what the disc, the record, the hard drive, the book, no matter what, all human knowledge will eventually be destroyed, as well as all physical records of our existence. For some reason, this is a harder truth for me to accept than death itself. Because the human body itself is a naturally impermanent thing, but its hard to accept that even everything human body does, writes, records, creates or impacts will also die...

@OctagonOctopus But you can't really lose resources when it comes to consciousness. The law of conversation of matter states that things are not created or destroyed, only morphed.