EternalForest

Also the whole idea of the "true self" and the "false self" seems like another duality, under non-duality isn't the false self also the true self (or at least within it?)

@FredFred

@Seiden Sure, but how do I know that just wasn't some good feeling, and then I went back on with life. I could tell you about a lot of "good feelings" I've had before, all unique and different from the one I described. How do I know those feelings wouldn't verify some other worldview? Edit: For example, when I was a Christian I would open up the Bible to a certain page and it would apply to the situation I was having at that moment, or when I asked God for answers if I opened up the Bible at random it would seem like that answered my questions. But then I realized, why can't God speak to me directly? If my "true self" had my best interests in mind, why wouldn't "it" tell me the truth, or allow me to experience it? How do I know through my seeking that I'm not just looking for the information I want to find (confirmation bias)?

@Seiden I did once have an experience like that, although at the time I didn't realize what it was. I was sitting in my basement looking around at all the stuff down there and just thought to my self, this is all just...stuff. There's no form to it. That probably won't make sense. I wasn't thinking this with my mind, it was based on pure experience. Then I felt like I was just "stuff", the same "stuff" that was around me. And I not longer saw the "stuff" as objects. Hard to explain.

@winterknight Hey thanks again for answering my question on your enlightenment megathread. And I'll be sure to do that and update you if I get anywhere. I actually was inspired to make this post after researching the Neti Neti method, cause I'm just learning about that, so maybe it'll help me out.

@lmfao Yep, and language is finite, there's finite words and finite combinations of those words. Not to mention finite letters and sounds to create new words.

@Seiden But just by knowing that logically doesn't change the fact that I'm living in a duel world. Because the fact remains that yes even though I may conceptualize my perceptions, that doesn't make my perceptions a conception. Let's assume everything I look at, decorations, mirrors, lights, stairs, food, floors, laptop, everything is just something I've conceptualized, then what am I really looking at?

If you really love music why not just listen to it in the car and spend the rest of the day being productive doing other things

After watching the Commonplace Book episode, I was really inspired to put one of these together for myself. And after going through my computer for a bit I realized that I may not even need to use OneNote for it, I could use My Documents! Let me explain: I don't know about you guys, but over the years I've saved literally thousands of .doc and .txt documents on my computer of interesting things I read, amazing websites I've downloaded/indexed as resources for myself, lists I've made, schedules I've made, journals and personal introspection from throughout the years, pdfs, creative ideas, to do lists, book notes, video notes and more. So in a way, I've been keeping my own "commonplace book" in My Documents since 2013. I just haven't organized it yet. I'm organizing it as we speak and the idea of it all being in one place properly labeled is an idea that really excites me. I may even post some screenshots/videos of how I have the folders organized and indexed with a bunch of tiers, subfolders, etc. Edit: Also, I've got tons of stuff from my saved reddit posts, gmail and google docs to go through, on top of the stuff in my laptop. I don't feel the same friction when going to take notes like Leo described in the video. Maybe on paper, but not in notepad or Word. For me its as simple as opening notepad, getting my thoughts out, click X, save as, type name, enter, done.

@111111 I'll check out those links. I have great friends too, my two best friends and I usually hang out once a week and we always do different stuff and have fun, we've been best friends for almost 10 years! Whenever I hang out with one of them we literally talk the entire time nonstop. It's gotten to the point where we have to stop each other or we'll never get to the point haha! The best thing I can compare it to is a freeway. The point of the conversation is like the destination you're trying to get to, but as we talk we can get caught up in the exits on the way. Each exit could take 20 to 45 minutes to get out of before we circle back around to the point. Sometimes we talk about starting a podcast, we really should honestly. I have 3-4 friends I can talk to like this. Edit: My record conversation time is 8 hours, that beat the record set a few years before, which was 7 hours. But the average convo time is 2 to 3 hours.

@111111 I'd keep them, just so you can see how much you've grown. I mean, there's things about your past that you may want to do away with, but I've found there are also things about your past that you may want to start doing again. While yes, it's good to do away with old bad habits, you also don't want to do away with old good habits in the process. A good example is riding your bike, something you probably did as a kid but don't do anymore but its still a lot of fun and great exercise. Also, talking on the phone. You probably talked to your friends on the phone a lot when you were younger but not so much anymore, but you'll find that talking on the phone can actually give you a lot more depth in conversation than texting can sometimes. Maybe you used to cook a lot at home but nowadays someone else cooks for you or you always go out to eat or eat too much takeout, why not start cooking again like you used to? Creatively speaking, why not make music in a different style than you normally do today? Over time we tend to get set in our habits and looking back can open our eyes to some of the good things we used to do that we can start doing again.

@111111 Oh, that's the worst! I've had drives die and that's like years worth of personal family videos and photos just gone, like an entire void in your history. I lost almost all our early videos that way, or the file just vanished somewhere else. Luckily the one hard drive I have that has all my early music is still safe. I really should buy another hard drive for all my music project files, since if my desktop crashes those are all gone. That stuff is really important to me since music is my life purpose (as well as filmmaking). And of course I'll get a drive to backup my Commonplace Book. Going through these files, it's actually an amazing phenomenon, making all these little documents, saving them away for later, and never coming back to them. Now that I'm coming back to them its almost like my brain is overwhelmed with information, its all coming back at once in kind of an intense way. Most of it I remember making but some of it I don't, or at least I thought I'd never re open them. Many are just named asd;jkfhasd'flasf or something like that. I know once its all organized it'll be a true goldmine.

What is the true meaning of dreams, and why do I experience such higher consciousness during lucidity?

Looking at interviews of this guy and it's kind of surprising how deeply he speaks about life, death, ego, etc.

It was mentioned in the last video, and I just realized I do this myself a few times throughout the week. Sometimes with relaxing music, but usually just driving in silence, listening to the hum of the engine, and taking in my surroundings for the course of the drive. Would there be anything wrong with making this someone's primary form of meditation? I would still get normal sits in during solo retreats and things like that, even though I haven't planned a solo retreat just yet.

Will you be posting videos of some of the talks to the blog?

Thought you guys would appreciate this

@K VIL Yeah I didn't expect it either. The way I was recalling the video at first made me think it was targeted at mediocre or procrastinating people, totally forgot the topic was about depression. Now as Leo said, some people are actually clinically depressed and it's not entirely their fault. I wasn't really depressed when I heard this video, but the message of being prepared and being willing to fight for a great life always stuck with me.

This was a video where Leo was talking about living an extraordinary life, and abandoning the average life. He talked about how most people let 20, 30, 40 years of their life would go by, doing the exact same thing. Talked about how you lie to yourself, saying that you'll do this, and maybe do that one day, but that day never comes. At one point in the video he said the viewer had to get themselves mobilized and he asked the viewer to make a commitment that from this moment foreward, they would put their nose to the grindstone and do it.

@TeamBills Thanks, that's just what I did, clicked on titles that looked like they could be it, pulled up the video transcript and did CTRL + F for the keywords I remembered. After re watching that video in particular, How to Deal with Depression, I remember why it affected me so much. It made me realize that to reach my goals it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience most of the time. It was going to be tough, and even though I was slightly prepared, I wasn't prepared enough. I had to buckle down and take the struggle of the winter and prepare for it to be a bigger struggle than anything I've faced in life so far. But the payoff has been tremendous.

@Joseph Maynor @K VIL Found it!

@7thLetter Thanks but that's not it because it doesn't have the word "mobilized" Thanks for the help guys, you've done enough. Feel free to keep looking but don't worry, I'll find it eventually when I go through Actualized.org's entire Youtube channel again.

@Joseph Maynor The reason I want to find this video so much is that I feel this was the exact video that flipped the switch for me in life and made me really push towards my dreams. It wasn't just as simple as listening to a video and then all of a sudden I'm a completely new person right off the bat. No, the video was more like a seed, and the things said in that video kept being watered and watered to allow me to have the success that I'm having today. Now you may say, if it was so important, why can't you remember the name of the video!? But when I listened to these videos I didn't know the name... You see, this was a period of time where I would download a bunch of mp3 versions of Leo's videos on CDs, or sometimes listen off my flash drive while driving in a car (my job involves a lot of driving). I listened to nearly all of Leo's videos this way, but that was probably my favorite of all. I don't have the CDs anymore, and I probably deleted the mp3s off my flash drives because I thought that since there were on actualized.org and youtube I could just watch them on there from now on. Here's everything I remember about the video, I may think of more stuff later. It was no longer than an hour, but no shorter than 30 minutes, definitely had a 2014 to 2016 vibe. 100% sure its not a 2018 video, but there's a small chance it could be a 2017 video. Most likely though, it came out between 2014 to 2016. First 1/3 of the video: Excuses people tell themselves for not living their best life possible, focused on procrastination and self-deception (lying to yourself, convincing yourself your life is fine as it is). 2/3 into the video: The commitment. Says from this moment there's a certain line you're going to cross, and you're never going to look back (if I recall correctly). You have to get "mobilized". After you cross this line you're no longer going to live the way you were living before. It was a very distinct part of the video, he may have asked you to repeat something to yourself, or to visualize some line that you were going to cross into becoming this new person. It was an official commitment and he emphasized this "mobilized" or "getting mobilized" thing. I did Ctrl + F on a few videos that I thought would be it by typing in "mob" or "mobilize" "mobilized". If the video doesn't have that term in it, its not the video. Last third: He talked about various techniques for how to implement this new mindset, how to live your best life possible.

@Joseph Maynor It's strange because that seems like almost the exact video without the section in the middle where he talks about "getting mobilized". Another great video, but that's not it. Can you think of any Actualized.org video where there's a section in the middle talking about making a commitment to getting yourself mobilized?

@Preetom Thanks! One thing I know for sure, throughout the video he kept saying the word "mobilized", "get mobilized" "mobilize yourself". I'm actually watching through all of Leo's videos right now, got through about 30 or 40 so far so I'll find it eventually haha! But thanks guys for the help.