Guivs

His messages and talks are honest and selfless, plus he is so natural and true in the way he communicates, I love him !! Thanks for sharing @jse !

@ShinHey LOVE IT! Thanks for posting. This is my mantra : "whatever happens, turn towards it". But I'm still a coward in many instances What you say is highly related to this video :

@Dodoster Add Paul Hedderman (Zenbitchslap) to the list A real gem.

@Maxi just what @cetus56 said. At the beginning, it seems there is more wandering, but actually it was there before and you just did not see it as clearly, seemingly Keep doing it every single day is the most important advice Great to alternate between concentration and open awareness

@theinevitableandi hey guys. Yes indeed,I concur ! Very useful video about the role that concentration plays in some spititual paths. Enclosed is an interesting article I read a while ago about the role that concentration plays and its links with insights about the nature of things. Why-Practice-Shamatha1 (1).pdf

@Toby even better, enlightenment is "being meditated" 24/7

@The Monk Lazy to write, so the video might do the talking

Self can't get out of self. Contemplate that for a moment

IF enlightenement was known to be brought about by causes and conditions,it would be like everything else that is brought about by causes and conditions : impermanent and unstable. I might be wrong , but I would not give energy to this course. It seems to feed on our tendency to think " if I do this I will get this. If I do more of this, I get more of that." A striving philosophy that tends to build up one's ego.

@Scholar A great way is the daily practice of tong-len, "giving" and "receiving" The goal of this practice is to visualize giving all your happiness to others and taking on all their suffering, ignorance, illnesses,... From The Art of Happiness : (quote) To begin this exercise,first visualize on one side of you a group of people who are in desperate need of help, those who are in an unfortunate state of suffering, those living under conditions of poverty, hardship, and pain. (...) Then, on the other side, visualize yourself as the embodiment of a self-centered person, with a customary selfish attitude, indifferent to the well-being and needs of others. And then in between this suffering group of people and this selfish representation of you see yourself in the middle, as a neutral observer. Next, notice which side you are naturally inclined towards. Are you more inclined towards that single individual, the embodiment of selfishness? Or do your natural feelings of empathy reach out to the group of weaker people who are in need ? If you look objectively, you can see that the well-being of a group or large number of individuals is more important than that of one single individual. After that, focus your attention on the needy and desperate people. Direct all your positive energy to them. Mentally give them your successes, your ressources, your collection of virtues. And after you have done that, visualize taking upon yourself their suffering, their problems, their negativities. (end quote) Then during the day, you can imagine that during each inbreath, you breathe in all the suffering, agression, ignorance around you and you breathe out all your happiness to others. This is a wonderful practice because one must have some courage to be able to breathe in all sufferings of others and give out his/her happiness. But this makes you much more self-centered. Being increasingly less self-centered means it becomes easier to see the selflessness of individual and phenomena. Also, each time you breathe out, you start to realize that you always have some happiness to give out, you realize that it is always there and never runs out. This is a practice that changes dramatically your way of seeing things

@username hello ! 1) Look at the thread @Toby has posted 2) https://www.upaya.org/2010/03/lucid-dreaming-and-dream-yoga-part-1-of-13/ Listen and apply diligently the principles of this recorded retreat based on lucid dreaming and dream yoga. 3) truly to be aware of all the thoughts that arise during the day 4)meditate before going to bed, then take 10 minutes to se the intention to have lucid dreams and sleep before falling asleep 5) books worth checking out : -Dreaming yourself awake(...) by Alan Wallace -Tibetan yogas of dream and sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche 6) Good luck

What are the names of those books ? Personnally, those that have inspired me were : -how to practice -how to see yourself as you really are -becoming enlightened

@Evilwave Heddy +1 it was funny Also : did you know that the Dalai Lama spent a lot of his daily practice doing self inquiry ? To me, he displays well the two wings of emptiness and compassion,two wings that make you fly, free like a bird.

@Michael119 +1 what @Dodoster said But one's mere intellectual understanding wont suffice, let's keep contemplating

@0ne I was about to say something, but actually, we are here on this forum to look for what reality really is and what life/death is. The greatest impediments to serious contemplation are our cultural hang ups, theories and ideas (gross or subtle) of how things are... This is crazy how much we have filled our mind of those beliefs and believe in it not unlike fundamentalist religious persona. Empty your cup first, then look (not thinking) You should be able to question everything with no preconceived theories about how things ought to be.