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.

Theoretically Major assumption

Hi there ! I thought it would be great to put here a list of documentaries/biographies we have seen/read about past/present teachers and spiritual figures. Those stories can inspire us and give us some insights about their path and potential pitfalls, maybe I'm biased towards buddhism, so do not hesitate to add from other traditions, secular background and so on! I'll start : A. BOOKS/AUDIOBOOKS 1) The Life Of Milarepa by Heruka ==> One of the most famous figures in Tibetan Buddhism, plenty of great teachings. Some mystical things that one can ignore. Found it crazy inspiring ! Great in audiobook format 2) Dipa Ma: The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master ==> A woman that practiced in the Theravada tradition and has been the teacher of many Western Buddhists such as Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield. Nice human story. 3) Empty Cloud: The Autobiography of the Chinese Zen Master Xu Yun ==> Japanese Zen master that dedicated almost his whole life (119 years!) to practice in a very harsh, zen way. He was close to dying a few times 4) Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki ==> Author of the famous book "Zen mind Beginner's mind", he has pretty much brought Zen to America 5) Life of Ramana Maharshi (by Oruganti Venkata Krishanayya) ==> One of the great known saints of our time VIDEOS 1) Crazy Wisdom: The Life & Times of Chogyam Trungpa ==> Brought Vajrayana Buddhism to America. Was very close to Shunryu Suzuki and Ram Dass. Great documentary His collected work, and especially "Cutting through spiritual materialism", are highly relevant today. 2) Brilliant Moon - Glimpses of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche ==> A great Dzogchen Master, highly recommended to see 3) Amongst White Clouds ==> inspiring documentary about Chinese practitioners in the mountains. Wise old men to see there! TO BE CONTINUED

@DodosterThanks for sharing man ! He has interesting discussions on his "waking up" podcast too, like the "the path and the goal" with Joseph Golstein. Good listen

Also, The Marathon monks of Mt Hiei (discovery thanks to Leo's videos ;))

Dan Harris has been having a series of interview with meditation practioners from different backgrounds in his "10% happier podcast", which I highly recommend. In those podcasts he either interviews regular (although famous) people that have a regular meditation habit or meditation teachers. His last interview to date is a long one with Shinzen Young, a guy that I know many of you appreciate. So, you can check it out here if you wish , found it really interesting! https://www.podcastchart.com/podcasts/10-happier-with-dan-harris/episodes/64-shinzen-young-meditation-teacher (Some of the many interviews that I found interesting were episodes 27, 13 and 12) Enjoy!

Love‘s Fool. Love. What is love? What is love. Love is a fading memory. Love is piercingly present. Love is full of charm. Love is hideously in the way. Explosion of love makes you feel ecstatic. Explosion of love makes you feel suicidal. Love brings goodliness and godliness. Love brings celestial vision. Love creates the unity of heaven and earth. Love tears apart heaven and earth. Is love sympathy. Is love gentleness. Is love possessiveness. Is love sexuality. Is love friendship. Who knows? Maybe the rock knows, Sitting diligently on earth, Not flinching from cold snowstorms or baking heat. O rock, How much I love you: You are the only loveable one. Would you let me grow a little flower of love on you? If you don’t mind, Maybe I could grow a pine tree on you. If you are so generous, Maybe I could build a house on you. If you are fantastically generous, Maybe I could eat you up, Or move you to my landscape garden. It is nice to be friends with a rock!

@Dodoster Yes, let's be always open to life and all its many experiences and never hide from anything either pleasurable or painful The ideology I try to follow is "whatever happens, turn towards it and be open to it"

Well, in my experience,falling asleep seems similar to the process of dying.

@Dodoster Are you always lucid during dreams and sleep ?

@Harikrishnan +1 what has been said so far. Actually, experiencing such events (sickness, broken heart) can be great for deepening one's insights. One more suggestions : -Ask yourself "what is it that is not impacted by this cold ?" Look if there exists such a "thing".