nistake

My 2 cents: Let's say there's a hardcore stage orange CEO sitting in his office. He sees this video and says: Okay, this sounds pretty good. Let me try get into the present moment and see what happens. He gets into the present moment and literally nothing (with lower case n) happens. He just doesn't experience bliss, peace, love, enlightenment, etc. He's confused and doesn't understand what's going on. Well, he's still strongly identified with his thoughts, emotions and ego unconsciously. There's fear, attachements, confusion and hardcore conditioning beneath the surface. No wonder he can't experience the power of Now.

Regular exercise, intermittent fasting, quitting sugar/coffee/tea completely, drinking lots of water, eating proper food.

If you can stay awake and alert, then there's nothing wrong with lying down.

Sleep paralysis would be my guess.

If it's that serious, I suggest you find a psychotherapist and start working with him/her. In the meantime, try journaling. I find it really helpful when I'm struggling with strong emotions. Get a piece of paper and a pen and start writing. Don't think about it too much, just write down whatever's on your mind. The deeper you can go, the better. When you're writing, know that nobody's gonna read it so you don't need to censor yourself. Of course, you don't need to force it, but if you feel unease and anxiety while you're writing, that's a good sign. It means that unconscious thoughts and feelings surface in the conscious mind, thus they can be processed and released. This is a great way to release strong and painful emotions. After you're done, you can keep the paper (although it's not really meant to be reread) or just throw it away. The latter can be symbol of letting go, literally.

I don't want to be that guy who marches into threads like this and says "THE SELF IS AN ILLUSION, GET RID OF IT, NO POINT IN MASTERING IT!!!111". For real though, you can't really master the self since it doesn't exist. Of course that doesn't mean that you can't and shouldn't improve your current life situation. There's nothing wrong with self-help, sometimes it's necessary, but don't fall into the trap of constantly trying to improve everything, that is "mastering" the self. It'd be quite an uphill battle. Maybe contemplate what you want to improve, what areas in your life you think you need to get better. Try to be as honest and as authentic as possible. If you figured it out, then start taking actions and try to master that particular area. I'm pretty sure you have strengths and aspects of yourself that you're satisifed with, so you don't really need to master everything about yourself. Also, I don't really agree with the @rav . The spiral dynamics model is great and really useful, but it's just a model. You can't apply it to everybody precisely because everybody is a mixture of stages and everybody has different desires/needs/wants. Some people tend to think that this whole framework is about getting to the top (turqoise) as fast as possible. Some people even reject and deny certain aspects of themselves because their current stage doesn't match the stage they want to get to. It can be quite a trap. (If that's not the case for you guys, then I didn't say anything )

I listened to the whole thing and I have to say, this was a great podcast. If you're into spirituality, it's basically nothing new, but you can still find some golden nuggets in it.

As long as you apply the principles and take action, there's nothing wrong with that much theory.

Nice one! Did you use psychedelics or sober practises (or both)?

Life does not become empty, bleak and boring after enlightenment. On the contrary. It's the beginning. Living in the now without any resistance, seeing things are they really are, being peaceful. Furthermore, you can still have fun, you can have relationships, you can do whatever you want to do. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Seriously contemplate this question: "Who wants to kill my ego?"

@Hello from Russia Yeah, I'm sure you're right. Discipline, research, constant learning, etc. are also really important. If I remember correctly, Leo's got some books on creativity/productivity/life purpose on his booklist.

He has found his life purpose and pure passion. That'd be my guess.

For me, resting as awareness is basically meditation. Not trying to manipulate your experience, not focusing too hard, not being neurotic (asking "am I doing this correctly?" constantly). You don't have a particular object to focus on, you just let your awareness do whatever it wants to do and at the same time keep a relaxed focus. Mind you, if you're not an experienced meditator, you can get lost in monkey-mind quite easily this way. There's nothing wrong with focusing on an object (breath, mental image, mantra, etc) at first. Some people find these objects as a useful anchor to the present moment.

@hyruga I'm not trying to demonize gaming. There's nothing wrong with video games once in a while. In fact, I do play sometimes and I also have some great IRL friends that I had met online several years ago. What I was trying to get across is that gaming mindlessly all day long and ignoring learning/school lead to nowhere and have serious consequences. That's all.

Man, you don't even know how lucky you are. When I was in school, I basically hated learning. I couldn't memorize all those boring BS and I didn't have any patience. So, I distracted myself with video games and surfing the web mindlessly. You're so lucky that you're distracting yourself with self-development/spirituality because these things actually help you make the best out of your life. Video games and internet lead to nowhere. Now, don't take this the wrong way say "Oh, let's forget school and instead let's watch self-help videos 24/7 and everything will be fine". You should do well in school because that way, it'll be much easier to get the job you desire in the future. Or maybe you won't get the to do your desired job in the beginning, but you'll still have a stable career and financial independence. Then, you'll have the opportunity to work out your life purpose. These material things do matter too if you want to make the best out of your life.

Play this when you awaken:

@Nak Khid No. That's the key to meditation itself. That's basically the whole process. You need to be able to appreciate the present moment and allow everything to be as it is. If you feel like this is a waste of time and you could spend your time on more useful things, then you shouldn't force it. If you meditate just because "it's supposed to be good for you", then it won't really work.

Meditation is the art of doing nothing. It's not zoning out into a dull state of awareness with no content. Meditation can be full of content if you do it properly. I'm not talking about random thoughts and restless monkey-mind. I'm talking about the present moment itself whatever it contains. Sounds, feelings, perceptions, emotions or even thoughts. Watching all these without getting attached to them is the key. And then, finding the one who's watching. Well, it's not so boring, is it?

@Shiva99 Oh, I see. Well, that's normal, I guess. What I've been working on nowadays is to implement meditation into my everyday life. Basically just focusing on the present moment no matter what I do. Work/chores/driving, etc. I find it helps as well.

Noice. How did you do it? Meditation, self-inquiry? Psychedelics?

@Shiva99 Yeah, pretty much everybody starts out like this. My sessions used to be a total clusterfuck, but fortunately I've progressed and now I can enjoy the silence (more or less). I'm sure you can also learn to handle your monkey-mind, you just have to be persistent. Once you reach that stage, your meditation will be much more enjoyable.

I also think that the duration is absolutely depends on the person. If you only meditate for 20 minutes and you feel that's enough for you, that's okay. Brute forcing longer durations is not really a good idea just because you should.