zambize

I know where you're going, but once you get to the kind of "well nothing can be said about reality" phase, you lose the pragmatic value that I desire personally, or atleast I dont feel like I can pull anything away from those discussions to use in my life

I've been potentially overusing this link but it's very comprehensive on the different kinds of meditation and their benefits. I would say it's potentially the most effective meditation method for me, and a lot of other people feel similarly. Your question should be answered with the link, let me know if not https://sites.google.com/site/psychospiritualtools/Home/meditation-practices

I appreciate the thoughts, I cant say I'm really settled on the manner for how I would define it or think about it, and I'm not sure I can be even. I just think it's important because we throw the words delusion and illusion a lot, basically at everything relative truth related without seemingly having much of a meaning other than it is not Truth

How do you define illusory? Is illusion illusory, is it illusion then?

If you're serious about practicing, you should be trying a wide arrange of techniques and be very aware of how they effect you individually. https://sites.google.com/site/psychospiritualtools/Home/meditation-practices Try a few, try them in the same meditation session if youd like, you are responsible for your own growth and knowing which techniques work on you best is something that only you can be aware of

I really agree here, some of my best results so far have come from doing inquiry and asking the questions followed by do nothing, flipping between them readily in the same meditation session as necessary

Yeah I figured it would, self inquiry questions are from what I understand getting you in touch with the isness, after that you dont have to keep asking the questions, can do nothing from there once aware of your nature

https://sites.google.com/site/psychospiritualtools/Home/meditation-practices I'm so glad this was still on my clipboard, check out the various practices they explain it very well

Yummy ty @Sahil Pandit. D:: okay please return my Indian roommates Visa documents lmfao, its rough living in the city

I'm going to order the book, 50/50 chance I actually receive it, last book one personal development ironically got stolen in front of my house. Our amazon packages get swiped within an hour or so haha

That could totally be the case, hope it isnt. I'm not going to discuss the techniques further, but I am super happy to discuss after he tries them and sees what kinds of traps or problems he feels he has run into from trying them with intent

I agree with @Etherial Cat that there is a just do it factor, but I dont want there to be any confusion. You're not looking for a destination, that keeps you away from the present and looking towards the future for a better moment. That's not going to work because you are looking to experience the present moment as it is. I will be very explicit in my recommendations, just incase you still dont feel like you have clarity. Set a timer for 15-30 minutes and sit in an upright position, this matters for a lot of people because they fall asleep otherwise. Now that you're sitting down, you can have your eyes open or closed in my experience, and you just go mentally limp. Any time an emotion comes up, let it be, and if you sense any intent to push that emotion away or experience it less than it is being perceived, you need to let go of the control and let that emotion flow. The same thing with your thoughts, every thought. If you start thinking you're bored, or you're disappointed it's not working, or how you want to just be done with the session, doesnt matter let them speak and listen your ass off. I used to think if I hid my thoughts of disappointment in my life, they would just go away. Embrace it and every other emotion and thought you have, have the attitude, "is this the best you got" towards whatever negative emotions you have. If you still feel confused, I went and stole this from @Nahm (thank you!) So you can see various techniques, how they are done, their benefit, and even cautionary advice. https://sites.google.com/site/psychospiritualtools/Home/meditation-practices Also on a personal note, I have a friend that suffers from apathy that I've been helping with some real success, but if you find any of these techniques particularly helpful, please let me know so I can use that in my personal life

I'm happy thinking doesnt stop, I feel like people get really hard on ego/thinking/relative truth even though the mind/thought used correctly can bring a lot of value to the world. Of course you can go all non dual and talk about how value doesnt exist etc, but relative truth has value to me and other people. I feel like a healthier relationship that pulls benefits from both Truth and relative truth resembles more of a team than the demonization I feel I see of the relative truth side. If you wouldn't mind, what is your relationship like with your ego like? How do you view it?

I like your post, my only point of contention is "when you stop thinking", this to me implies that there can't be any thought where in my experience it's more about the relationship with thoughts rather than stopping thoughts. It's an important distinction because one leads to BEing and the other leads to feeling like you're on a never ending journey to cut off all thought the second they pop up

Do what you think is best I just wanted to share my perspective, much love

I've smoked for probably five years probably too much, it's a bad habit I allow because of the spiritual benefit. You have your inner/outer touch/sight/sound and you can count taste and whatnot, but there is some categories of senses you can lay out and weed allows you to kind of zoom in on one of them and kind of put the others to the side for a bit. It's the same idea of how blind people are more in touch with their other senses. These reasons and my personal experience lead me to believe that for whatever reason weed is causing you to zoom in on your emotional body more, causing stronger emotions that without weed are subtle or even undetectable. Dirt under the fridge is still dirt though, I would just smoke alone and feel everything you gotta feel as strongly as you gotta feel it and cycles like these tend to pass

Dont take that personally, would you feel bad if he didnt take any of the advice and continued to be unhappy? I dont think anger is necessarily the best emotion to have when someone is in a state like this, it turns them away from what you are saying. I think on one hand, you have to teach a man to fish, and on the other, you have to have the intuition that when a bloodied up starving man comes to your door step, you dont immediately start lecturing him on how to fish. You serve him dinner and patch him up, the lesson can wait. Anger tends to turn people away from our teachings because you get perceived as a threat and they close up. I know it can be frustrating at times, but maybe he deep down knows exactly what to do and just needs some compassion

It can be very hard for apathetic people to feel stuff like gratefulness and forcing it may only make it worse. My apathy only went away once I felt the grief and anxiety that I had been turning a blind eye to. I really think he's just gotta feel what hes gotta feel, and I think the gratefulness will come. But shaming yourself into being grateful could be very helpful. He should maybe just sit down, listen to whatever hint of an emotion/sadness/boredom he can feel, and be as deeply aware of it as possible and let it be.

I would recommend going to the "stage turquoise megathread". Theres a list of like 20 or so teachers, many of them have youtube channels, books, blogs etc. But you can just go down the list and try each teacher

I used to play games and be disappointed with the level 99 caps, certainly doesnt seem to be a problem with personal development Haha. I hope this brings you more excitement than stress, I know some people treat this path like it's a task they have to accomplish and it becomes kind of a burden, and we seek an end go it or some kind of destination. So yeah we all have a long way to go, hope that makes you happy

Sounds good look forward to it!

If you create a channel or vlog you should come back and let us know, best of luck

That's the fucking struggle haha, having to find out what you arent aware you are repressing or getting involved as you put it

I agree with you, I just think interest may not be the best word because if you genuinely feel interest and excitement over the sensations in your body, I feel like surrender interest implies you should kind of repress away your interest in the activity if it comes up. I think it would be more accurate to say you are surrendering your intent. Whenever you feel yourself in any way restricting/repressing your experience, that needs to be let go to progress. Thoughts?

I embrace my emotions but I'm not always open about them, it's not like I'm hiding them its just not always the time to be sharing. Be vulnerable with yourself, and be able to be vulnerable with yourself to others if need be, but I wouldn't go out of your way to do this to seem masculine