zambize

Oh yummy, dont resist those either, you dont want to become shrooms....maybe

@lostmedstudent I was just reading an adyashanti quote "what you resist you become" when your notification came up, which doesnt mean anything to me intellectually but I like random synchronicities

Hi hi, I think a lot of practices really point to very similar things, which if you believe everything is love would kind of make sense. So self inquiry often involves questions like "what is existence" "who am i" and of course you arent looking for an intellectual answer, but you do kind of search with your awareness. Like where the fuck am I. This causes me to kind of run into distortions and negative emotions on the edge of my emotional body, which I can address by being concious. If you just meditate and do nothing, emotions that you've kind of tucked away and are repressing will naturally bubble up but it seems like self inquiry is a better primer for enlightenment work. Breadth exercises seem to increase love/conciousness inside of the emotional body and causes it to get pushed against these distortions/illusions, at which point you can let go, and they dissolve for me after a fun bit of pain. Concentration practices kind of seem to make you more broadly aware of what you are feeling, but you still have to let go of the emotions and let them play themselves out. It makes it easier to have good concentration, but I suppose it shouldn't at all be necessary. Contemplation seems to push the logical end and those thoughts may have an emotional reaction that needs to be worked through, but sometimes contemplation just kind of gives you a ridiculous thought you have, and you can justblogically see that it's really dumb. That awareness can kind of be reclaimed intellectually. Really all practices seem to attack things we are repressing on the logical or emotional end, which would make sense because if we are love and we are suffering, we probably got some issues we gotta resolve

As to what's actually positive about meaninglessness, I think you're starting off with an assumption that lack of meaning means meaninglessness. Meaning to me just doesnt exist, it's just a word that means something along the lines of some objective life purpose that saves some greater role? But I cant hold meaning in my hand, I dont feel like I can be aware of meaning. I prefer this over having a meaning because i can still derive any meaning I want and live the way I want, but I dont feel weighed down by any objective meaning to my existence. If I want some tea I'll drink some tea, and I'm free from being concerned about whether this tea contributes to my meaning,whatever that means. I feel like its hard to just BE if you are too worried about making every moment mean more than it does

Sorry I haven't seen much information on the forums on controlling thought, I'll keep an eye out though

How does one control their thoughts and emotions and who is the one controlling?

Sorry to hear, a lot of people really get out of their shell in college (or wherever you go!). Weather the storm, love what you can, develop where you can and maybe keep in mind that we never really are the person we expect ourselves to be in 5 years

Ohhh nooooooo 6 months? I was hoping this was a phase haha

If that's what you desire and wont hurt your future financially, I would recommend it. However if your desire is more about self actualization, and less about travel, I would just consider that you can be self actualizing while you're getting your dick sucked. You dont have to be in some other culture, learning about what they do, they probably do some fucked up things. If you're really into culture and travel, sure, but you got everything you need right in front of you to make spiritual progress

I get headaches when I smoke weed sometimes but I find that they usually point me to tension I've been holding onto in my head so I find it useful

I think when people have given up on actually doing the practice, they sit around and circle jerk on who has the most accurate pointer to the truth

@Joseph Maynor gotchu not sure when there is more to something In terms of the post, where you said giant cosmic joke, I had a mushroom trip where I found what I call the divine joke. It was just really funny to me at the time that I spend all this time in personal development without actually knowing who I am. I remember like having these crazy visuals which were pillars but had really dumb smiley faces, the ones with like tears coming out of their eyes??? (found them) and audio hallucinations making fun of me for not getting it yet. Question though How did you differentiate between us being prior to the universe and us being the universe?

Could you elaborate here or do you have an essay haha? How would one see the world through each of these lenses?

I agree but I feel like there is a specific mechanism as to why we see it more. This could just be media attention and how everyone wants to talk about people who are supposed to be "good" doing "bad" things, but I also feel like it could stem from an environment of heavy sexual repression and dogma until the brink of collapse, and then well we see it on the news

I find sometimes when I dont feel motivated that I'm not resting correctly between too much screen time or thinking ideas, do nothing meditation helps here

There are things that get in the way of enjoying the full present moment, thoughts/emotions we've been holding off on feeling for a while among other things. The meditation that I do for this kind of work is a do nothing meditation followed by metaphorization of whatever emotions come up. Once you've worked through a repressed emotion it seems like your reclaim a part of your awareness and slightly more love comes out of the faucet. Also sometimes this sucks, healing can be painful, dont repress bad moments and just be as honest with your thoughts on the present moment as possible. You do NOT have to look for the beauty of the present moment, just keep doing this and itll come on it's own. Although maybe you are already doing all of this, in which case best of luck!

I always forget just how lucky we are to be human, the perfect amount of suffering to point us where we need to be pointed, and still full of love

I think it really depends on the person, while I agree you shouldn't be depending on these things, personally for whatever reason weed just really helps me find things I'm hiding from myself, and in that way is very curative. You gotta be the judge for yourself on this one I think

Yeah, I do value understanding in the sense that a lot of my desires involve interacting with others and spreading useful ideas, and them understanding is highly correlated to what they take away. Clarity is important, some people feel like they need theory on the path, and it can help. I know I have the option to move on, we are both consenting adults here, but I think theres and important counter perspective for you to hear and you have stuff to teach me as well

You spread a lot of ideas, you should believe in them should you not Haha? I like practicality and pure experience we agree there, and that's nice that you are willing to answer peoples questions in PM

I would say it's an important question to be asking and you should be able to explain the ideas you are putting forth to other people to at least some extent. People are using these ideas the affect their lives you should at least believe in them yourself enough to expand on your ideas and talk to other people about them instead of deflecting questions, what do you think?

Yeah you're right, but these suicides were often done in protest of policies at the time, government stuff etc and these monks just truly believed that their suicide would cause the most change and end the most suffering. So despite being in a blissful state, they threw it all away for others. It's kind of a beautiful tragedy, the person enjoying their life the most sacraficing it for people who arent enjoying it. Lmfao

We disagreeing again, but we had a good streak! Could you elaborate on how you can say it's the only way to enlightenment? Have you tried every path to enlightenment?

Yes, exactly that

I'm not sure if its enlightenment work or other training they do but self emulation( I hope that autocorrected to the right word) has been a form of protest and I have watched those monks burn super non chalantly until they tip over