Extreme Z7

I only hear about the news from late-night satirical comedy shows. I like the jokes but the news stories themselves normally don't interest me. Most news stories are actually quite inane, even so-called 'significant' stuff like stories about Trump's presidency or North Korea's nuclear program. This ain't shit you're going to care about on your deathbed. You're much better off aiming for a more holistic perspective on life than being a slave to the bureaucratic, attention-grabbing, and highly-opinionated world of the mainstream news media.

@aniss Smoke some cigarettes to make yourself feel more mature. Because they bring you closer to death.

<Insert groundless assumption about Leo's state here>

@zenjen Do Nothing Technique is a very good way to maintain spiritual insights and positive states. Although it is a paradoxical method. Essentially you have to completely let go of all desire and intention to control your mind, body, and external circumstances. Basically, you should be able to allow yourself to feel suicidal again and be okay with it. If you feel good, you make no intention to try to maintain it. If you feel bad, you make no intention to try to change anything. If things do change, that's fine, make no intention to try to maintain any states.

@CuteCornDog You know, you really should have a far more positive attitude. Funerals are actually very good socially stimulating gatherings! Hopefully you can see that you can be suicidal but still want a funeral. -------------------------- Okay okay, jokes aside. Suicide is a very serious issue. . . yadda yadda yadda. . . .should be an issue taken with careful understanding and genuine compassion . . . blalalala whatever who cares? -------------------------- Okay Okay, jokes really aside, now. Seems to me that what you really need is deep self-reflection. Really deep self-reflection. Ask yourself why exactly are you having the emotions and thoughts that you're having. Do you actually know why you're suffering? I mean REALLY know why you're suffering? Really, Actually, Literally, Existentially. Don't start with asking yourself how you can stop the suffering. Really all that will do is target the symptoms and not the root. It also helps to know that everyone suffers. I'm even willing to bet that I've had more suffering in my life than you've had but that's something I can't really know for sure. The only real difference is how we each deal with it. The question is: How effective are your ways of dealing with suffering? For example, I see suffering as completely unreal and always ego-based. I find that that helps me deal with suffering in such a powerful way. In summary, try to find the root of your suffering and try to think of ways you can improve your relationship with suffering. Also, eat fruit 'cause they're healthy and delicious Yum yum.

Your forum title makes it sound like you were asking about how the ego tries to resist enlightenment practice. But you're actually talking about something completely different. Actually the phenomenon you described is exactly how egos react to their belief system being threatened. This is greater seen in people who avoid enlightenment than does who do. Surely you've seen how a religious fundamentalist or militant atheist behave in relation to their beliefs? Y U SINGLING OUT SPIRITUAL SEEKERS???

LOLZ How interesting the life must be of a regular supermarket employee who is actually a speck living on a speck surrounded by trillions and trillions of specks separated by many billions of miles of space. Maybe you just lack the perspective to see that most knowledge is quite inane especially through a cosmic lens. Maybe try focusing your awareness to the fact that mental information is very irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. We mostly gather information for pragmatic purposes. Or at least I do that, I guess. Can't ignore the fact that far too many people love unpractical philosophies and mental masturbation. In summary, hope you build a healthier, more practical relationship with gathering information some time in the future. For now, here's a random wikipedia article on Chess Grandmaster, Tigran Petrosian (Read It! you know you want to. . . )

@Damir Elezi For me, Meditation and Self-Inquiry are the most important. Perhaps Eating Clean, Exercise, and Visualization are secondary. Everything else is extra. But that's just me.

For the record, I have not yet watched Game of Thrones or plan to anytime in the near future. But Leo's occasional criticisms of it combined with its massive popularity makes me think about it every now and again. What exactly is about this particular TV show that's so interesting? I'm interested in finding answers to this through a personal-development perspective. What are the social and psychological values that Game of Thrones espouses/aggrandizes? Some comedy shows I've seen like to joke a bit about nudity , beheadings, and sex when they talk about Game of Thrones and I kind of see that as a red flag. But I'm interested in a serious analysis. 'course, I could just watch the show myself but I ain't got time for that, mate.

@Leo Gura Two years ago, some stranger online criticized and insulted me for trying to make radical changes in my life that involved moving out of mainstream culture (Giving Up TV, Meditating, Reading and Watching Personal Development Content, Getting Into Spirituality etc.). Of course, a debate ensued because I was still in a very naive and low consciousness place and that really got me pissed and frustrated at the time. It seems so so petty but now I still feel that my mind still hasn't let go of that memory completely even after 500+ hours of meditation and countless hours of life purpose work and such. I know that it's all just monkey mind but it's embedded deep within my subconscious. I don't even like to argue with anyone anymore, I'm a hell of a lot more pragmatic and results-oriented now rather than concepts and beliefs-oriented. Still, the negative emotions and memories just keep cropping up and cropping up everyday and I was wondering if you've ever dealt with something like this. If you have, how have you dealt with it?

@kieranperez Been there, done that (or rather, felt that) If you're too unmotivated to take action, then how do you know that it's not going to take you anywhere. You're stuck in circular thought. You think that taking massive action won't make you happy but that belief of yours stems from the fact that you haven't taken massive action yet to see how it's like. Times like these where you just need to take a leap of faith. You actually don't any reasons to do anything. You can drop all your ruminations and do some work for however much time you want to do it each day. Once you've done your work for the day, you can then get back to your ruminations, what's the problem?

@PetarKa Set aside all those existential notions you have and just do the work. It's simple. Existential contemplation does not have to get in the way of DOing.

@How to be wise If you're aware that you're pursuing enlightenment only for it's benefits then you can stop at that point! Developing curiosity just takes more and more enlightenment practice. You become extremely aware which leads to curiosity. It's that simple.

Of course, pursuing selfish acts seems like that's all there is when you're spiritually ignorant. Modern culture is very good at distracting people from enlightenment.

@CuteCornDog Are you telling this in regards to life purpose? Because if you are, you're probably better off not caring about how your parents treat and just focus on pursuing your life's goals through daily practice. This problem will ultimately seem pointless in the long run.

@Leo Gura I want to become a masterful, famous, and highly respected video game music composer. Is "Enhancing the gameplay experiences of gamers all over the world with amazing soundtracks that increase player engagement" a good enough purpose?

@soh Well, I've given up writing on this journal because I found that I have a lot better time writing on a traditional notebook offline. Going online to write on this journal everyday just felt so tedious. It's a lot more convenient for me to journal on a notebook than I can open and write in anywhere and anytime. Not sure if I'm going back to look at this old journal after ten years but it might be interesting. As for music, I've been working on it for a while recently. But mostly on the sound design aspect of music production. I don't play any instruments (yet) or know much about music theory (but I know the basics, at least). But at least I can make music and a collab would be fun. You can listen to some of my old tracks here. I haven't uploaded any of my newer ones yet because I'm still focusing on getting all the basics of mixing down before I get back to uploading more tracks.

My name is Lyle Gio Sta. Maria. I'm from the Philippines. I'm currently 19 years old. This is my journal. My goal is to document my learning process to becoming the greatest individual that is possible for me to become. My plan is to update this journal every evening. (+08:00 GMT). There is no specific time I want to make an entry here everyday, probably will do it about 1 or 2 hours before I go to bed. So interested in reading yet? if(interested == false) interested = true; //Well, now you are So I want to start by explaining how I got into personal development and a little bit about my early life. Early in childhood, I got introduced to video games. Unlike most children, video games weren't "just another fun activity". I would try to spend all my free time playing video games whenever possible. In my early life, I could not imagine getting joy from anything else. (Except maybe cartoons on TV). I didn't like going to school and my mother was very narcissistic and always demanded that I get perfect scores. Problem was I was never really good at school. My mind would wander into all sorts of stuff I could imagine. As I grew older, I got worse and worse at school and this would cause both my parents terrible emotional outbursts which in turn gave me self-esteem issues. Eventually though, as I grew older, I had to learn how to think for myself. I'm leaving out a lot of details I know, but I just want to say what I think is important. Anyway, counter-intuitively, during my 2nd year in college, I started to get rid of my streak of failure in academic life because I stop caring what my parents had to say about me. However, I still had a very small grasp in reality. I still played video games a lot and developed a new habit of spending hours watching YouTube videos that entertained me. Early January 2015 (18 years old), I had my first panic attack. It came out of nowhere while I was playing a video game. I just had a sudden sense that what I was doing everyday of my life was unfulfilling and unsatisfying. I suffered strong emotional pain that I could not explain. It was really more of an existential panic. The worst part was not the pain, but the lack of understanding of where it was coming from. Out of desperation, I decided to consult the main source of my information intake at the time, YouTube. I literally wrote "What is Happiness?" in the search engine just to see what would come up. Leo's "What is Happiness?" video was the first result. Several months of personal work and following Leo's videos later, Here I am. . . I recognize that I am at a VERY VERY VERY early stage in my life. I am, however, very radically open-minded about beliefs on what is possible in life. Despite the fact that I consider myself more personally advanced than anyone I ever meet in daily life. I believe that I barely achieved even 1% of what is possible for every aspect of my life. Join me in the development of this journal and I hope that you can help me achieve. . .the Maximum Level in Life. Love Lyle

@Patrique Stop focusing on those dumb corporate ads as your main source of art. I mean c'mon, have you visited art galleries often enough? Have an account on Deviantart.com? Have any good artist friends? Read or watched various content on the lives of famous artists? Have a pretty broad experience of art first and then we'll talk. Right now, you are like one of those blind men in the Indian fable below who only knows part of the elephant yet thinks he can make a statement of the entire thing.

@Principium Nexus Modern society's idea of reality is the only thing that is an idea/concept. There is still the absolute reality that you can only attain through the practices of non-duality. So while that may be true, it doesn't explain everything.

@Principium Nexus How do you know? Like, how do you ACTUALLY REALLY know? For all we know based on our limited perception, we could actually be puppets controlled by invisible ethereal strings controlled by some mystical masterminds in the sky. Don't just assume that it's all thought.

@Principium Nexus Oh well makes sense to me. Oh I didn't walk home from work, I thought my way there. Oh I didn't just see you arrive, I thought my way to seeing you. Oh I didn't smell your body odor, I thought my way to smelling it.

@Principium Nexus The world is a concept that hides the world. When thought disappears, world disappears, leaving the world. Meditate on that. Potrzebie

Life Purpose Life Purpose Life Purpose and Potrzebie

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Other_ways_of_knowing I think the article linked above really presents a good example of how closed-minded rationalism really puts your head so far up your ass that you're not able to discover anything new beyond the paradigm you've locked yourself into. It presents an entire list that the writers think rationalists simply shouldn't touch just because they're "not scientific". Some of the items on the list really are likely to be hokey. But other things they listed actually turn out to be very valid ways to explore reality like: Meditation Psychedelics Ancient Spiritual Scripture (at least if you actually truly understand what they talk about) Intuition Contemplation of one's life Studying The Philosophies of Tribalistic Societies Shamanic Journeying Epiphany But of course none of these things have anything to do with rationality or logic so they must be false! Contemplating my life and inner emotions? Nah! That's pansy New Age woo woo shit. I'd rather waste my time being lost in thought.