Markus

Unless you plan on permanently becoming a hermit or going into a monastery, you're probably going to need a career of some sort. It doesn't have to matter in the end, it's just a journey you pick that will feed you, pay your bills, and hopefully be the most meaningful thing you can think of doing career wise. I'm currently reading Adyashanti's The End of Your World and it's becoming quite clear enlightenment is not a way to avoid living and doing stuff people do. There's still relationships, hobbies, work, and being inauthentic in any of these will be unbearably painful when you're highly conscious. So do the course and you'll have a blueprint for the career aspect of your life. The FAQ addresses the enlightenment issue. I'm glad to have studied life purpose theory but I've decided to put it off for a few years, and in that while my only directly life purpose related activity is University studies, while I focus on pursuing enlightenment.

How's the enlightenment documentary coming along?

@Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj What Leo said cleared it all up for me:) It's not note everything though, since that implies the activity of noting elements of your experience from any sensory channel. There's no noting in do nothing.

Aha! I get it now.

@Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj I don't see a practical difference. If there is one, I'd like to see it, but I'm not able to. Not manipulating your experience = not controlling your attention, isn't it?

I'm 19 now, for 10 more months. In any case, this is what I'm starting. 1. Self-Inquiry. I'm planning to do 1,000 hours over the course of the year. It seems absurd to wait with pursuing enlightenment since it's the foundation for the only thing you really care about - happiness. 2. Strategic thinking. There's a reason a lot of the information on it originates from the military - lives are at stake. You're looking for the most effective way to ensure you win. In the case of personal development, it's your life at stake. Not in the literal sense, which is why complacency is easy. Nothing more important to you than your life - so make something of it in the most effective way. 3. Health habits. Good nutrition, mobility work, cardiovascular training, going to the gym. Taking care of health is an essential thing in life, as it ensures you'll have more energy and time for doing what you want to do - which is valuable, unless you don't care about living to the fullest. 4. Reading. I'm planning to read 1 consciousness book a month, as well as one book a month on the other implementations I'm doing. Educating oneself, or "gathering of intel" is crucial for effective strategy.

As far as I'm concerned, It's the same thing - not consciously manipulating your experience. Be still. Allow everything to be. Let go. Do nothing. I believe it's also called "just sitting", "the meditation of no meditation".

If you put in the effort, hell fucking yes. What I mean by that is over the next decade or two implementing all the stuff you learn there. I got a lot clearer on the career aspect of life, and found a life purpose that feels pretty damn accurate and inspiring to me. I certainly don't regret buying it, but I think the full value of it can only be appreciated after taking action for say 20 years. I graduated high school this year so I felt this information could be really useful to me. My parents ridiculed me for being frivolous enough to pay 236€ for a course. But seriously, if acing something you will spend half your life doing is not worth that much, you don't really value your life. It takes the wisdom to connect the dots between listening to some bald guy talk for 25 hours and creating an extraordinary career. People who haven't studied personal development don't really seem to be able to do that.

@charlie2dogs So you're claiming to have the truth? If so, how can you communicate it?

You're talking about the absolute truth, I'm talking about relative truths. Absolute truth is obviously incommunicable. In the context of radical honesty, a relative truth is reporting what you perceive to the best of your ability. When I say "I believe the earth to be round", I am giving a report of the working of my mind.

@charlie2dogs The notion of having a right to do or not do something is a moralistic one. I imagine myself to be open to a critical discussion of Blanton's ideas though I may have some bias. I believe my bias and dogmatism with regard to Radical Honesty to be unjustified as I haven't tested the technique out nearly enough. Could you give an example of the harm? Or of a white lie that's preferable to telling the truth? If you're afraid your version of the truth is false and will harm others, why not say so? Radical Honesty is not about a crusade to assert your worldview, but a reporting of what you notice. It is impossible not to keep our mouth shut to one degree or another, and that's fine. My comment was addressing the telling of white lies in place of the truth, as far as I remember.

I used to sit on a kind of a custom-made seiza bench, where I'd put two large couch pillows on both sides, and a plank to sit on in between them. It started hurting my knees, and no matter what sort of padding I used, it kept getting worse. Then I tried going back to cross-legged or burmese lotus but both hurt my knees as well, though they really hadn't before. My knees were really bad for like a month, with sharp pain on the inside, as well as occasionally below the knee cap or on the anterior. I imagine my problem was with the medial meniscus. Essentially, if some muscles are too tight, the shin gets pushed sideways, resulting in the meniscus being twisted between the thigh and shin bone. It's definitely not worth it to continue sitting on a seiza bench if you have joint pain - I imagine it could fuck your knees up pretty bad. It would probably help to work on bettering the external rotation of the hip joint, as well as foam-rolling your leg muscles. The pain with strong determination sitting is obviously bad regardless but if you're specifically experiencing joint pain, it's an indicator you're damaging the body.

I guess I'm in somewhat of a similar situation, with the exception that I'm not as deep into enlightenment work as you are. Confidence with girls is actually one of the egoic desires that motivate my pursuit of consciousness, though at the same time I acknowledge I possibly wouldn't give a shit once I actually do become enlightened. In order to make your post though, you have to somewhat care. I imagine your problem is basically one of failing to live up to society's expectations and standards. I believe pursuing enlightenment is much more worthwhile than entertaining the problems your mind creates, especially since you're not there yet.

It seems to me that white lies fall into the "please be compassionate to my ego" category. Furthermore, I imagine that the reason we tell white lies is more out of fear of being embarrassed and judged, rather than genuine concern for others' feelings. If I go on a righteously indignant rant, I don't give a fuck for others' feelings, while when I'm afraid I'd be judged for telling the truth, the feelings excuse comes into play. For compassion to the being, rather than the ego, tell the truth. You might want to read Radical Honesty.

"China is kicking our ass at meditation!" (I was looking to do a better Trump impersonation but couldn't find his rant about foreign countries. Didn't bother looking for too long.)

@appleaurorae Leo hasn't posted on the forum at all for close to a month, so that's why he hasn't replied here either.

The answer to all those question is "yes".

Shave your head, lol

Peter Ralston Shinzen Young Sadhguru

As Leo has described self-inquiry or contemplation, he's said that the mind will come up with a lot of bullshit. My "problem" is that when I ask "What am I?", the mind always goes totally silent. It doesn't come up with bs answers. That seems like a good thing since the mind isn't obscuring what is, that should probably make it easier to have an enlightenment experience. Yet, self-doubt being one of the fundamental traits of the self, it is a bit disconcerting. I was thinking about for example the technique they use at enlightenment intensives, where one has to ask "Who or what am I?" and then communicate to one's partner what the mind comes up with. If I were there, it's like I wouldn't come up with anything. There are obviously a lot of ideas about who I am but they don't come up during contemplation.

@Leo Gura Exciting!

Daydreaming is when you get so lost in thought you think what you're thinking is what's really going on. The reason it's called daydreaming is because it works exactly like a dream: you're in an environment entirely projected by your mind and you think that is real. That's what happens in non-lucid dreams, that's what happens in daydreaming. In meditation, you're trying to be aware of the substance of thoughts, not the content of them. As for "do nothing", to worry about whether you're daydreaming or not is to do the technique wrong. If a worry arises, sure, let it be. But don't actively worry. All you have to do is not make any effort to change what's going on, and as soon as you do notice an effort, release it.

Ahahahaha!

It's basically a mantra meditation. You close your eyes and recite some mantra for 20 minutes. The rest is all marketing hype to get your money.

Digging a ditch with a fork is hard work.