jbram2002

If life is "just" a dream, why not make it the best dream you can? Why make it the worst thing imaginable by treating others (and therefore yourself) like shit? Love is what makes the dream beautiful.

@DrewNows C.S. Lewis once had a very profound quote on that, which I will now butcher: If we intend to make progress and are traveling down the wrong path, the quickest way forward is to turn around, find the right path, and start again.

Ah, I'm a little late to the discussion. Oh well. Leo's already become a religion. I see that in almost every post I read here (with the exception of a few members). Many people already worship him and his beliefs. He has his own sermons that we are expected to watch and follow, his own communion, his own prayers. People debate over the best way to interpret his words as if they were somehow holy. However, I think we need to be careful about it. There's a difference between sharing a belief and making a religion out of something. Religion is what happens when many people who share a belief decide to erect rules and statutes about that belief. It happens when people gatekeep others out of the belief. Currently that's not really being done much here, but if people aren't careful, it definitely could begin to happen. Leo is a fallible human who is wrong almost as often as he is right, just like most of us. He has significant flaws, some of which even he is unaware of. If those statements offend you, then you already consider his teachings a religion. Take the religion out of spirituality and open your mind.

@DrewNows If you're gaining insights from it, I think you're using it properly

The answer depends on who you ask. If you are struggling to feel fulfilled, then that extra $100 could help to some degree. However, if you feel satisfied with your quality of life, then it's better to save the money than to waste it on more expensive food. The question then is how to save it. Most economic advisors will suggest you have a safety net before you start investing. This amount varies, but most will suggest that you are able to cover your quality of life expenses (rent, utilities, any monthly payments, etc) for several months. I've seen 3 months and 9 months suggested, and almost everything in between. My personal suggestion is between 4-6 months. What is the point in investing for 30 years from now if you can't even care for yourself 3 months after an emergency? If that is taken care of, you should have a savings account with several thousand dollars in it. From there, you may want to examine investments. Retirement accounts and life insurance might be your best options to start. If you have those set up, then actual index investments might be a good option. I've personally made about $2000 off index funds YTD (not a lot, but not bad for 4 1/2 months). Consider your personal hierarchy of needs before investing, and make sure you aren't tying up money or paying unnecessary fees when you can't afford it.

Hitler was not an example of nationalism. He was an example of extreme nationalism. That said, the question could be expanded to one about how people identify themselves. Do you identify yourself mainly as a citizen of your country? If so, why? What about that is desirable? What is not desirable? Is there a point where you would believe it better to not be seen as a citizen of your country? For me, I'm American. There are plenty of desirable traits of Americans from the high values placed on personal freedom and justice to the ability to travel relatively unhampered throughout the modern world. However, there are also significant downsides from the extreme prejudices we tend to have and receive to the massive split in our national politics. I don't consider myself a nationalist by any means, but the party in power could be considered nationalistic. Definitely not to the extremes of Hitler, though. In reality, you could ask this question about any political point of view. In my opinion, the problem arises when you make such an opinion a major part of your ego.

The important thing is to do what feels right for you. I was in a religion where they expected us to pray daily, and even they didn't suggest an app for achievements. They just quietly shamed your failures. Don't meditate because Leo said so or you feel you have to. Don't push yourself beyond what feels right because you *have to* get that hour in. Meditate because it feels right for you. This is a journey for yourself, not for anyone else. You've already established a routine, so simply continue your routine. It doesn't matter if you miss a day. What matters is that you stop beating yourself up over missing a day. Take the religion out of it.

@DrewNows It takes a special kind of courage and strength to be able to put others' needs before your own. It becomes dangerous if you get taken advantage of and are too blind to see, or if you don't wish to see. There's a difference between being taken advantage of and putting yourself at a disadvantage for another's sake. Which of these fits your mother? And if she did show that strength, is that not worthy of respect on its own?

@tsuki Some of us have no desire to punch our spouses in the face. Being open and honest with one's spouse is an integral part of a relationship, as long as both parties are open to it.

Well, almost everyone.

Too bad every aspect of life comes with responsibilities and expectations when you don't live alone in the woods.

Sorry, it's obviously not written well on my part, but I'm not trying to poke holes in your personal belief or criticize you personally. The "you" in that statement was meant as a more general "you" than just you specifically. I don't mean to be fighting with you. I'm probably just venting other frustrations on you since you're here. But I think my points still stand when looking at the average person. One typically is told to love themselves, and they'll eventually love others because of that. I've seen that philosophy fail far more often than it succeeds. I'm sure it works for a small handful, though. I doubt it would work for me since it never has in the past.

Yes. Everything. But that doesn't destroy or belittle who you are. It makes you who you are.

@tsuki I didn't say that either. You can think and feel for yourself. But those are not your primary goals. Your primary goal is to help others since you love them first. That doesn't make you a freeloader. That doesn't make you a bystander. That doesn't make you an invalid. Instead, it makes you the first to want to help others. It makes you the action point. It makes you the one people turn to for help. By loving others first, you can find yourself. By loving yourself first, you'll never be able to connect with All. By loving yourself first, you struggle to accept the help or gifts from others. You're too focused on your own feelings and thoughts to hear or sense others.

That's also not what I'm saying. I'm definitely not saying thinking for yourself is the way to go because that's also not showing love. Thinking only for yourself is the same idea as loving yourself first. It's all egoic and self-centered. We have too many people who are focusing only on themselves at the expense of everyone else. It's how you destroy relationships. Only when you actually open up to people and love them do you actually find a real relationship. All this self-centered egoism is one of the worst things you can do.

And this is the fundamental reason why loving yourself first is the worst thing you can do. You are driven by what you feel you have to do. It's entirely ego-based. There's almost no positive. When you only focus on loving yourself, you miss out on everything that's truly important, and when people try to reach you while you don't love them, you shut them down and push them away. Loving yourself is the best way to be alone.

People keep saying you have to love yourself before you can love others. In my experience, that's the biggest crock of shit I've ever been fed. If I focus on myself, I forsake those who matter most. If I love myself first, it's at the expense of others. Only by loving others first can you truly experience love. And then you realize that loving others is how you love yourself. If you focus on loving yourself, you can't focus on loving others or what's truly important in life. But a lot of people are focused only on loving themselves. That's how we get unnecessary arguments and fights. That's how we get excessive mental masturbation. All we're doing is caring about ourselves, and we forget to care about those who are really important. Almost everybody loves themselves. From a suicidal person who loves themselves so much that their surroundings aren't good enough, two people who think that they are so important or so good that no one else can live up to them. Loving yourself cousins fights, wars, and hatred. I would almost suggest that loving yourself is the single greatest cause of pain in the universe. Not only on yourself, but on the others you inflict it on. And then people decide to go on retreats, or stay by themselves, or ignore the world just so they can focus on their own love for themselves. And that's truly sad.

I'm not the biggest fan of Jim Carrey, but this is an interesting video for sure.

The funny thing about faith is that you can have it in a lot of different things. You can have faith in a person. Or in God. Or in science. Or in yourself. Or in your beliefs. I find that most people have faith in something, or they tend to be completely goalless and lost.

@Mikael89 That point of view makes sense, but I caution you to separate the ideas of religion and faith. They are two very different qualities. Religion is restricting while faith is freeing.

For Chrome, you can see Desktop versions of sites pretty easily. Hit the ... button at the top right for options, and there's a checkmark for Desktop view. I use it liberally Not sure how Opera handles it though.

@Anna1 I use Chrome for Android. It's much better than the default browser in my opinion.

^ This exactly. The forum saves your posts in your browser (sometimes a ridiculously long time so that when I'm trying to write something in my journal, I have to delete a post from a week ago...) BUT if you're concerned about losing work, try opening the previous page in a new tab (hold down the link for a second and select open in new tab - I know this works with Chrome). @Anna1

@Anna1 Try using the multiquote option and selecting the same quote multiple times, then deleting the excess. I've found this forum's formatted edit box to be one of the more convoluted and difficult forums to actually format correctly. Just give me [bracket] commands and I'm happy. D:

Children can understand a lot of things, such as the idea the earth is flat, or that it is round, or that vaccines are evil, or that they are lifesaving. They believe there are monsters under their beds and that they can scare them away with an adorable "rawr". Just because a child can "understand" something does not make it unassailable fact. This is just a silly presumption. @Mikael89 This is a close-minded opinion. There are plenty of Christians who travel the path to self-awareness. Alan Watts is one of the more familiar faces. One's faith does not prevent them from discerning Truth. It's only when their religion gets in the way, as is the problem here, that they run into roadblocks. Edit: Looks like the post I was replying to got deleted somehow.