Gili Trawangan

This is precisely his problem. He's been a materialist very publicly for a long time and would lose his reputation if he went against that now. I'm only speculating that he has had experiences that have shown him otherwise. I agree that if we only look at what he says publicly it makes no sense.

Haha, here we go. @Jkris Just don't get married, man. People know the deal when they go into it. Or at least they should...

@Leo Gura I think Sam Harris understands more than he lets on... I've heard him say that consciousness is the only thing that we can be sure of. He has spoken of experiences of merging with reality. But he has been against religion so publicly for so long that he is afraid of losing his reputation. I think he has unwittingly put himself in a very difficult position.

Today during Navi kriya I chanted Om at the crown chakra (don't usually do that). I immediately started seeing colors - with eyes closed: green, blue and purple interchanging. It's also quite rare that I see colors, and I had never seen them like that before. Is there any relevance to this? Does it mean anything?

This is tricky, but the way to go is full on abstinence. Don't masturbate. After a period of experiencing withdrawal symptoms the desire will diminish. If your needs are strong it will be difficult. If you mix abstinence with yoga and meditation you can do it

It seems like you need professional help. If I were you I would go to a therapist. Just my two cents.

Notice how you want to stop seeking approval in order to get more approval. It's still seeking approval.

Realize that it doesn't matter. Whatever you do is fine, there is only the present moment anyway.

I haven't finished watching Leo's video about survival, but what I've seen so far triggered this question. Maybe it's been asked before... the question itself is quite self-explanatory, if this was a dream and an illusion (as it is), only Truth was not infinite Goodness but something else entirely different, more akin to the Matrix (only worse), would you be pursuing it? Don't take the question too seriously though or then again, please do

@Rilles lol. Seriously, I laughed out loud

@Knock

I've already admitted that it was silly!

@Knock Haha fair enough! But in that case where does the argument for "the Truth for the Truth's sake" goes? That's what I was trying to get at

Me too. Completely ungrounded though, it's just a feeling. I could be dead wrong.

I feel like I need to explain what I meant in my original post. I don't usually write much, so maybe I didn't communicate it properly. This was supposed to be an exercise in imagination. Not to be mistaken for the reality we live in. I'm not making statements about what's True and what's not. What if there was a hidden Truth in the world? (so far it still resembles reality) What if you could Wake Up to that Truth? (still resembling reality) (and now let's part ways with reality) What if that Truth was something similar to the plot of the Matrix? (use your imagination now) The world is a simulation and when you Wake Up you realize that you are being kept alive for the purposes of being transformed into a battery (just like the Matrix). Unlike in the Matrix, you don't get to fight the machines and achieve peace. You Wake Up and you don't even get to leave the pod where your energy is being extracted, you just stay there forever in the agony of knowing that you are a slave forever. Would you then pursue Truth? That was my question. I know it's silly, it wasn't meant to be taken seriously but sometimes silly questions can also make us think.

@DrewNows There's worse things than death or non-existence.

With pick-up things are not black and white. There are very positive aspects to it, and they have been mentioned in the previous posts. I agree with much of what was said. I also think that there is a dark side to pick-up that you can fall into if you don't work on yourself, develop and grow. It is a man's job to initiate a relationship with a woman, it is what is expected. One can learn how to be better at that.

@Emerald Yes, that's exactly what I meant.

Well, but it's the ego that decides to find out the Truth, is it not? It's my ego that chooses to do all the practices every day.

@Shin I went through a dark night of the soul. Everything seemed pointless and grim. The kind of horrible I had in mind was much worse than that

@zeroISinfinity You make it sound easy which is appreciated, because most people make it sound extremely hard.

The only experience of ego death I've had was the most wonderful and blissful experience ever. The difficulty was to surrender. However, I freely admit that I don't know enough about it. But isn't immortality a step up from being a body-mind that slowly decays and dies? How is that horrible? There's definitely something that I'm missing here of course I understand that Truth is without meaning and we are the ones classifying it as good or bad.

@Pouya I think it means that the tree doesn't even fall down if no one is there to see it. There is no tree. Unless someone sees it.

Cool!

@Chumbimba I'm not an authority on relationships, so take this with a grain of salt. Why do you want to continue this relationship? She has lied to you, been with another guy (one that you are aware of), and has pretty much made it clear that once you are apart she will look for intimacy elsewhere because she won't be getting it from you. All I see is red flags. But maybe I'm missing something, this is just from what you wrote.