Raptorsin7

Very cool. I like your posts about using meditation for joy and happiness, that is what i'm trying to do right now with my meditation. I will keep following you, and i want to try these techniques. Thanks (:

You should talk to him about your feelings. If you keep it locked inside it will manifest in nasty ways and you may destroy your business. Also, try meditating or doing yoga to find some time where you can quiet the mind.

@hamedsf How long did it take you from day 1 of meditation to the point where you could access this state with ease. Do you have any tips to access it? I feel like after I do yoga, and then meditate I can get close but there is still resistance.

I got depressed because I was losing my hair. Then i realized I was way off with my path to happiness. Then i started meditating. Now here i am trying to become enlightened.

@LfcCharlie4 I agree with your sentiments 100%. One of the main drivers for me on my spiritual journey is the fact that I never feel like I lived up to my potential playing sports. I always had moments of brilliance, but I was always in my own head about everything and I never really got into flow or enjoyed the sports as much as I felt I could have. I think the answer to my problem was awakening to being fully present, and giving everything I had in the present because that's all i could ever give anyways. I think sports could work will with spiritualist if you're interested in them, because I think a natural a byproduct of spiritual work would be to make you better at any sport you're playing, because you have the ability to actually try your best and your mental game would be on point. I think a similar thing could be said for video games too. But i think sports is better than video games overall.

Wow very good insight. Yea i was thinking that the dream board is likely only useful for getting what we really want. I am going to another round of wanting later tonight, I will definitely keep that in mind.

@dimitri Yea, the board is prime. I love having it in my living room, can't imagine the room without it. May the force be with you! (:

Thank you (:

@dimitri It's going... Lol. I had huge benefits early on, and I still have positive momentum, but i've sort of stagnated over the past few days. I had Nahm post a comment in another thread, and I think my issue is i'm not dreaming big enough to inspire action and change. But overall, it's definitely worked I feel like i'm very close to becoming fully present, and awakening. My meditation practice has gone nuclear since I started using the board, whereas before using the board I was pretty stagnant in my practice. Expect an awakening thread from me very soon!

Go get em @dimitri

How easy is for you to get into a mental state of no-self through meditation. A state where are you fully engaged in the present moment, and there is complete satisfaction and loss of self?

How do we quiet the mind, without using the mind to quiet it? I find after a hard workout or something the mind tends to be quieter and it is easier to meditate, but sometimes the mind is very active and there is no depth to the meditation. I believe connection to the present moment in a way that is ultimately satisfying is the entire goal of spirituality, but how do we go about connecting fully to the present if we do not have experience with it?

Yes, i need to do some more days of multiple hours of meditation. I did 1 day of 6 + hours of meditation and yoga, and i had an ego backlash but overall I felt i made a lot of progress. Did you notice your third eye opening (a sensation between your eyes around your forehead)? I was very close to getting into a state of being while watching an ekkart tole video, but i didn't fully let go and become one with experience. I felt a subtle resistance to fully immersion into the present. My difficulty is just being whatever i am in the present, without thought and without resistance. I have difficulty going deep in the meditation. Do you have other sources of being and happiness in your life other than meditation. I find yoga followed by meditation gets me the closest to a state of no-self/ego, but if you have other ways of accessing the present moment then meditation may not even be necessary.

I want to start a reading habit, but i'm not sure where to begin reading. I have heard of systems thinking but i've never actually read anything in depth on the subject. Is it possible to use system's thinking to improve different aspects of our lives. For example, my diet is not good, and I can conceivably view my diet as a system in and of itself. Does system's thinking apply to different aspects of our lives, like diet. Is this an essential topic to personal development? Are there any other critical books you guys recommend to make practical and pragmatic changes to our lives for the better.

What was it like the first time you got to being during your meditation? I am struggling with just being right now, and it seems you're on the right track.

@Nahm It is subtle. But when the mind is quiet, there is an awareness of all sensations present. You're telling me that I will never find a separate self in addition to any sensation. So when I say, I am present, the truth of the situation is there is only whatever is experienced as presence. Whatever your calling my presence is just presence, drop the my and you got the truth. Meditation does not automatically bring this level of awareness of self. Reading the words as if they are being spoken to me seems to be the magic of this post.

I want to improve my diet. I eat take out for almost every meal, aside from the occasional kale smoothie or grilled fish filet. I feel like my diet could be holding my personal development back, and I need to finally address this problem. I am still skeptical about how important diet is to self actualization, but I need to test this for myself. I am not ready for advanced meditation practice. I remember reading a post a while ago about how some people need to do ordinary self development before beginning advanced meditation, like a self inquiry practice. I used to think i was above that, but I feel like I am one of those people. I am not living the life I want to live, and right now i'm looking to meditation and yoga as practices that will satisfy my life. But i feel like I need to do ordinary self development first. I don't understand spiral dynamics yet, but I feel like this could be an example of me trying to skip stages by ignoring my diet. The purpose of this thread will be to track my diet every day. I am going to record all my meals, and maybe in the future i will include how my mood is changing with my changing diet.

@Leo Gura Ok i understand.

Jeez, really felt inspired today eh @Nahm LOL

I see. That seems like a problematic strategy to try and deal with problems in the 21st century. If someone makes a great argument you just revert to saying that your reason is limited, and my post-rationality understanding of the world proves your analysis is incomplete. And then when they and try and argue it you say either meditate for 10 years or do some DMT. Don't you see the issue with that?

@Byun Sean How has systems thinking changed your life? How do you use it?

@Preety_India That's so cool you're getting into lucid dreaming. I have wanted to do this for a while now, because I want to live out my favorite tv shows and movies. I want super powers and to fight villians etc. I'm going to keep following this to see how far you progress. Do you think it's possible to do a lucid dream like the lord of the rings movies, and fight orcs and stuff while being as conscious and present as I am in this moment?

So over the past few weeks my meditation practice has grown a lot. I was meditating and doing yoga for multiple hours per day, culminating in a day when I did like 6 hours of meditation and 2 hours of yoga. Now I feel a strong sensation in my third eye region that is basically there all day, and I find meditation sessions go much smoother and feel more effortless then before. However, I'm afraid of taking the next step. The reason I'm on a self improvement journey is because I want to be happy and live an amazing life. But I don't know if i want or am ready for awakening. I'm actually kinda scared to meditate because I don't know what i'm going to see and I don't know what effect awakening will have on me. I'm definitely feeling a little bit of an existential dread right now and i'm not sure how to proceed. Have anyone faced something similar on their spiritual journey? How did you deal with it?

@Leo Gura What does it mean to argue from a post-rational perspective?