Raptorsin7

@Leo Gura Fair enough.

Have you thought about starting a podcast where you bring on various meditation teachers or just generic successful people. Or have you thought about trying to get on other people's podcasts, like Sam Harris. I think you could really grow this platform if you got involved in the podcast scene, it's huge.

@PenguinPablo (: Thank you for your list. I really need to do a fast. What length do you recommend?

Good luck in your journey man (: I read your first few posts from Jan and i hope you are doing much better now. You remind me of myself a lot haha so i will defs be reading your journal when i have time

@Spinoza Thank you. Yea i was hoping to see leo engage with others about his ideas, it's a different dynamic when he's just giving a talk or lecture to the camera. I'm interested to see conventional meditation teachers' perspectives on Leo's unorthodox approach to meditation and self actualization.

@Serotoninluv Very cool post. Thanks for the insight

Is the Wim Hof breathing worth doing? What benefits do you get from it?

Victoria, BC Canada

@Serotoninluv Good point. A better way to phrase it would be, could an addict achieve enlightenment experiences through meditation, which have an profound impact on his life like many people on this forum claim the experience effects them, but all the while still being popping heroin pills multiple times per day. i'm curious if there's any behavior patterns which would prevent these enlightenment experiences from happening, or is it simple causation where if you do enough meditation and inquiry you will achieve a break through.

When I think about my life I realize i am not as happy as I feel I could be. I'm not unhappy per se, but i feel like my day to day experience could be better and also feel better. However, i also realize that my life IS perfect, my life right now is fully compatible with me fulling happy and satisfied. I feel like i'm close to feel content, and actually FEELING like i'm living a self-actualized life. But i don't know how to bridge the gap. I can say to myself, "my life is perfect", but it doesn't feel authentic because right NOW i feel like my life isn't perfect.

@Nahm I've been feeling a lot pressure around the third eye, the forehead space above my normal eyes, and I don't know if this means i'm close to the eye opening or is it just a normal side effect of meditation. Should i bring attention to this space during meditation/ inquiry?

Nothing can be done. You have to live your life the way you see fit, and your parents will likely resist this because they have their own ideas about what you should be doing. Maybe if you become ultra successful and live a virtuous life they will come around, but they will provide a ton of resistance to your growth. It's only natural, a lot of things that are necessary to do in order to become self actualized will seem crazy to ordinary people. Learn about spiral dynamics, and your parents attitudes will make more sense.

Do you still feel like you are in control of your own experience or has the illusion of personal will been completely lost? How has your experience changed in relation to effort and feeling like you in are in control, compared to when you weren't enlightened?

@LaucherJunge That sounds like a toxic situation. Why are you still best friends with a girl you almost had sex with, when she has multiple children, and you are friends with her husband too.

I'm not a muslim. I hate when people word things in terms of religious dogma. But thanks anyways

@Angelite Ahh ok. I definitely don't want to be tripping constantly, and i want to refine my life not uproot the entire thing. Right now I want to live a happy, normal life. Maybe once I get what I want from a normal life i'll go after some this is more out there stuff, but if that's what the third eye will get me then I am skeptical. Thanks

@Anna1 If you can get all your necessary nutrients in one meal then I say go for it.

@Eph75 I'm not talking about awakening here. Do you think i need awakening to truly love my life?

@Nahm I would take peace. But i haven't experienced either one of those states long enough to really know.

I feel like I am only a few days removed from waking and thinking to my self the follow thoughts: Wow I feel amazing, I am so happy, My life feels amazing i am so lucky to live this life, music sounds amazing right now, I enjoy activities more than i ever have, my life feels like an amazing dream. I don't feel like this now. But i recognize that there is nothing about my life that would prevent me from feeling incredibly happy about it, your actual life doesn't really have much to do with how you feel about it. My life could feel perfect, it could feel amazing. But it doesn't. How do i find that feeling of contentment and perfection of life. I don't mean literal perfection, as in i don't have anything to improve. I also don't believe that I need to get a thing to be happy, happiness comes from within, i just don't know how to access it.@Eph75

@Sahil Pandit Do you mean meditating with a quiet mind not lost in thought?

I just finished a 90 minute float, and I spent the time just going through my thoughts and trying to work out the issues with my inner dialogue. I hear so much about how you have to let go of thoughts and you have to learn just detach from thoughts. But i feel like my thoughts are incredibly important, and in order to improve my life i need to go into the thoughts to improve. I feel like i have heard so much spiritual dogma that it's clouding some of my decision making. I'm sure these cliches and spiritual truisms are genuinely true, but unless I experience them for myself they won't be useful to improve my life. Spiritual dogma is a real issue, but I don't want to go on about it at length. I feel like i'm over my rut, i'm very thankful (: I spent about 4-5 days masturbating multiple times per day, waking up late, not wanting to go to class, skipping yoga, etc. It was rough because I was aware of what was happening but i felt like i couldn't doing anything because of weak will. After dragging myself to one yoga class, it sparked something in me and i felt great after it was over. Yoga has been a great habit, i'm very excited to see the impact it has on my life. I'm glad my ruts over, but i still have a lot of work to do. My day to day experience still isn't as magical as i know it could be, and i need to find a way to move my life in the right direction. The next major thing I need to improve is my diet, my diet right now is awful I eat take out for literally every meal. I've been procrastinating buying vegetables for my smoothies, even though the store is legit 2 minutes from my apartment ): I need to be better, and i think the key is to act as if. I need to set the goal in my mind, and then tell myself to fake it until i make it.

Learn about intermittent fasting. You want to eat only in a 6 or 8 hour period, and spend the rest of the day fasting. This one is huge, if you can implement this i bet you will notice great results. Also, if you can just fast for 24 hours (or more) this will also be great for weight loss. Good luck

Good luck man. If you put forth the effort you will achieve what you want. Start going to the gym and start eating healthier. Learn how to change your mindset and learn how to act in a different then how you are acting now. In order for your life to change, YOU NEED TO CHANGE IT, if you stay committed you will see signs in your everyday life that will call you to be a better person. Act on those challenges and you will get there. I have faith, you sound like an awesome person. I love your attitude in this post.

@The Blind Sage I love the float tank! I've done it countless times, but i'm not able to get into a deep/blissful meditative state yet. I've been doing self-inquiry meditation recently, and i've noticed that self-inquiry produces similar results as 90 minute floats, at least for me. I'm hoping to get some breakthroughs in the tank, i'm going tonight, and i'll definitely do a post if i have some profound insights while in there.