r0ckyreed

Caring and Desire are good. The issue is selfishness not desire/attachment. That is what the Buddha overlooks. You can have desires and be selfless. But like Buddha says you need the middle way. You need to balance selflessness (self-denial) with selfishness (self-indulgence). It isn’t an extremity but rather a balance that makes one whole.

Ok. I agree contemplation can be considered a form of analytical meditation. The meditation I am criticizing is a anapanasati, where all you do is focus on the breath and then when you notice a thought, you keep bringing it back. Just imagine what this trains your mind to do if you do it long-term. It trains your mind to not think. I have had creative ideas and questions, but following the practice, I just noticed them then return to breath. At times, I would forget the ideas I had and I would notice myself naturally returning my attention to breath instead of instead of letting my mind wander. Mindwandering is essential to creativity, learning, and memory. Brute concentration has its limits. I don’t consider meditation and contemplation the same in this case. Anapanasati if done to the extreme can stunt learning, creativity, and memory. How can we learn, create, or remember anything if we cannot engage with our thoughts? This is my critique of meditation and people who are anti-thinkers. I do anapanasati only 10 minutes because of what I have stated above. I also do analytical meditation (I.e., contemplation), visualization meditation, running meditation, and satisfaction meditation. I believe meditation done moderately is good. But too much can create blood clots, sedentary lifestyle, and can limit my memories and learning. Being too present comes at a cost. The cost is lacking a vision for the future and slowly forgetting the past.

Logic doesn’t exist. Logic is relative within your given hallucination that you call reality.

Other people at the gym are your own mind. Others are imaginary the same as you. Reality is a hallucination. Oxygen, food, and water are hallucinogens to keep you in this Trip!

That's great! I guess there isn't much of a difference between contemplation and analytical meditation. What I meant by "meditation" was the practices that are designed to still and shut off the mind. Of course, it is a good practice to do and it is healthy to shut off the mind at times. But anything to an excess can become troublesome. I still meditate, but after that, I contemplate and USE my mind more rather than trying to shut it off. I think contemplation is far more practical and easier to do and has quicker results than meditation. At least, that is how it is for me at this moment.

Apologies for appearing too judgmental and nearsighted about that. I was looking at it from a narrow perspective. The monk made a sacrifice for something greater, even if I don’t agree with his methods. I have great respect for the courage and kindness of Buddhist monks, but my concerns about “enlightenment as meaning the end of all suffering” still remains. https://allthatsinteresting.com/thich-quang-duc-burning-monk

Lighting yourself on fire isn’t a symptom of happiness. It takes a suffering and twisted mind to even think about something like that. Detachment from the world and your desires does not mean you are free from suffering. That is what I think Buddhists get wrong. The Buddhist conception of enlightenment and happiness would only be applicable to 1% of humans. If only it was that easy.

Nobody has any idea what enlightenment is. That version of enlightenment is a Buddhist fairytale. Suffering is part of life. If you want the end of all suffering, then that is death not enlightenment.

Therapy isn't ineffective. Therapy in many places in the United States is almost too cheap. You can literally go to a university counseling center and get free counseling from an intern at some places. Other places offer free community mental health for low-income folks, but such places aren't as commonplace as private practices that will charge you $100-200/hour. At the same time, for what the therapist has to deal with, I feel like therapists get significantly underpaid compared to other professions. Therapists save lives, at least the good ones anyways.

It will stunt human curiosity, critical thinking, and much more.

Care about the meaningful, detach from the meaningless.

No. Curiosity in its simplest form is the desire to understand. Without that desire and intention to learn something new, your mind can never be open and receptive to insights. Look at MAGA folks. They have no insights at all because their minds are so closed off from curiosity, learning, and understanding.

I posted a thread with all the questions homework for you to complete. I don’t necessarily agree. Insight comes like lightening. But what helps insight is raising consciousness. The main ingredient is immense curiosity. If you aren’t curious, insight will be less likely. I talked more about it in my other thread.

Being banned is imaginary.

More importantly, what are your thoughts? Leo has already exhausted his point of view on David Goggins. Why does David Goggins need psychedelics or change? He is already in God-Mode with what he does.

Everyone you meet is yourself.

It sounds like you and your boyfriend have different perspectives on the use of drugs and the meaning of life. However, it's important to note that the idea that "nothing really matters" is a common but ultimately unhealthy mindset that can lead to negative consequences, such as drug abuse and depression. Substance abuse, particularly with drugs like cocaine and ketamine, can have serious impacts on one's physical and mental health, and can lead to addiction and other dangerous outcomes. Furthermore, using drugs as a means of escape or to avoid dealing with life's challenges is not a sustainable or fulfilling way to live. It's important to find healthier ways to cope with stress and negative emotions, such as therapy, exercise, and connecting with loved ones. Finally, it's up to you to make your own choices about what activities and substances you want to engage with. It's important to prioritize your own health and well-being, and to seek help if you feel like you're struggling with substance abuse or any other issue. It really just comes down to what makes you fulfilled.

This is actually a very good question. Essentially you are asking how to reconnect with wonder and curiosity again, which is what the path of philosophy is all about. Consider studying philosophy. Here are some practical steps in the meantime: 1. Focus on the present moment: Pay attention to your surroundings, notice the small details and appreciate them. 2. Be curious: Ask questions and seek to understand the world around you. 3. Embrace playfulness: Allow yourself to be silly and have fun, just like you did as a child. 4. Cultivate a sense of wonder: Look for beauty in everyday things and be amazed by the simple things in life. 5. Let go of negative thoughts and stress: Try to let go of worries and negative thoughts, and focus on the positive aspects of life. 6. Connect with nature: Spend time in nature, go for a walk or hike and take in the beauty of the natural world. 7. Try new things: Step out of your comfort zone and try new activities, it can be a great way to see the world in a new light. Remember, childlike wonder and fascination is not about being naive or ignoring reality, it's about approaching life with a positive and open mindset.

What about taking gender out of it and instead ask how can I be a good person? How can I do good? How can I live a good life? How can I live like God?

My thoughts on becoming a good man: 1. Be in touch with feminine side 2. Be curious and engaged with the existential domain 3. Care about growth, discipline, and wisdom 4. Stop blaming and take 100% responsibility 5. Building healthy habits - meditating, reading, journaling, contemplating, exercising, diet, etc. 6. Treating women with respect 7. Learn to not be needy or be a slave to cravings. Don't need anything from anybody. Be independent. 8. Be comfortable being in solitude but also with socializing as well. The biggest issue with masculinity is anti-social or toxic socialization. 9. Learn how to express emotions in a healthy way. Learn how to feel. 10. Focus on creating a vision and purpose 11. Develop courage to say no to peer influence and yes to what you want. 12. Develop assertiveness 13. Learn how to cope effectively. Too many men drink beer or do drugs to cope. A healthy man knows how to cope and handle adversity and develop fortitude.

Thread dedicated to doing the work. What is Insight? - Homework from video Over the next 30 days specifically, contemplate the following questions from the worksheet. Insight Worksheet: My Initial Contemplation Pre-30 days What is insight? - Insight means in-sight, which means to be in my sight or awareness. It is becoming aware of something, resulting in a greater understanding. What generates insight? - The mind/consciousness. Insight is about awareness and understanding of something. The Universe is becoming aware of itself. How did the Universe get the idea to create a human or a dog or a tree? How did the Universe come up with the laws of physics? Nothing external can generate insight without the mind able to grasp it. For instance, a donkey seeing itself in the mirror but does not have the insight that what it sees is itself. How did I get the insight that the human body I see in the mirror is me? It is not so obvious. It takes a level of consciousness to reach a certain level of insight. Why is insight different from belief or knowledge? Belief is about my personal thoughts, opinions, and convictions for how the world works. Knowledge is having facts and information about the world that are backed up by evidence and logic. Insight, however, is beyond belief and evidence. It is an implicit level of understanding. Knowledge can be viewed as an explicit form of understanding. The Earth is round is an explicit understanding. The insight that there is no wall in the universe and that space is infinite is an implicit understanding. There is no way that I can prove my insight that reality is infinite, but yet, that is how it is. Insight is a direct consciousness of something that is typically more intuitive and beyond conscious reasoning. What are the biggest insights Ive had in my life? 1. Morality does not exist 2. No-self 3. Eternity or timelessness 4. Heaven 5. Happiness - What happiness really is. 6. Why I used to stutter 7. An insight into how to improve my vision and visual acuity rating. 8. Self-deception - realizing all the tricks I use to deceive myself 9. God - Realizing that God exists, atheism is wrong, and that I am God 10. Realizing that human beings don't know anything but pretend that they know. 11. Realizing that mainstream science is a hallucination and no different from shamanism and Greek Mythology 12. Realizing that I was wrong about free will being an illusion. 13. Realizing that I was wrong about materialism/physicalism/atheism - it is important to note that the greatest insights are the ones where I realize how wrong I was. 14. Realizing early in life that arguing with others is pointless. 15. Realizing that being a music major was not what I wanted to pursue. 16. Gaining more clarity into what I wanted in my life. 17. Realizing that Solipsism is true and there is nothing but my consciousness 18. Realizing that first-person experience is all there is, and that the external world is a hallucination. The external world will never be anything but an idea, concept, and hallucination in my mind. 19. Uncovering my top 10 values. 20. Realizing the importance of reading and committing to it. 21. Realizing the importance of waking up before the sunrise. 22. Realizing that I am 100% responsible for all my happiness and suffering in my life. I create my own Heaven or Hell. 23. Realizing that alcohol/drunkenness is stupid. Why does everyone wanna get drunk if it decreases your intelligence? How have insights Ive had shaped my life? I have become so much more intelligent and wiser in my life. I have made really great life choices. I notice I am happier and in control of my life than others I encounter. I am immensely more creative and love my mind. I am better able to help others. How have insights has had shaped civilization? Insights have shaped civilization for better and for worse. The invention of social media, cars, nuclear bombs, electricity, texting, and iPhone was derived from an insight. This insight has both helped people and killed people. Insights themselves are neutral, neither good nor bad. How they are used determines the quality unless it is an existential insight. What are the greatest insights mankind has had? The greatest insights of mankind is philosophy, the creation of science, justice system, government, computers, video games, writing, reading, language, meditation, the teachings of Buddha, Christ, and many other great thinkers, art (music), movies, realizing non-duality. Can the capacity for insight be developed? If so, how? Insight can be developed through literally any environment, but it takes consciousness to penetrate to the insight. You can gain an insight into meaning in a prison environment like Viktor Frankl, you can gain an insight sitting under a Bodhi tree, and so on. For me, insights come most easily to me when I am not actively searching for them, but come out of the blue. This out of the blue insight comes after I have been engaging in a topic for a while, but then I give it a rest and put it off. Maybe I am not alone in this, but a great example is after engaging in a conversation with someone, you will go home realizing that you could have said X or Y. Insights also happen when I am relating to other people. I actually have gained many of my insights by relating and listening to other people, as well as thinking it through on my own. As an atheist, I did not know about pantheism until a friend of mine told me about it. This made me question the conception of God that I had and was arguing against. As an atheist, there is a conception of God that one has without really knowing it. Others can point things out to me that I do not always see in myself. But what is really powerful is being able to derive insights on my own. That is the real superpower. It is easy to derive insights when engaging with others. It is harder to derive them on my own, but deriving an original insight into life is so much more rewarding than gaining an insight into what the Buddha discovered, which to be honest, many of the insights I have are not original and come from other people. But just because an insight I have is not original does not make it any less insightful. It takes insight to understand the insights of another. What would happen if I seriously developed my capacity for insight? I would become limitless. I could create anything I wanted to. How much is the capacity for insight worth to me? The uninsightful life is not worth living. How is insight related to understanding? Insight is understanding. Insight is gaining a deeper understanding into life. It typically is sudden. But insights can also be gained through introspection and reflection of the past. What kinds of insights exist? Practice, spiritual, psychological, political, business, marketing. The kinds of insights I could have are infinite. Where do insights come from? The same place where thoughts come from. They come from The Field of Experience. What tools exist to help me generate insights? Contemplation, journaling, reading/research, conversing with others, solitude. Is there such a thing as a false insight? If so, how is it distinguished from a true insight? I have thought about this for a bit. My conclusion is that there cannot be a false insight. Insight is connected to truth. If your insight turns out to be false, then it wasn't really an insight to begin with. It was just self-deception. Insight by its own definition is an awareness of something that is free of self-deception. If the insight is really self-deception then it wasn't really insightful but foolish. However, I do want to acknowledge this point that I thought of. What if an insight is true at one point in time, but false at a later time? For instance, I could have an insight that daylight savings will be very useful for the world! Turns out that this was true back in Ben Franklins time, but it turns out that daylight savings is useless now. But is daylight savings not still insightful even though it may not be of use now? I think insight can also be relative and absolute. So in the relative sense, an insight can be false, but in the absolute sense, it cannot. Relative truth is always changing depending on history, culture, and many other factors. Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. He had an insight into that invention, but it turned out that the cotton gin went against his intentions. Was that an insight or foolishness? See, it is harder to tell. So here is the short answer: False insight is relative insight. But there cannot be a false absolute insight. For instance, the present moment is all that exists. Anything imagined outside of the Now is an idea in the Now. This insight into the eternality of the Now cannot be false. But it is hard to tell what insights are relative or absolute. I mean how do I tell? Is the realization of Solipsism an absolute insight or relative? Well, relative to my first-person experience, I can only be sure that I exist. But can I know absolutely that my experience is all there is? I am not sure. Can I fool myself with an insight? Yes. I can misunderstand the insight I am having. I can have an insight but then misunderstand it after I trying to filter it through my ego-mind. I can have an insight that Solipsism is true, but then I can then use that to act like a Devil. What is the relationship between insight and states of consciousness? My level of insight is related to my state of consciousness. If I am struggling with basic survival, my insights will be stuck at that level. But if I get my needs met, then my consciousness can raise to things beyond basic survival. What is the relationship between insight and thinking? Can there be insight without thinking? There can be insight without thinking, but making sense of it requires thinking. Thinking and insight also originate from the same space. Thinking can produce insight but not always. An example of insight without thinking is being rude to someone and then getting slapped in the face. How is insight related to mental construction? Reality is a mental construction. I prefer to use that term than "reality is imagination." Insights are going to be relative to the mental constructions I have created. To have an insight into morality does not exist requires that I first have constructed morality. The same with the sense of self and the same with limiting beliefs. There is no insight without mental construction. Awakening is an insight into how I am mentally constructing everything. What is the relationship between insight and wisdom? The more insightful one is, the more wise they are. Wisdom and insight are both aspects of higher intelligence. Insight is holistic by its nature. What is the relationship between insight and truth? Depending on the type of insight, insight will be related to Truth. You can have an insight into how to become a con artist and scam people. That is what Andrew Tate did. Tate had an insight for how to make a lot of money. But does that insight relate to truth in anyway? No. It doesn't. Practical insights are relative insights and are half-truths at best. Existential insights are my connection with absolute truth. Awakening is an insight into Truth. So insight for the most part is related to truth but not all insights are. When do I have the most insights? Where am I and what am I doing? I am writing, reading, contemplating, or hiking out in nature. Complete Insight Worksheet Post-30 Days and then compare and contrast my understanding. Share your own results to this homework! Then, repost in the next 30 days after contemplation.

I am skeptical about the study Leo mentioned that claimed that 20% of people do not have insights. I mean that is crazy. That would mean that they do not get any new ideas into their own minds. An insight can be simple as realizing that nobody knows anything for certain or that there could be a more simpler way of doing something. If a person cannot have insights, how can they still be alive? A simple insight could be to uncover what one really wants out of life. That can be very insightful. I don't buy it.

Why copy others when you can do your homework?

But how do you know that this “objective” measure is valid? How is it any different than self-contemplation? That is the issue with these self-report measures is that it assumes you already have a high degree of self-honesty and introspection abilities.

I invented an exercise today which I call the Top 100 Self-Deceptions Exercise. I will share you my list, after I explain the exercise. The Exercise: Write down your top 100 self-deceptions from scratch. Think of all the ways in which you fool yourself. Force your brain to come up with at least 100. Here is my list: Top 100 Self-Deceptions 1. Comparison 2. thinking I know more than I actually do 3. thinking things apply to others but not to me (i.e., aging, sickness, rules, death, etc.) 4. All beliefs, assumptions, and biases 5. Selfishness 6. Closedmindedness 7. emotions – anger, depression, fear, envy, etc. 8. my own mind 9. entertainment, leisure, and fun 10. giving authority to others 11. arguing and trying to persuade, convert, and convince others 12. addictions 13. distractions 14. believing I have discovered or answered something 15. peer pressure, conformity, demonization, and groupthink 16. pleasure and pain – what typically feels good is typically unhealthy (i.e., junk food tasting good and videogames being fun). 17. Laziness, resistance, and procrastination 18. Subscribing to or defending any worldview 19. Outsourcing self-inquiry, contemplation, and critical thinking 20. Following a teacher/guru or teaching 21. Needing others, love, approval, and socialization 22. Making up excuses or justifications for anything 23. Blaming or judging others or self 24. Keeping myself busy 25. Neglecting myself and my own personal growth 26. Engaging in petty activities (i.e., gossip, critiquing, debunking, videogames, etc.) 27. Watching television or playing any kind of game 28. Reading too many books as a way to neglect and distract myself from contemplation and introspection 29. Only caring and prioritizing when it is too late (i.e., caring about health only when you get the diagnosis). 30. Pursuing pleasure, success, and comfort 31. Avoiding the emotional work 32. Believing in moderation 33. Self-doubt and imposter syndrome 34. Over-confidence & delusions of grandeur 35. Ownership 36. Expertise or credibility 37. Politics 38. Science 39. Academia and education systems 40. Media/news 41. Religion 42. Plagiarism 43. Conspiracy theories 44. Crime 45. Judicial system 46. Royalty/status 47. Social media 48. Hatred, racism, sexism, bigotry, etc. 49. Healthcare industries 50. Insurance 51. War and military 52. The belief that I am invincible in my youth 53. Internet 54. Entitlement 55. Parroting others and failing to be original 56. Spiritual bypassing 57. Spiritual superiority 58. Lying, manipulating, and controlling others 59. Thinking I have a later or tomorrow 60. Time 61. Ruminating the past 62. Getting lost in thought 63. Denial of death – not being aware of mortality 64. Denial of anything 65. Being too afraid to question something 66. Dishonesty of any kind 67. Confusing familiarity with knowledge 68. “doing it for others.” 69. Gossiping 70. Being too selfless and using that as an excuse to not be responsible 71. Preaching 72. Attachment to opinions, ideas, people, teachings, teachers, and things 73. Materialism 74. Believing in duality, separation, or ego 75. Assuming that other people are conscious 76. Family, friends, enemies, and other people 77. Using truth as a weapon to justify being selfish 78. “ignorance is bliss.” 79. Dreams 80. Backsliding 81. Overestimation and underestimation 82. Dismissing any idea 83. Being too skeptical or too logical 84. Being too gullible or too emotional 85. Thinking that something is superior or inferior 86. Thinking objectivism is true 87. Thinking 88. Taking the easy path – the path of least resistance 89. Assuming that thinking is dangerous 90. Assuming there is only one right way 91. Admiration to the extreme 92. Narcissism and mental illness 93. The idea to live off the grid 94. Hating anything 95. Not actively seeking challenges and trying new things 96. “not having enough time.” 97. Making the same mistake 98. Assuming that philosophy is a waste of time 99. Generalization 100. Caring too much about thing that aren’t real of don’t matter such as money 101. Sex/attraction 102. Loneliness 103. Being a loner 104. Sharing an awakening with others Feel free to share your own lists. There is so much more. I haven't even scratched the surface!