r0ckyreed

@Razard86 If Infinity means everything is possible, then doesn’t that mean destiny isn’t possible because destiny says that there is only one possible future and free will says there is an infinite amount of possibilities? Free will seems like the most obvious and non-limiting. I do think free will and destiny are compatible. I don’t deny that our bodies age. But I do deny the claim that everything in life is already written. The Force can create whatever it wants. Thanks.

Nobody is fooling you or conspiring anything but you. All deception is self-deception.

You can only move the steering wheel because your mind can move your hand. Notice how you cannot move the steering wheel without your mind’s control of your body. If you were the wheel, then it could turn when you will it to. But it doesn’t work like that. You have to will your hand to effect the external world. You only have will over your body and nothing else. But even within that, you have only 5% control over anything in your body. You can will your hand to move, but you cannot will yourself to not have cancer. We have limited free will. The only reason why you don’t identify with a coffee table right now is because everything you experience and can control takes place in a specific human body, which you call yours. If you didn’t identify with the body, then why do you have a fear of death? Also, sorry I keep editing here. But I keep getting more insights. Why do you think consciousness is experiencing a body if the body is not a crucial part of experience? Everything thing you call as having a subject you experience as an object. If your body now gets destroyed, you lose your experience as the human being you identify as.

Suffering. A state of consciousness. Nothing more.

I don’t think that’s how it works. The future and past don’t exist; therefore, it is destiny and determinism that are the illusions and not free will.

It is logical to identify with human body because that is the only thing we have control over. I can’t control the wind, but I can move my hand at will.

Well said. I like this. These are my thoughts exactly.

Depression consists of a minimum of a loss of interest and hopelessness. A person who is hopeless typically has low desire, low motivation, low meaning, low interest/boredom. A happy person has the opposite and has ambitions/desires. I get what you mean, but part of what makes someone depressed and diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, severe is not having anything to look forward to. I mean suicide to its extent is the loss of desire to live. The fact that you desire to work through your traumas and overcome depression are aspects of positivity/happiness. Happiness isn’t just feeling joy, but it is a mindset I carry through every emotion. I can be sad and still be happy because the mindset of a happy person in a sad state is self-reassurance and self-empowerment. That’s how I like to think of happiness. Not as some dopamine high of bliss, but a state of mind of acceptance, nurturance, cultivation, discipline, curiosity, and desire/ambition. Optimism through the hard times, being able to continue to focus on my strengths and growth is how I am always able to happy or in a happy-growth mindset.

Of course curiosity is the desire for understanding. Buddhism is dumb on this part. The cause of suffering isn’t desire but the lack of it. A person who is depressed has less desires than a happy person. They have it backwards. It is rather about the quality of desires. I have made a post on desire already. Moderation means mediocrity. Don’t be silly. You want to be as curious as you can. The real Buddhas are the most curious people ever. All the geniuses you can think of are deeply curious folks.

Ambition is important. Focus on what victories are worth pursuing. Being content with mediocrity isn’t something you want to win at.

Rick Astley is good but doesn’t quite compare. What leads you to think Rick is better?

I never get why Leo calls anything imaginary if everything is. Science is imaginary Reality is imaginary. If reality is imaginary, then says science is imaginary becomes redundant because of reality is imaginary, then everything is and then there is nothing else to talk about. Even more or less imaginary is still imaginary. Who is to say what is more imaginary or not? Science and religion are both ideas. I would say that in my opinion science is less imaginary than religion because it doesn’t dismiss evidence as much as religious folks do. There is more BS in religion.

Leo’s birth and birthdate is imaginary just like everything else in this marvelous Universe.

Emotions and the truth are not the same. Most people want to be happy and don’t want the truth. That is what Jed is getting at. Altering your state does not mean that you have realized truth, although realizing truth does typically happen in an altered state otherwise you’d be aware of it now.

That’s what Narcissistic Personality Disorder is.

We can lock this thread up Mods. Low quality. The real matrix is about self-deception. Andrew Tate is the postcard for self-deception. He is your real matrix lol.

You are assuming that you know what is true and are awake. Believing in spiritual ideas has nothing to do with truth or awakening. Truth is NOT Buddhism. It has nothing to do with a spiritual idea. Ideas are not truth. You must question and deconstruct all ideas period.

Realizing all spiritual ideas are human fantasies is part of the awakening. All ideas must be questioned and deconstructed.

I’ve noticed something I have seen on the forum and a lot in myself lately and that is that everyone here (myself included) is becoming less curious or aka a know-it-all. I see all of these posts on “I have Awakened to this this ask me anything.” Or “I have awakened to this or that.” I don’t know why. I just notice less openmindedness and less people asking genuine questions in their original posts. Self-deception is contagious. To engage with the self-deception of others is to become self-deceived myself. I just wanted to point this out because nobody really seems to question anything on here. People are just coming to share their self-deceptions thinking they are sharing an awakening. I am really writing this post to remind myself here of what I need to do. I think the best way to counteract self-deception is to always remain curious and don’t get caught up in needing to share anything with others. That very desire to share an awakening with others is part of the self-deception. If I know the truth, why do I need to share it with others? I know it’s because I am not confident in it and want some validation. But nobody can ever validate such things because it assumes they are not self-deceived. I guess the key here is to propose genuine questions and keep being curious. I need to remind myself that awakening is a dream and part of the self-deception. Awakening isn’t the end of curiosity but part of it. A know it all stops learning. I have become that in many parts of my life. In what areas are you a know-it-all? How have you been able to stay curious and learn? How can we foster a culture of learning here? I need to think about this more. I just needed to get that out of my brain for now. I am now starting to think that Awakening is a Self-deception and true awakening is realizing that and becoming free from self-deception. But I also question that too because how can I become free from self-deception of reality itself is a self-deception? Nirvana and Enlightenment seem to be Buddhist fictions. All I see in spiritual communities is everyone parroting the same ideas with no original thought. Spirituality is just another human game. I don’t even know who is awake anymore. All the spiritual gurus I thought were awake, I am realizing that they are all full of crap just by hearing their self-deceptions in their own work. Osho is not awake. Mooji is not awake. Jim Carey is not awake. Tolle is not awake. Jed McKenna is not awake. Peter Ralston is not awake. The Buddha is not awake. Leo Gura is not awake. Jesus is not awake. Maharishi is not awake. Bashar is not awake. David Lion is not awake. Nahm is not awake. I am not awake. What are some of the best ways to stay curious? Some people are more curious than others. Genetics and environment play a part in that. It is a self-deception to focus on the awakenings of others. Sorry if this is a ramble. I have experienced jhanas and cessations and had mystical experiences into the nature of Absolute Beauty and Intelligence. But it seems like there are infinitely more places to go in my consciousness. I can never reach the end because there is none. It seems like the final awakening will be in my death and everything else until that point will always be subpar. Death seems the only way to reach “the end” or “beginning” however you want to look at it. How do you stay curious and become even more curious? The more insights I have, the less curious I notice myself becoming.

The more I listen to others, the less original insights I have. I must take more time to listen to my own intuition and thoughts. The way I am using Books, YouTube, podcasts, and Actualized.org is a distraction from my own inner voice. I am gonna take a break from all media consumption to grow the curiosity within me towards developing original thinking.

I did both.

Great post!

Yeah. I’ve noticed myself becoming a know-it-all. Always trying to teach others and my friends spirituality. I need to go back to a Beginners Mind and start everything fresh. And question all the “insights” I’ve had to determine which insights are true vs. false. False insights are very tricky. They are so tricky that I initially thought that they did not exist. Edit: How do we notice false insights easier? I think it is the same with how do we recognize falsehood at all? Awareness/observation.

The human body changes and will die. But existence of the present moment is eternal. The Present Moment or Consciousness is what is immortal not the human identity. How do I know that the Now/Force/Consciousness is immortal? Well, nonexistence does not exist. So whatever exists exists in this eternal Now. Sleep and death occurs in this Now and so does all past and future. In a way, death is the womb of life and all life comes from death and returns to it just like all rivers must lead back into the Ocean. That is one way to look at it. The only thing that I truly know is that consciousness exists. Even the idea of death is something inside of consciousness.

It is important to not let the invented social norms run our lives and make us inauthentic. Keep trying to be your most genuine authentic self. Your best is enough. Awkwardness is part of life, but it does not exist in the world but in the collective mind.