r0ckyreed

That’s the wrong question. The question assumes external, future happiness, which doesn’t exist. Nothing external or in the future can ever fulfill you. Whatever you put in the blank is wrong except for this: I will be happy when I Stop Looking For Happiness In Places Where It Doesn’t Exist And Realize I Can Only Be Happy Right Now!! Only When I Can Bask In The Now!! Happiness Is Not Something You Look For, It Is A Present, Optimistic State of Mind.

You can see how differently Leo viewed meditation and “other enlightened beings” then when compared to now. Jed McKenna helped me see the nonsense in Buddhism and meditation. No amount of meditation helps with the problem of self-deception. Spiritual Autolysis is I think the best method to overcoming self-deception and reaching high levels of understanding. I am so glad I started with Jed’s books.

How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci by Michael Gelb

New Kind of Awakening: Infinity of Gods - Incomplete Notes (Main Insights) Lesson 1: See the God in "others" This means to recognize the divinity and highest potential of other people This means to see the good in others and the God in others that they themselves do not see This means to help other parts of myself to realize they are God, to realize they are me. This is Love. Application For each person in my life, on the news, people from my past, etc., point out at least 3 things that they do well, 3 strengths that they have, and 3 ways that they are good. Point out the good qualities you see in them and help them to achieve them. Give others the freedom to be themselves. Recognize and respect their own sovereignty and freedom. This means that paradoxically, I have to learn to respect and honor others who may want to be devils and who may not care about realizing they are God. I would be committing the same sin as religious people if I turn and force God-realization upon others as something that everyone should aspire to. Lesson 2: The Insight may be True but the Integration may be False This means that you may realize solipsism to be true, but the negative means and how the insights are integrated may be false. Attaching a negative meaning upon life being a dream is foolish because solipsism means that I am Love and I am connected to the infinite intelligence to life, whereas prior to awakening, I believed I was separate from life. Leo makes a good point that there is no reason to feel negative about being one and connected to life. The opposite should be true for being indoctrinated in materialistic worldview. The integration is as important as the realization. It could also be true that one could misunderstand the insight. If this happens, then false integration will be inevitable. Then, you will be living a bigger lie than before. This is evident by people who harm themselves over being hurt by the truth. If the truth makes you want to hurt yourself, then you are stuck in a deeper lie. Only falsehood makes people want to hurt themselves. Ideas of insights aren't the insight A true awakening moves you into more joy and love. It is kind of like pursuing your dreams. You will have initial fears, but on the other side of them is love and joy. If you haven't gone past your fears, then you are still stuck in the ego-mind, and thus, you haven't awakened to who you are because you are Love. Application Notice how negative meaning is constructed and wonder why. Why does it matter if I am all that is? Was I ever depressed that Santa Clause wasn't real? No. Realize that nothing really changes except for my interpretation and integration. If it is true, then it has always been the case; therefore, there is no need to suffer. After every insight, imagine and write down how I can integrate it through the highest love. If the insight isn't integrated with the intention of living and embodying the highest love, then the integration needs to be changed. Lesson 3: Trust your feelings/heart If you are stuck in solipsistic depression, take a break or you can question and analyze your methods. If your methods aren't making you happy, you are doing it wrong somewhere. "Heart is guiding you towards Love." Application: Go back to your drawing board and analyze where you went wrong if you aren't feeling love Be more intuitive in life. Follow the highest love. Lesson 4: Be aware of delusion Application Delusion is not exclusive to psychedelic drugs. Many people are deluded without them. Try to invalidate previous insights to try to prove them wrong. In other words, try to falsify it. If you cannot falsify it, then it may be absolutely true. You know you have had an awakening when you have 0% doubt. Don't be afraid to question your ideas. If you are afraid, then the ideas you hold may not be true. Follow the fear to awaken to love.

Solipsism Notes “One who sees everything as nothing but the Self, and the Self in everything one sees, such a seer withdraws from nothing. For the enlightened, all that exists is nothing but the Self.” - Ishopanishad; Sloka 6, 7 “May I recognize whatever appeareth as being mine own thought-forms.” - Tibetan Book of the Dead Student: “How should we treat others?” Ramana Maharishi: “There are no others.” Anyone who claims the existence of other minds, or even allows them as a theoretical possibility, does not realize oneself as God. Introduction Definition of Solipsism Solipsism = Solis (Alone) Ipsi (Self) Philosophical idea that only one’s own mind is sure to exist Knowledge of anything outside the mind is unknown Self is the only existing reality and all persons are representations of the self Denial of existence of other minds Other minds are private and are inference at best Mankind and I gives negative connotations to Solipsism Start to wonder why Why am I biased against Solipsism? Why do I assume it is crazy or bad? Having a bias against Solipsism is unscientific and irrational Truth is the truth regardless of whether it is liked or not. Logic or improbability have nothing to do with Truth Be open to all possible worldviews until I arrive at Truth If I am interested in Truth, then it does not matter if it is Solipsism People make a mistake to assume and make a fact that it is impossible to know Truth. Solipsism deals with the nature of self but also nature of other. Other is the inverse of my self-definition What is other? What is self? They are inter-defined. Spirituality frames it as What is the Self? But the uncommon direction is to ask What is Other? Most people don’t contemplate what other is. Be open to the fact that I don’t know what other is. Other may not exist. If I change my identity of self, I change my identity of other. Infinite self makes no more room for other. My definitions of self and other are mentally constructed Is Solipsism True? Yes. Most people object to Solipsism because it is too crazy and radical. I can become conscious of what self and other are. Other is my own self and my own mind. My entire worldview and life depends on the notion of other. Other defines my self and my sense of reality. Awakening is realizing I am God and that I am the only conscious thing there is. Be conscious of everything being myself and that I am alone. God’s mind is alone and sovereign. I give partitions of other minds, but I fail to realize that I constructed all of that in my own mind. Other is my own construction. I am the only conscious thing in existence. There cannot be any other conscious being. There are not multiple conscious beings or souls or parallel lives or past lives or parallel lives. There is only my life right now. All the qualia and experience now is all that existence. I have 100% direct consciousness of existence. The issue is that I imagine other things to explain away the present moment. Outside of this dream is nothing and no-one but me. Mainstream notions of solipsism don’t include God, Love, Will, Intelligence, etc. My human self is part of the construction. My bubble of consciousness is all there is and nothing is outside of it. All of the qualia is my bubble. Life is a dream for an audience of one. It is a dream for myself. There is only one entity that needs to be fooled to construct reality. Myself. Why would there be other minds? Solipsism is the simplest explanation. How is reality created? Dream up self and other and fool myself Multiple animals being born are all the same self and not other to each other. Science cannot tell me what other is. Rather than having materialism and multiple minds, there is one consciousness that fools itself with images of other minds outside of itself. All things that I posit will always have a self-referential problem and infinite regress. It pushes problems down a level. There are no limits to what Infinite Mind can create. An atom is just as easy to create as an elephant. Mind does not need a big bang or years of evolution. It just imagines this human life and then a chain of causation of stories. As a kid, I asked questions of where am I? Where did I come from? My mind started filling in the blanks from society when I don’t know. The backstory becomes my worldview. Biology, history, science, etc. are all backstories to explain the present moment. I have given my authority to imaginary others. Others have an impact on my self. I assume adults know what they are talking about when in fact they went through the same thing as me. I am all that I have ever experienced in my life. Before I was born there was nothing. All that I have ever experienced was myself visual, auditory, emotions, thoughts, tastes, smells, touch, etc. I have never experienced anything other than my own mind, my own experience My experience is absolute Anything other than direct experience is speculation and inference All science and all others is part of my experience I am experience I have given my authority and trusted others more than my direct experience This is a problem. Trusting others is a second-order phenomenon. I have to first assume they are real and that they are in my direct experience. Trusting myself and direct experience is primary. Why am I so triggered by Solipsism? Why do I want reality to be different from Solipsism? Why do I depend on the companionship of others? Others define the self Solipsism is objective, denial of it is subjective and emotional reaction. Other can be minds and inanimate objects like external world. Can there be something beyond my experience? anything beyond my experience is in my experience No amount of thought experiments or science will always be in my experience. All of us are solipsists are already. But some go one dream further. We all accept that at night we dream and that they are solipsistic The entire dream and dream characters are a construction of my own mind. When I wake up from a dream, all other characters are all me. Do my dream characters have a mind of their own? How is reality any different from how I dream? I am dreaming right now, but I still cling to otherness. When I wake up from this dream, it will be just me and nothing else. Spiritual teachers say life is just a dream. There is a notion is that when I wake up from this dream, there will be others waiting for me on the other side. There is only one dreamer who dreams all other dreamers. I am very attached to dreaming. I am 100% responsible. I am constructing the entire dream. I am responsible for everything in my experience. “We are all atheists but I believe in one less God than you.” — We are all solipsists. My nighttime dreams are imaginary. Make that shift to all of my experience and not exclusive to my dreams. Nighttime dreams are grounded in daytime dreams. Nighttime dreams and reality is imaginary distinction. Solipsism traditionally is not tied into spirituality. But Absolute Solipsism is spiritual. Solipsism is essence of spirituality. Love, God, Will, Omniscience, Immortality, Eternity, etc. are all part of Solipsism. This dream is my own will and my own intelligence. All mystical/spiritual traditions point towards Solipsism. FAQs Enlightened teachers deny Solipsism they are not fully awake and not conscious how they are creating all sense of other Some may be conscious of this but do not want to tell people this because they want others to discover it for themselves. Solipsism is bad marketing and triggers people Ex. Ramana Maharshi was a Solipsist and says “there is no other.” Most people will not reach the highest levels Not telling kids about death and letting them figure it out - analogy Where do my ideas of enlightenment come from? teachers books from “others” Be aware of spiritual ego Goal: Have a complete understanding of reality Why does Leo even teach if I am the only conscious being? Playing a game with himself and do whatever gives meaning I am actually playing a game with myself Actualized.org is a dissociated part of my mind that I need to integrate The question isn’t why is Leo teaching me but why am I teaching myself? Does Leo have his own experience? There is only my experience. There are not other experiences. Leo is my experience. Why is Leo talking as if he has his own experience? Why is Leo tricking me? The real question is why am I tricking myself? Why did I construct Leo? I have to deny all identities to construct my identity and my dream has to be convincing I am God cosplaying as a human Finger pointing exercise: Point figure at the screen at Leo and then point it at me. Say Leo out loud when I point to Leo and me when I point to me (behind my eyes). Then after a while, point to me and say Leo and realize that Leo has always been behind my eyes. Everybody is my body. This is all a projection of my own mind. Stop imagining other people have experiences until all there is, is my bubble. That is awakening. I am imagining that other people are awakening. I have invented characters in the dream who awoken to give me an example. My imagination is so powerful that I believe others. Imagination vs. reality I can awaken to that I am imagining reality I imagine that others will exist after I die When I cease to imagine, everything ceases to exist. There is no world outside of my own mind Open my mind to the possibility that it is just me and everyone else doesn’t exist. I am imagining Leo is imagining me. I imagine Leo’s joy, awakening, pain, etc. All suffering that anybody experienced I am imagining in my own mind. I never experienced death, but I imagined many animals dying, and I assume I will die as well. I never seen death. I can imagine others and myself dying but I cannot die. When I realize I cannot die and I am immortal, that is the holy grail. The holy grail is realizing the death of everyone and myself is a construction of my own mind. Solipsism isn’t contradictory. All denial and objections and everything is part of the dream. There is no escaping the dream. Angels, demons, Santa, etc. are no different from humans and animals. It is just part of my dream. It is dogmatic to state that it is impossible to know. All other minds are sub-minds to my infinite mind. If Solipsism is true, I am avoiding it and everyone is avoiding as a conspiracy to help me avoid it. If Solipsism was on CNN, I would either already wake up or I would avoid CNN. Society is geared so that I can remain asleep. My mom says she has an experience of her own. Is she lying and being an evil demon? My mom is not an evil demon trying to fool me. I am God fooling myself using my mom. All dream characters will deny they are dream characters so that I remain asleep. If not, there is no dream. My mom is not faking it, I am faking it. There is no mom, there is only me. There is only me deceiving myself so that I can exist as a human. If not, I would die and stop existing as a human. God creates others so it creates itself. The only conspiracy theory that matters is my own self-deception. It is a conspiracy of one. I am conspiring myself during my dreams. All other conspiracy theories are sub-conspiracies within the meta-conspiracy. I am doing this to myself. Reality isn’t a simulation, it is a dream. Simulation still has a sense of other like an alien or other reality or something. It pushes the problem back another level. Where did the aliens and simulation come from? What are the odds that I am the only one in existence? The odds of me being conscious are 100% Everything I have ever experienced has always revolved around me. What if I am not an accident but an absolute? If I am the only one, where did I come from? I have always been and have imagined all places and invented stories Nothing can be conscious but me. A dog and Leo being conscious is what I am imagining. One day, I can imagine my computer being conscious. It will be just another character in my dream. Is the suffering of others real? No. There is only one conscious being who suffers and it is me. Where has suffering ever existed? Suffering only exists in my mind. If I kick a dog and it wimpers, I am imagining that. I am imagining the dog’s suffering. If I torture a dog in my dream and wake up, where is the dog’s suffering? Suffering is a mechanism to keep myself asleep. Suffering feelings very real in my direct experience and in others. Life has serious consequences to sell the illusion of the dream How could I construct a dream so well to fool myself? Make suffering so overwhelming that I would never do any existential questioning. I am creating a drama. What makes a good movie is the drama. Why do I watch action movies? I crave distraction and I want immersion. I cook in a video game for immersion to simulate life and have a game. The world is boring without evil. It is to construct a powerful illusion. Think of self-deception in an existential manner. Self-deception constructs reality atoms, evolution, science, space, time, other beings, planet earth as metaphysical self-deception All philosophy and spirituality goes out the window with pain. Pain is part of the dream to keep me locked in the dream. If suffering is imaginary, why not be selfish and harm others and be a devil? No reason at all. There will always be consequences in this dream for my selfish behavior. My dream can turn into a nightmare. I am dreaming. What kind of dream do I want? A nightmare or Heaven? A long road ahead of suffering if I am selfish God creates the dream to teach itself about how to live (for Love) Since I am in the dream, why not create the best possible life? True goodness and love is when I am even nice even when I know others are an illusion. Love and goodness don’t need reasons. There is no reason why a life of suffering is worse than a life of joy. Solipsism is unfalsifiable because it is absolutely true. It is verifiable Is it safe and logical to assume other minds? Is it practical to assume other minds? Practical and true aren’t always the same. It is convenient to live the dream but it is not true. Nonduality is Solipsism Nonduality is Oneness and is Absolute Solipsism There is so much untruth because truth is dangerous. Truth is dangerous in every domain in life Often times, the most dangerous things are true because most people care more about truth than survival. Society is an illusion If I find truth, I sit alone and contemplate and not go to others and to the herd I can still socialize even when I know Solipsism is True The Truth of Solipsism is beautiful. Leo goes to parties has sex, etc. because it is his dream I am imagining and he enjoys it. Enjoy the dream. Should we be openminded to other minds? start being openminded and then close off my mind to things I have become conscious of that are false Become absolutely conscious to where I no longer have doubts Openminded all the time can be closed off to being close-minded. Be closed-off to positions I have validated as false in my direct experience. Truth is more important than openmindedness Being openminded to everything is a trap because that means I don’t get anywhere Does God have the power to create other minds? This contradicts God’s omnipotence God is one. God has the infinite power to dream up many minds within its own mind. God cannot sever its own oneness because God is One. How to verify Solipsism 200+ 5-me0 Trips and do all the practices to deconstruct my mind the trips could kill me How do I know 5-me0 is not an illusion? How do I know anything is not an illusion? Don’t misuse skepticism and go test it. The real cult is mainstream society, spirituality, and materialism but most of all, my own self-deception. Become conscious of Solipsism and not believe it Nobody will verify that I am all alone. Humans need a degree of socialization. Don’t use Solipsism as an excuse to be a loner. Self-Understanding is the highest happiness and end of suffering The highest happiness is realizing I am God Conclusion What is other? Contemplate what is other. Don’t take solipsism on as a belief. Find out what is true. This is a hypothesis till I can verify for myself. Stay with what is true in my direct experience. Think for myself. Important to not fake it till I make it. It can create disfunction. True liberation is freedom from the illusion of other. “Hell is other people.” - Satre I am Alone because I am so together. Love is togetherness. The illusion unifies and not separates. It’s like God has multiple personality disorder and when God is one, God connects back to it Self. Being Alone means I integrate all parts of myself together into a unity. Love is Unity, Oneness, and togetherness. The illusion unifies all the sub minds together and not separates. There is a lot of bullshit out in the world. Awakening is basically Absolute Solipsism

The Power of Not-Knowing “Teach thy tongue to say I don’t know and thou shalt progress.” - Maimonides In most situations, the truth is that you simply don’t know. The biggest obstacle to spirituality is everything you think you know but that you really don’t know. Most ignorant people think they know everything, and the wisest people are aware of the limits of their knowledge. How aware am I of the limits of knowledge? Consider that I don’t know what anything is. What is anything at all? This should disturb me if I do it correctly. What is a fork? My mind tells me that I know what a fork is. But I don’t. Notice the sub definitions I have of a fork or any object. Put myself in a knowing mode and a not-knowing mode. Look at the fork deeply to where I stop knowing what it is. Nobody knows what a fork is. Is it impossible to know what a fork is? If it is possible, then how? Why is knowing so difficult? Why is it not possible? What does that mean for the rest of my reality? I don’t know what space, time, matter, energy, meditation, sound, beauty, happiness, spirituality, science, morality, light, math, other, reality, understanding, and I don’t even know what knowledge is. School doesn’t tell me that humanity doesn’t know what anything is. I am in a conceptual house of cards of knowing. The core idea is that most of my knowledge is constructed. My knowledge is highly constructed, biased, conceptual illusion designed to maintain my survival, sense of sanity, and comfort. My knowledge isn’t grounded in a deep truth. Truth is not about survival, sanity, or comfort. My life is a conceptual house of cards, which is why I and others act so defensively in debates, arguments, etc. Why do people get defensive? If I am so convinced of the truth of my conceptual fortress, then why am I so defensive, triggered, and criticize others? Why do I even have intellectual arguments if I am already in possession of the truth? Or, maybe deep down, I suspect that I am living in a conceptual fortress, and if I am not defensive, then it will collapse. How will I then maintain survival, comfort, and sanity. This is what most people want as opposed to truth. I am fooling myself with how much I know. Most of the stuff I know is biased and wrong. This stems all the problems in my life. Issues in life don’t come with the warning label that my whole understanding of reality is wrong. I think the problem is external. But really, the problem is that I am fooling myself about the stuff I think I know. It is hard to let go of knowledge. There are many degrees of knowing a thing. Knowledge is a spectrum. All minds put up fake fronts of knowing. This includes, beliefs, hearsay, intuition, theories, etc. All knowledge is twisted to fit the ego. Do I care more about the truth or about being right? Most people would rather be right than to seek the truth. Most of our lives is programmed. Society is programming me to be part of the society. I cannot assume that what is best for society is aligned with truth. Admit the basic truth that I don’t know a thing when I don’t know it. Society creates a religion of knowing through religion, science, business, politicians, school, etc. All of this creates the social matrix. Humans never acknowledge the depth of their own ignorance. Science only plays lip-service to not-knowing. Even the things science says that we know, we don’t actually know. Science overestimates what we really know. It plays a game of false humility. Society pressures us to make up crap when we don’t really know. Not-knowing is treated as a weakness. Not-knowing is treated as not even an option. But Not-knowing is often the best option. Skeptics teach us that knowing is impossible. But we dismiss it. We don’t care about the truth, but we care about what works and what is practical. We build our knowledge without considering the cost. The cost of knowing is closed-mindedness, self-deception, assumptions, conflating map for territory, being lost in fantasy. Not-knowing is connecting to truth, love, and being. The ego hates uncertainty. It would rather have false certainty than stand in I Don’t Know. The ego creates narratives to help it survive. Knowledge has a constructive element to it. I don’t just know a static objective world. My mind constructs the world as I come to know it. The fork is entangled with my mind. The fork is my mind. Newtonian mechanics is not fully how reality works and we know this, but we still use it because it is practical. The mind has a natural need to know itself. Even children have a natural curiosity to understand the world. Why do I have a natural desire to understand the universe? The reason I have this desire is because God has a desire to know itself, and I am That. God’s motive is self-realization. Curiosity exists because I want to know ultimate reality. Curiosity tethers me to God. If I follow curiosity long enough, I will reach God/Truth. Reality is too profound to be knowable. If reality can be knowable, then I am underestimating reality. Reality is too infinite for me to know it. I can awaken to the profundity of reality. The counterintuitive move is to stand in I don’t know. Bask in I don’t know. It takes wisdom and courage to admit I don’t know. The way to have the courage to admit my ignorance is to realize that it is better for me to admit I don’t know or have been wrong once than to spend forever pretending that I do know or that I am right when I am not. I only have to admit I am wrong once. Living and suppressing the truth that I was wrong is worse than just admitting I was wrong once. Most people aren’t thinking long-term, so they want to pretend to save themselves embarrassment. Ex. admitting Buddhism is wrong rather than spending my whole life defending it and thinking it is right. Not-knowing gets me out of fantasy. Buddhism is a fantasy, science is a fantasy, society is a fantasy, etc. Not-knowing is a powerful technique to combat self-deception, paradigm lock, closed-mindedness, etc. Become honest about when I don’t know a thing. This takes introspection. Practice not-knowing. Stop parroting what I learn and sit with I don’t know. Distinguish theory of not-knowing vs. state of not-knowing. Exercise: Not-Knowing Meditation Close eyes and erase past and future. Erase all that I think I know. If I still think I am in my house, then I am not in genuine Not-Knowing. Knowing prevents insights and awakening. Not-knowing creates space for new insights and awakenings. Exercise: What are 10 things I claim to know but that I don’t know? Is the Earth 4 billion years old? I don’t know. Does the Earth exist? I don’t know. are fish oil supplements harming my health? I don’t know. Did Jesus really exist? I don’t know. Do other people have consciousness? I don’t know. Is God real? I don’t know. The truth is that I don’t know. The truest answer is I don’t know. Forgive myself for being foolish. Do I really know or am I pretending to know? Belief and hearsay isn’t real knowing. Direct experience is king. All knowledge is second-order. All knowledge is about existence. Existence is first-order. The raw sensations of the fork is being. What I think or know about the fork is second-order. My knowledge of the fork is not about the being of the fork. I am focused on the second-order of what I can use the thing for and I forget the being of a thing and I pretend like there never is a first-order. Conceptual knowledge is a way of avoiding the mystery of being. Being = consciousness. If you stop caring about the first-order, you stop caring about reality because reality is first order. If scientists want to understand consciousness, they have to study it at the first-order because consciousness is at the first-order. My existence is prior to my knowledge of it. To know something, I first have to exist. I exist but I don’t know what existence is. Knowing infinity is not possible because knowing is second-order. Infinity cannot fully know itself because knowing is a subset of infinity. A hand cannot grab itself. Infinity cannot grasp or know itself. Being is mystical and mysterious. Mystical = mysterious. Mystical means it is so fundamental that it is too profound to be known that is mystery. Science can’t find God because God is the totality of everything and the totality of everything cannot be grasped by a subset of that totality. Reality cannot be explicated. Knowledge is also being. If I want to know my own knowledge, I have to create another layer of knowing. This is a meta problem. Grasping my own thoughts requires layer and another layer to infinity. I know something by being it, by existing. The deeper knowing is through being. If I want to understand what I am at the deepest level, I have to get there through being, not knowing. That is what meditation is about. Awakening itself comes with a profound not-knowing. Awakening is pure being. My sensory field becomes my way of knowing. I am not knowing using my intellect or mind or language or concepts. Awakening will help me know the fork more intimately. All of my thoughts and ideas about a fork will never resemble the actual fork. With language and thought, a lot gets lost in translation. It is like describing a sunset to a blind person. I have to give the blind person vision to get him to understand what a sunset is. Omniscience happens at the first-order, at the level of being and not at the level of thought or second-order. Omniscience is not about how many kangaroos exist in Australia, it is about realizing that all of that is imaginary. Deconstruction leads to not-knowing and not-knowing leads to deconstruction. Paradox of not-knowing: A wise mind admits of not-knowing more, but ends up knowing things that fools think are impossible to know. Fools think it is impossible to know what reality is. It is impossible when your mind is locked down with ideology. When mind is open to mystical experiences, then it is possible. When the mind realizes it knows less and less, mystical experiences open up. Be careful not to misuse not-knowing. It is important to still use knowledge. Dont get lost in false skepticism and nihilism. Everything is subjective and nothing can be known is a misuse of not-knowing. Misuse of not-knowing can be with life purpose to where you say you don’t even know if you want your life purpose or if you even can get out of bed and work. My passion for life should run deeper than any conceptual knowledge. Love survives all deconstruction of knowledge. Misuse of not-knowing is I don’t even know if eating healthy is good for me. What if heroine is good for me? I will just sit home and watch cartoons all day. That is a trap and misuse of not-knowing. Stick to my core principles. I don’t need 100% certainty about anything. That is another trap. I don’t need 100% certainty. Nothing is that certain. I have to act. Survival and happiness requires action. I want to act decisively towards something. Misusing not-knowing: X cannot be known is a misuse of not-knowing. I will never have absolute knowledge of anything but I still have to act. Putting foolishness and wisdom on the same footing is a misuse of not-knowing. Dont turn not-knowing into idiocy. Not-knowing doesn’t mean that I have to abide bullshit, foolishness, ideology, conspiracy theories, etc. All of knowledge is in the game of survival. Keep one eye on God and one eye on survival. Not-knowing doesn’t mean that I don’t pursue education, reading books, school, contemplation, journaling, insight, wisdom, etc. When I am not taking action, society programs me with bullshit. Maintain my healthy habits. Survival = act or die. If not-knowing is the case then why do you seem to know so much? How can I act and create a good life while not-knowing? Intuition and feeling into your heart. My job is to honor my spirit’s love for different parts of reality. **Practical Takeaways:** Contemplate the limits of knowing, what is knowing, how is it possible, what do i know and not know? Question all that is known. Notice that I don’t know the being of anything Enter deep states of not-knowing many times. Dont let others and society to pressure me into knowing. Build that backbone to say I don’t know. Bask in the mystery of not-knowing. Contemplate: What do I know for sure? Distinguish belief vs. direct experience. Wipe my worldview clean. Write down 10 things that I think I know but that I really don’t. Balance not-knowing with action. Be active in my life and practice not-knowing. Operate from intuition and implicit understanding. Enter into a deep state of not-knowing before I do meditate and contemplation and before I interact with others. Become comfortable with not-knowing and uncertainty. Practice improvisation.

How Socialization Makes You Stupid “The supreme lesson of any education should be to think for yourself and to be yourself; absent this attainment, education creates dangerous, stupefying conformity.” Bryant McGill “Just sit alone in a room and think.” - Leo Gura Why do I struggle with socialization? Why don’t I like socialization? It interferes with highest values. It interferes with original thinking and takes me away from truth. Socialization introduces a pressure to conform to social values that may not be compatible with my own. There are hidden costs to socializing. It is possible to socialize consciously but a lot of it is unconscious. People are dumb through conformity. They tend to not think original thoughts and are subject to groupthink. Even smart people and spiritual people are made dumb by socialization. People are constantly parroting things they had heard elsewhere and are not speaking or thinking original thoughts. Original thinking takes a lot of work. I need to take more time to do this. Almost nobody spends time doing intellectual original work. How can I reach the highest levels of intelligence? Avoiding socializing and groupthink and spending time alone contemplating. The majority of humans have not fallen in love with intelligence. Conformity and groupthink are the main obstacles to achieving intelligence and originality/creativity. The cost of socializing is that the mind gets infected by herd mentality and values. The most intelligent people in history were loner, reclusive men. Socialization takes time and energy away from intellectual work such as meditation, contemplation, being creative, etc. When I socialize, I become the average of the minds around me. What kind of minds am I socializing with? Geniuses or stupid? No matter how many geniuses, PhD’s, CEOs, the socialization is making me stupid. Consider that there are tradeoffs to socialization. The more social I am, the more minds I am communing with. The more I commune with others, the less time I will have for original thinking. There can be accomplishments in a team and in solo. There are tradeoffs. I have to sacrifice parts of myself to be in a team. There is more pressure to conform to a team. It can be selfless to be part of a group, but it can also betray my own authentic values and desires. The group can be devilish and low conscious really easily. Many people and groups don’t value deep intelligence. My mind will become the average of my social group. Socialization has many goodies such as social networking, jobs, fortune, etc. Dont confuse success from socializing for true intelligence. It is difficult to sit alone in a room and think. It is so much easier and entertaining to join a group. What was the cost of me being indoctrinated into math and not learning math on my own? How do I want to strategically position myself in society? Working as a manager at Starbucks for 30 years puts constraints on my mind. Such as creative, moral, cognitive, development, and other constraints. Professor at Harvard - Consider the constraints it will have on my mind. What do I care about? Consider how positioning myself in society will impinge upon what I want and value. Consider how my position in society affects my intellectual sovereignty. Original thought is rare and precision. The act of original thinking is difficult, highly valuable, and rare. Almost nobody is thinking from scratch. My thinking is biased by social conditioning and my position within society. How I am surviving places limits on my mind. What position do I want to take in society based on how free I want my mind to be? Observe and deconstruct the constraints on my own mind Some people think they are being smart but they are just parroting ideas such as simulation theory, Matrix, etc. People parrot analogies without tracing where they got them from. These frames/paradigms need to be broken down to unleash my fullest intelligence. Identify and break down these frames and constraints in my mind. Intelligence is inadequately defined and measured in society. The social matrix misdefines intelligence because society is stupid. Society confuses success and survival with intelligence. It confuses logic and IQ for intelligence. There are many degrees of intelligence that society does not measure. Intelligence must include wisdom and love. If it isn’t wise and loving, it isn’t worthy of being called intelligence. The highest intelligence is wisdom and love. Intelligence means approaching God. If intelligence isn’t aligned with infinite intelligence, then it is stupid intelligence. Self-actualization boils down to intelligence. Intelligence is key to life. The quality of my life hinges on how intelligent I am. Intelligence isn’t just book-smart. Reading books is helpful but they can also limit my intelligence. After a certain point, reading more books can make one stupid, fills the mind with wrong ideas. Intelligence is required for understanding and understanding is the ultimate pursuit of all of life. Open my mind to the possibility that all of reality hinges on understanding. If you understand all of reality, you are done and win the whole game. Intelligence characteristics Wisdom Love context-awareness construct-awareness big picture thinking holism deep grasp of relativity open-mindedness ability to take on new perspectives consciousness self-reflection awareness of self-deception awareness of bias and be unbiased facing fear Intelligence tests should measure one’s courage. emotional intelligence A lot of people with high IQs don’t have high EQ. There is a lot of intelligence in my emotional system. If I am not aware of how emotions run me and my logic, then I am not intelligent. Within spirituality, there is a great emphasis on emotional intelligence when compared to academia. ability to surrender and accept what is. ability to be trans-logical Capacity for abstract, implicit thinking ability to think in non-linear ways to work with paradox Intelligence must have an existential and spiritual dimension. An intelligent person is someone who is on their way towards God. The more intelligent I am, the more God-like I am. My identity, survival, selfishness limits my intelligence. Going against norms affects my survival. Thinking in new ways, leads to acting in new ways, and live in new ways. Everything begins with intelligence. How can I think better? How can I be more intelligent in my thinking? There is a difference between original thinking, high-quality thinking, and shutting off my mind. Mainstream spirituality teaches shutting off the mind to access non-dual states. It is good and has its tradeoffs. But it doesn’t teach me how to think in a high-quality way. It doesn’t teach me deep intelligence or how to understand things deeply. The mind is a powerful tool. I can develop mastery of using the mind but not many people teach this because they have not mastered their mind. It is possible to develop mastery in how my mind works and thinks. If all I do is shut off mind in meditation, then I will not develop mastery in using my mind and deep intelligence in my thinking process. **Takeaways:** Notice the affect other minds and culture has on my mind. Notice how the thoughts I think are affected by other minds. Catch myself parroting ideas that are not my own. Especially spiritual ideas/cliches. Think for myself. Notice how the need for social survival pressures my mind to groupthink. Catch myself in the moment where my authentic self is being compromised and I am falling into groupthink. Notice how many original thoughts I generate and trace where my ideas come from. Trace all of my ideas and see how many of them I actually generated. Sit down for 60 minutes and try to generate at least one chain of original thought. The default of our society and doing the bare minimum is being a battery for the matrix. My intellect will be enslaved. I will be mentally slaved. Society and technology must be used consciously with independence of thought. If I am not careful, socialization will turn me into a zombie and I will squander my life. Look at how all of socialization is enslaving my mind. Do not let culture and business define the meaning of my life. I must have meaning independent of all socialization. The main challenge of the modern life is to not let myself be turned into a mindless zombie through complacency. My number 1 job is to direct my life and be CEO of my life. My job is to be my most authentic self. One of the greatest joys in life is defining myself. I get to define that. What do I love? On every gravestone should be “This person loved _____. My deepest love shouldn’t be a mystery, it should be obvious what I love. Make it a goal to have my mind independent of social frames and have creative intelligence. This is the greatest time era to be a creator, innovator, sage or mystic. Society has many great tools but also many great distractions. It is easier more than ever to become a zombie and become complacent. Watch how my mind conforms. Spend a lot more time contemplating and thinking original thoughts. Reading deep books and videos is not the same as thinking original thoughts. When was the last time I sat down for 60 minutes to think original thoughts? Pick any subject and think about it from scratch. It is all about contemplation. The challenge is to both think deeply and have the ability to let go of thinking. Practice both meditation and contemplation. I need the ability to socialization and solitude. Traps: - Just because I am a loner doesn’t make me highly intelligent. If I am too shy or not able to talk to a stranger or girl or have friends, then I am not intelligent. Learn to have both aspects of being playful/stupid and being intelligent. Dont use intelligence to judge others. Be non-conformist in a deep way. Joining a cult, being a Libertarian, Marxist, etc. or some group is a shallow way of non-conformity. Deep non-conformity is sitting at home, contemplating my deepest values, my priorities, how I want to be creative. Anti-mainstream is stupider in general than mainstream. The whole point of Actualized.org is to get me to cut out the middle man and be inspired to investigate reality for myself and generate my own insights. The point is for me to get excited to understand reality. Forge my own path intellectually. I will start living the day I commit to developing my own original thoughts. How To Be More Decisive How To Become More Decisive “When you get to a fork in the road, take it.” - Yogi Berra “By not making a choice, you make a choice.” Creating a good life requires making high quality decisions. Indecision is a big danger. The quality of my decisions will determine the quality of my life. Many people ruin their lives through indecision. Examples: Should I work on life purpose or dating? Career or spirituality? Education or jump straight into working? What career do I want to have? Should I change careers if I am in a career that doesn’t suit me? Which passion should I follow more? Which meditation technique should I commit to? Should I have children and get married? Where should I live and settle down? Many decisions I make are made by default by indecision. Ex. being in a job I don’t like. I can choose to not put up with that and change my career. But most people will stay with it and stall because it is uncomfortable to make big changes. The default is mediocrity. To create a great life, I have to make bold decisions and stop going with the path of least resistance. Bold decisions can be scary and uncomfortable, but the default of indecision will never make me reach my highest potential. Choose decisions that grow me. I don’t need a hundred good decisions to create a good life. I only need a few wise decisions to change my life. I need my own ambition to drive me to make bold decisions. I need to challenge myself and create larger objectives. The Hero’s Journey: The hero’s journey starts with a bold decision. Where in my life have I been refusing and stalling the call for my hero’s journey? My mind is lazy and prefers comfort. Contemplate: What is the default trajectory of my life right now? If I don’t make any bold decisions and just keep staying on my path, where is the path I am on going to lead me? Will I be satisfied with that? What are some bold decisions I can make to achieve greatness? Become mindful of how I stall out my life with being indecision. My decisions are based on my values. Every decision says yes to one value and no to another. Most people make decisions unconsciously. Make conscious decisions and reflect on what values am I honoring with all my decisions. Ex. My decision to play video games is honoring the value of entertainment and is dishonoring the value of learning. Make my decisions that are in alignment with my top 10 values. If I do this, I will achieve greatness. If most of my decisions don’t align with my top 10 values, then I won’t have a good life. Decisions for a great life will align with my top 10 values + Truth, Love, Consciousness, and Selflessness. Decisions are important because I have to focus my energy at one point. Making a decision is choosing one thing and not choosing all other options. Look at the opportunity costs. With everything I am doing, consider the cost and consider how much I am investing with each opportunity. Do an audit of my decisions and time. Making important decisions quickly is a highly valuable skill. Being able to make high quality development requires wisdom, vision, discipline, experience, integrity, holism, education, lack of bias, clear perception of reality. Contemplate: What are the best decisions I have made in my life? What are the worst decisions I have made in my life? What made the best decisions good and worst decisions bad? Good decisions require integrity. I live in an unintegris and unconscious world. Most people are not decisive, not clear, not ambitious, not constructive, ideological, etc. Being decisive gives me a sense of direction, peace of mind, and clarity in life. I cannot create a good life without being clear about what I really want. Clarity should be a core value of mine. Clarity helps with being decisive. Set a goal to have high clarity in life. Leaders have clarity. Contemplate: Who do I want to be? What kind of character do I want to be? What do I want people to think of me? Decide what I want and don’t want in my life. Being indecisive wastes a lot of mental energy. Causes of indecisive: lack of clarity and self-understanding. It takes years to discover myself and my personality. Clarity is gained by observing myself deeply. Fear is another cause of indecisiveness. I fear making the wrong decision. Laziness is another cause. Thinking that things will work themselves out. Being passive vs. being active. Lack of responsibility. I want someone else to make decisions for me but I really don’t. Placing too much importance on the decision. If I place too much importance, I will be indecisive. Reframe decision-making to take the fear out of it. Most of my decisions can be undone. Making the wrong decision gives me the clarity and understanding that I lacked. Dont trap myself with the fear of failure. To succeed, I will have to embrace failure. Most of my decisions won’t kill me. Make the decisions that are new and challenging and will grow me. Staying in comfort zone won’t do anything. I will be on the same road. Most of the time I can explore both options, both sides of the forked decision. Ex. Musician or filmmaker? I can choose both. If musician doesn’t work out, then I can transfer the experience I gained and switch at any time. I will have gained a lot of experience. I can choose to be a mental health counselor, and if that doesn’t work out, then I can choose something else. I will work a lot harder than most people but I will grow from that work. Dont be afraid of hard work and working more than other people around me. What if I make a disastrous decision? It is possible. But consider the alternative. If I fear making disastrous decisions, then that could lead me to the disaster of indecision and stall out the clock of my life and ending up with mediocrity. I should be more afraid of not taking action and not going for what I want. I should fear resistance to action more than wrongful action. The comfortable life slowly leads into depression over time because I am not acting on my greatest ambitions. Gift of God is in my hands. God’s creation is in my hands. How to be decisive: Be willing to make mistakes and learn from them. Dont be afraid of making bad or wrong decisions. Train myself on minor, mundane decisions, make them decisively, then I will be prepared for being decisive on big decisions. Dissect my decisions. Train myself to stick to my decisions. Get clear about my values, vision, and life purpose. Keep working at clarifying that across my lifetime. Use my top 10 values to help me make my decisions. Take full responsibility for being a decision-maker, think of myself as a decision-maker, and stop outsourcing that to other people. Dont stall or procrastinate decisions. Train myself to make decisions as they arise. Observe the consequences of stalling and backtracking, and not being clear on my decisions. Being decisive gives me peace of mind, calm, and confidence. I become decisive by changing my behavior. How do I have to change my behavior to become a more decisive person? Make decisions before problems arise. Foresee my decisions by thinking in the long-term. Shallow vs. deep decision Deep decisions - I have contemplated it thoroughly and understand why I should do it or not or why it is the right or wrong decision for me. Shallow decision Ex. Seeing junk food but turning it down and going to get something healthy. Deep decision Ex. Think about all the things I am putting into my body on a daily basis. What impact will this have on my life and my ambition? How does eating this junk serve my top values? How will making this decision affect my meditation, thinking, and spiritual practice? What if I make a decision to not eat junk food ever again because I want to honor my top 5 values and this is undermining it. Deep decisions think through the full cost and consequences are long-term for my vision, top values, and who I want to be as a character in life. Contemplate: Do I want to be decisive or not? Consider pros and cons and the work it will take to achieve that. Is it worthwhile to put in the work to be decisive? What will indecisiveness cost me over my lifetime? Indecision is worse than making the wrong decision. Why have I been indecisive? What were the costs? What could my life look like if I made more bold decisions? What are some really good decisions that I can make in my life? What are some really bad decisions I can make in my life? What decisions have I been stalling on? How can I make better decisions? What makes a decision good? Making great decisions ties into intuition and wisdom. There are things in my life so non-negotiable that they do not feel like decisions. Ex. living a life with passion. rejecting the easy life rejecting path of least resistance Do the thing that is right not the thing that is easy. Pursue philosophy and truth. Homework: Contemplate The Following: What is the default trajectory of my life right now? If I don’t make any bold decisions and just keep staying on my path, where is the path I am on going to lead me? Will I be satisfied with that? What are some bold decisions I can make to achieve greatness? What are the best decisions I have made in my life? What are the worst decisions I have made in my life? What made the best decisions good and worst decisions bad? Who do I want to be? What kind of character do I want to be? What do I want people to think of me? Do I want to be decisive or not? Consider pros and cons and the work it will take to achieve that. Is it worthwhile to put in the work to be decisive? What will indecisiveness cost me over my lifetime? Indecision is worse than making the wrong decision. Why have I been indecisive? What were the costs? What could my life look like if I made more bold decisions? What are some really good decisions that I can make in my life? What are some really bad decisions I can make in my life? What decisions have I been stalling on? How can I make better decisions? What makes a decision good? What are some deep decisions that I can make? Commit to this work of living a decisive and contemplative lifestyle.

Intro To Pure Philosophy “Philosophy is not the love of wisdom, it’s the love of pure understanding.” - Leo Gura “There is only one serious philosophical question, which is: What is Consciousness? And that is because, Consciousness is all there is.” - Leo Gura All the real philosophy is needed to be learned on my own. Top lesson of philosophy is appearances can be deceiving. Consider that philosophy is the most important thing a human can do. Grasp the importance of curiosity, contemplation, and asking profound questions about reality. Philosophy is about connecting with life. Science is a subset of philosophy. Science was created by philosophers. Questioning is what humans take for granted. What is a question? How do questions work? How is questioning reality possible? Why do humans have questioning functions? It is amazing that I can ask questions about reality and get meaningful answers. Questioning itself is amazingly mysterious. Asking questions is a superpower. Most people underutilize the power of asking questions. Turn questioning into an art. Become curious. Philosophy is also very practical. There is a philosophy of success, and I can ask questions about what success is and the principles to be success, and study the work and philosophies of people who have been successful. A true philosopher takes up the task to ask questions for their own genuine curiosity. Questions to get started in philosophy Write down the questions I am genuinely interested in Where did reality come from? Why is there something rather than nothing? What is language? What is consciousness? Is a rock conscious? Are plants conscious? Can a machine be conscious What is the relationship between mind and matter What is truth? Does ultimate truth even exist? What makes for a good life? why do people suffer? how do we reduce suffering? is religion valid? does God exist? what is God? Where did God come from? How can I know science is true? What makes science better than religion? What is rationality? Can anything be known for certain? Is philosophy even worthwhile? How can I be sure anything exists outside my own consciousness? What are the best ways to understand nature? What do the results of Quantum Mechanics mean? What is the color red? How do I know I am not fooling myself? What is life? Where did life originate? Where did the laws of physics come from? Could they have been different? What is time? Is time travel possible? why does war happen? Why does war keep happening? What would it be like to communicate with aliens? How do we construct the best society possible? Can all true things be proven? What is proof? What constitutes proof? Why is the world ordered? What is more certain perceptions or reason? Which should I trust more than the other? How do I know which sources of information I should trust? Does philosophy have right or wrong answers or is everything subjective and relative? How to know if philosophy is right for me? Am I deeply curious about fundamental existential questions Am I able to stop wondering and questioning everything? Do I love truth and pure understanding for its own sake? Do I love to question and contemplate? Do I love to do thought experiments? Does asking existential questions excite me? Do I love conversations about profound existential topics with other humans? What do I want out of philosophy? Why am I doing philosophy? What are my motivations? It is important to be clear about this for myself. Contemplation is a lifelong journey. It is about deepening my understanding and insight into reality. Contemplation is not about getting some quick answer or asking other people for the answers. Philosophy is all about going through the process myself and deriving my own answers. Various fields in philosophy Metaphysics/Ontology What is existence/reality? What is anything? Does God exist and what is God? Is reality material or mental? Epistemology How do I know what is true? Ethics/morality What is good? What is evil? Aesthetics What is beauty? What is art? Political philosophy Science What scientific paradigms are correct? Logic/mathematics Religion Philosophy of mind What is consciousness? What is qualia? What is subjectivity? Psychology How do I do good philosophy if my psychology is weakened? I have to take into account my own biases when doing philosophy Sociology History Spirituality Make a distinction between speculation and genuine observation and insights. Philosophy is not about speculation and belief. Philosophy is about making genuine observations about reality and having genuine insights. The only way to become a great philosopher is to spend thousands of hours in deep questioning and contemplation. Knowing how to question well and how to think is an essential skill to have that I have to develop just like tennis. Most people are poor thinkers because they are biased in their thinking. Traps Projection Confirmation bisa Confabulation Rationalization/justification Reasoning backwards from conclusions Question Begging Circular logic Notice how tricky my own mind is. That is how I become more aware of self-deceptions. Philosophy is about improving the quality of my thinking. Philosophy is about high-quality thinking in general. Philosophical work is accomplished through contemplation and observation. Contemplate and observe Do thought experiments and observe what happens Philosophy work is accomplished by thought experiments and also accomplished by exploring different points of view. Philosophers are interested in exploring perspectives for their own sake and not about whether it is right or wrong. Questioning everything and all assumptions. Learning how to think and how to question is valuable for its own sake. I will be thinking throughout my life. Will I think good or bad? High quality thinking will help me throughout all domains in life. It is a wise investment. Philosophy is about self-reflection Be aware of how my own mind gets in the way of my observation. Philosophy is not armchair and guessing. Bad philosophy: I think plants are conscious or not conscious. Good philosophy: What might plant consciousness look like and how would I verify that? Bad philosophy is mental masturbation Good philosophy is pure understanding Philosophy is all about genuine desire Truth not verifying pet theories. This means to admit when I am wrong and adjust my methods. Most philosophers try to reinforce their biases. Groupthink and ideology is another trap. There is a difference between reading Karl Marx and being a Marxist than just studying economics and come to my own conclusions. Inquiry vs. rationalization Inquiring = asking questions and deriving answers Rationalization = coming up with stories why it is true and why something else is false Debating, arguing, and critiquing is another trap of philosophy. When I am debating I am doing rationalization and not inquiry. My mind can rationalize and convince me of any philosophy and anything. Deciphering old texts from philosophers is a distraction. Philosophy is not writing and publishing papers. Philosophy is not subscribing to a philosophy or philosopher. Philosophy is not about proving things to others. I don’t have to prove my understanding to others. Other people are so closed-minded that I could never prove anything to them. Credentials and status have nothing to do with philosophy. What if Plato is a bad philosopher? It is not about the philosopher, it is about the quality of their ideas. Even intelligent people like Einstein have bad ideas. Authority doesn’t guarantee whether ones ideas are good or valid. Putting people on pedastles isn’t philosophy. Using philosophy to avoid survival and practicality is another trap. Philosophy can be used as escapism. Put my philosophy to the test in the real world not just brainstorm. Suffering is a true test to my philosophy. True understanding is not just theory, it is transforming me. Deep Philosophy changes my behavior, it is not just brainstorming. Serious philosophy can scare and threaten me. Philosophy requires deep courage for truth-seeking. Correct philosophy, I will be able to answer every existential question and come to know myself and reality completely. Pure Philosophy is philosophy devoid of any person, history, or ideology. Pure Philosophy is caring only about the ideas themselves. It is like a spread sheet of every idea, concept, and perspective about reality. Then, these concepts are evaluated based on their merit and revise them freely to create the best possible understanding of reality. Pure Philosophy is only about complete understanding and not about proving or debunking or convincing the whole world or writing papers. It is simply interested in Pure Understanding of reality, which involves questioning everything. Nothing is taken for granted. Everything starts from scratch. Infinite open-mindedness. 5 questions for pure philosophy How is anything possible? What is anything? Where did I come from? What is consciousness? How do I live the best life? **Top techniques for serious philosophers** Sit down and contemplate for hours in solitude Sitting alone and thinking with focus is challenging. Asking powerful questions and getting better at asking questions and clarifying questions. Simplicity, clarity, and cutting through ignorance/delusion If I truly understand something, I should be able to explain it to a child. I will be able to explain it simply. Radical skepticism Question everything and apply skepticism to my own ideas Get an overview of all philosophies. Study all philosophies a little bit so that I can understand the landscape of many different points of view. Don’t just study one philosophy/philosopher in-depth and neglect all others. Big picture is key to full understanding. Explore radical perspectives and points of view. Radical open-mindedness. Question science as though it were a religion Psychedelics Keep a common-place book of all my notes and quotes. Write down all of my major insights and put them in my commonplace book Do serious meditation practices. Go to meditation retreats. Make a deep study of psychology and sociology - Understand my mind and how culture programs my own mind Making and collapsing distinctions Generate specific and powerful examples. Analyze the examples and how they work. Observation happens externally and internally. Observation Master language and clear articulation of my ideas Engage with other intellectuals in philosophical conversations but not debate. Arguing with others with retard my development. Writing. Write out all my ideas. Do my philosophy on paper. It helps to keep me honest and articulate my ideas. Teaching philosophy. Start YouTube channel, blog, or public speaking. Get my ideas out there and learn. Develop practical skills like computer programming, copywriting, sales skills, cooking skills, etc. Keep my philosophy simple and clear. Articulate my ideas so simple that a child can understand it. Be careful of pet theories and intuitions. Consciousness is key. Study consciousness the most. Consciousness is my north star. What is consciousness? Be more open minded Enjoy the process of pure understanding. There is no rush. This process will take a few decades. Generate practical insights for materialistic pursuits Be an original thinker. Don’t follow any philosopher. Read less and contemplate more. Contemplation is more powerful than reading Don’t get attached to any one school of thought like Buddhism. I don’t need technicalities of philosophers. All I need is overview on the wikipedia page. I don’t need to spend a month reading Descartes when I can read Descartes in one hour. I don’t need to read the original works. Their ideas are what are important. Wikipedia is my greatest friend. Study self-help Be careful of being too specialized. Be holistic. Holism = pure understanding Make clarity one of my highest values. History and parroting are not philosophy Beware of intellectual fads Which philosophies are worth reading and studying? Skepticism/Pyrrhonism Idealism Relativism Political philosophy Eastern philosophy Dzogchen Mysticism Non-duality Meditation Monism Solipsism Yoga Philosophers most worth reading? Heraclitus Anaxamander Anaxagorus Platinus Sextus Empiricus Hegel German idealists (excluding Kant) Berkeley Thomas Kuhn Paul Firerobind Spinoza Willard Quine William James Stoics: Marcus Aurelius & Epictetus Arabindow Ken Wilber Peter Ralston Overrated philosophers who are least worth reading (Just read their stuff on wikipedia for their ideas) Socrates Plato Aristotle Descartes Hume Kant Deridoff Wittgenstein Hobbes Locke Nietzsche Heideggar Sarte Camus Ayn Rand Confucius Rosseau Is there one correct philosophy? Idealism Panpsychism Pantheism Monism Nonduality Zen Buddhism Vedanta Radical Skepticism Pyrrhonism Mysticism Holism Relativism Hindu idealism Solipsism subjectivism phenomenology Is philosophy worth doing? Mental masturbation is a trap of philosophy but philosophy done properly can be used practically and to understand reality. Philosophy can be done to connect deeper with life and be happy. You can’t avoid philosophy. Not doing philosophy means being programmed by philosophies of my culture. What is the end point of philosophy? Philosophy is like a maze Awakening/God-Realization Philosophies that are a waste of time dualism atheism behaviorism materialism realism logical positivism empiricism rationalism libertarianism nihilism absurdism existentialism reductionism Should I become a professional philosopher? Leo does not recommend it because the university does not care about truth. I can be a philosopher outside of academia like on YouTube, but there are only a few slots. I have to offer unique and original insights that provide value. Getting started with philosophy Briefly study all the different philosophies out there in summaries Decide what questions I am most interested in answering. Make a list. Start a habit of independent contemplation Observe my own mind at work and write down new insight about how my own mind works. Be really truthful and honest about my biases and self-deceptions Set a timer for 60 minutes and contemplate a question of interest. Have a notepad for only writing down insights. Mindless writing is a distraction and is not contemplation. Do philosophy that transforms me. That is true philosophy.

Make sure you find a licensed professional counselor (LPC), who specializes in evidence-based practices such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Therapists are not supposed to impose their values into you, but to rather help you understand yours and point out your limiting beliefs/views. If this keeps happening, see another therapist. Journal about what you really want out of a therapist and out of life. Do your own research. The quality of your life hinges on quality of your research.

The real delusion is perceiving negativity in the first place. Truth is basking in the perception of pure positivity and beauty. Of course, you still have more work to do to process and work through your negative thinking. Rule of mind is that negative thinking is a clue that you are missing something about reality. Good luck.

This is the issue. It is a self-defeating narrative that will always be true until you think otherwise. “Whether you think you can or can’t, you are right.” - Henry Ford Open your mind to other points of view without attachment. You are attaching yourself to a disempowering and untrue view of reality. Entertain the possibility of what she is saying and verify it is true. Don’t immediately dismiss ideas that disconfirm yours. Healing requires a transformation in your outlook. If you don’t change, you will always be stuck. The future isn’t written because it doesn’t exist. Decide who you want to be and be it now. She is right in that everything starts with belief and desire.

You don’t need a fancy software like OneNote. All you need is your Notes app on your iPhone. Keep it simple.

I read Peter Ralston, Jed McKenna, and Eckhart Tolle in that order.

Then what are you waiting for? Go all in. I am talking about the first date or beginning phase of a relationship. Now, I don't even ask my girlfriend. I just look her in the eyes and make out. If a woman on the first date thinks that you asking for consent is nooby, then maybe she doesn't have high self-respect? That is a red flag for me. I have been a nice guy and have achieved all results that I have dreamed of out of relationships/sexuality because I am authentic, respectful/kind, confident, and witty. And I blow her mind with my love for philosophy and magic tricks.

I just ask, “Is it okay if I kiss you?” It works wonders. My now girlfriend said it turned her on when I asked her for consent because it made her feel comfortable.

Absolute Beauty. Infinite Intelligence. Absolute Love. Complete Perfection.

This one is better in my opinion! It even had OA (original artist) tear up. It had me tear up too! Enjoy!

But... isn't that what is the case? You said that my hand is actuality and bigfoot, santa clause, and round earth are imaginary. If I went up into space (imaginary) and saw the round earth (imaginary), and then if I come down to earth, how would I know that the earth is round when I am not looking at it? How would I know that I actually saw the "actual" earth rather than just imagining it now? In the same way, I can look up at the moon, but how do I know that the moon exists when I cannot see it during the day? How do I know external reality exists? The answer is that I don't know. If I imagine that I have seen Bigfoot in the past, the answer is still that I do not know because me claiming that I know is assuming that my memories are accurate and that time is real. In a way, Bigfoot like The Big Bang, depends on me existing in the first place like you have claimed before. Third-person objectivity depends on first-person subjectivity. Am I missing something?

I have not heard of anyone on here talking about David Lion. I am not sure why that is. He is very spiritual and has great wisdom. He is a mystic, channeler, healer, psychic, hypnosis, and magician. Here is his website: https://www.livingmagic.life You can also find some of his YouTube videos, which I think have been quite helpful! What do you all think of David Lion?

Rationalism is correct. You are proving it just now just by talking about it. All knowledge is a form of thought. Some people say that there is a knowledge through being because being is primary to thinking. All knowledge is about being. But being cannot be known because it is. The hand cannot grasp itself so it creates a thought to create a game where the mind attempts to grasp being but it cannot. Rationalism cannot get you to being. But rationalism can point you in that direction, which is what all of this typing and thinking is. But think about it this way. In the relative domain, rationalism is one of the best ways of knowing anything. If you want to know the earth is round, you have to first experience it first-hand. Then, you take note of those observations and store them into long-term memory. You make sense of the world you are living right now through your mind, through critical thinking. You know that the earth is round even when cannot see it because you have the memory of it when you did see it first-hand. If you just relied on what you observe now (absent of rationalism), you would naturally believe that the sun moves across the sky rather than the earth rotating. Rationalism is what says that the earth rotates because you have no experience of the earth rotating, only the sun moving. Your senses can deceive you. Another similar example is with poisonous plants. Your mind identifies what plants are edible and poisonous through experience and memory. It takes critical thinking to be able to remember what you previously observed. People may say that rationality can also deceive you too. But I would suggest that it is irrationality that deceives you because if you are deceived, then somewhere along the way, you missed something and had an error in your thought processes. If you consider all the options and think things through and are willing to admit you are wrong, you are being rational and that is a more reliable method than relying on anything else. Critical thinking is essential because it analyzes experience. Without rationalism, you would not have any access to the knowledge you acquired through experience!!!!

Infinity cannot be reached. You can only realize yourself to be Infinity. The hand can’t grab itself. This spawn count stuff is just another ego game. No more valid than getting the sperm count for Santa Clause. I am Jesus, average Joe, and the shit and piss of Donald Trump.

Most definitely! However, if you want enlightenment, you will need to also use contemplation to deconstruct your mind. So it’s like washing your hands to have clean hands. You need both water and soap if you want clean hands. Same with your mind in experiencing the nature of reality. Awaken to Absolute Beauty. It is right here always.

Keep at it. Don’t just stop after today lol. Try Satisfaction Meditation for 2 weeks and if you don’t get the results you want, then try Absolute Beauty Meditation (ABM) for 2 weeks. Just be satisfied with existence itself. Connect with the Beauty of Existence. That is what all meditation is about. Don’t make it so complicated. Keep going!

But there are higher stages of meditation and TV watching! You can meditate deeply or shallow. You can watch TV consciously or unconsciously.

I feel like I am not even in a body. I feel like my body is inside of Me!