r0ckyreed

I haven’t been following much, but will your new awakening course be strictly focusing on psychedelics as a means to awaken or will it also focus on contemplation and sober ways of awakening as well? While I grant that psychedelics can raise consciousness, I am skeptical that they “produce” awakening. If that were so, then anybody who takes them could awaken, but the thing is that realization is more than just a pill, it is a state of mind. How is it that there are psychonauts who aren’t God-Realized if all it really takes is a drug-induced state? That’s why I stress mastering the sober state. Until the sober state is mastered, all other “higher states” will be inhibited or reflected by the other undeveloped states (I.e., sober state). It’s not as simple as plugging 200 trips of 5-meO. With some peoples minds, no amount of psychedelics will breakthrough. Behind the scenes contemplation and integration needs to happen.

I have been holding back on posting this trip for a while now, but I thought I would share it because I do not see a lot of information about anesthesia on here. I would like to make better sense of my experience. This trip happened back in 2016. I was needing to get my wisdom teeth removed. Back then (Senior year in high school), I was a cross-country runner. When I walked into the room, they measured my heart rate at 42 beats per minute. The person there was kind of shocked, but I told her I was a cross-country runner. Anyways, as soon as I got the shot of anesthesia, that was the last thing I remembered before waking up to the sound of my dad's voice. Where was I in the space between the shot and the wake up? It felt like I woke up in just a blink of an eye. I had no ego at all in that space. As I was beginning to wake back up, I remember still existing in the egoless void for a bit. I could hear sounds of my dad's voice getting me to wake up, but I still had no registered what it was. The sounds were all part of Me but the "I" character did not exist. It was as if going back into the world (reintegrating back into the world) was like recreating myself again. "The procedure" did not exist. All there was in my experience was the shot in my arm, the egoless void, and the waking up. Which all happened as if it did not even happen at all. This all makes me really wonder whether I experienced death. What is the difference between the short death I experienced and the long-term death that we assume will happen at the end of our lives? Is there really a difference? The "death" I experienced was so short that it was as if it did not even happen. This makes me really wonder whether physical death is even real. I mean what was I before I was born? There is a blank. Yet, from this blank, the idea and story of me was created, and I imagined it being recreated when I woke up from anesthesia. Billions of years can pass as if it is nothing, a blink of an eye. Maybe it is nothing? But what is nothing? That is probably one of the deepest questions I could ask. It hits into all things that we think of when we call something "reality." Reality is consciousness and consciousness is nothing at all. This trip also revealed to me at that time that I am consciousness. I never lose consciousness, I just lose an ego for a "brief time." There are many forms of ego-deaths that happens in our lives when sleeping, life/personality change, or anesthesia/drugs/meditiation, and death. But this seems contradictory to me because my direct experience suggests that those events of sleeping and anesthesia never happened but were merely constructed to create reality from a blank. The ego never really dies because it never existed. This trip was the closest experience I have had to have having my entire reality wiped away. What are your all's thoughts? Have you had similar experiences on anesthesia? How different is the ego death of psychedelics different to that of anesthesia? This ego death was so intense that I did not have any experience at all. I had no colors, no hallucinations, no ideas, not even an idea of myself being under anesthesia, no memory, etc. It was as if I was really dead.

Here’s an insight I just had on a run and it’s this. If you aren’t frustrated with yourself for being mediocre then you’re doing it wrong. If you are happy with being mediocre then you are reinforcing mediocrity in your life. The Buddha is wrong the goal is not to eliminate suffering, it is to learn how to bear it with it and use it to grow yourself to success. Think about it if you were completely happy and didn’t suffer and weren’t frustrated with being mediocre then you would be mediocre. You will become whatever you are content with. If you are satisfied with playing video games all day and don’t feel anything wrong with that, then you will never level up. Without suffering there could be no growth and no success. Think of any person you think is highly developed. David Goggins, Sadhguru, Alan Watts, Leo Gura, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or whoever. The common theme is they are all not content with being mediocre. If they followed the teachings of Buddha or Christ to be satisfied with themselves, then they would have never leveled up in life. This comes from my personal experience. I excel at anything I really care about whether that’s tennis, trumpet, or whatever. With caring comes suffering. But suffering is good. Attachment is good. It is good to be attached to things that deeply matter such as your vision for your life. If I followed the Buddha, I would have never excelled at anything. Yes, I got mad at myself for failure, yes I suffered, but what is a good life without suffering? It’s counterintuitive. The good life isn’t infinite bliss, it is falling in love with life, which means to set challenges for yourself, fail, and to suffer. The good life is falling in love with suffering, not trying to get rid of it. That’s the key point. I could not be attached, not care about my results, but the fact is, you aren’t going to enjoy your life if you don’t care about it or the results. Your life is always happening now. Fall in love with the Now always because that is where you live, but that is no excuse to not care, not plan, and not have a vision. It is paradox to be in the Now while also being a Visionary. You have to know the right balance for you to be at your 100%. If you aren’t at 100%, it is okay to not be satisfied. Always love yourself, but never be satisfied if you aren’t living up to your fullest. That is also a paradox as well. How do I love myself if you are telling me to not be satisfied with myself for being mediocre? Because the highest love you can give yourself is your fullest creative potential. Being dissatisfied and angry is good because that is a sign that you are acknowledging some area of your life is unacceptable to you. That is good. If you are satisfied doing drugs then you will never stop doing them. Real change comes with you being real to yourself. At some point you have to admit that your poison is unacceptable. Your highest love is to not be satisfied with everything in your life (particular that which doesn’t serve you; mediocrity), it is rather to strive to be satisfied with yourself now with a vision to be in alignment with your higher-self. Hope this is helpful. This was a big trap for me. It is easy to take teachings to limit your growth. The key takeaway is to allow yourself to be angry with things that don’t go your way. If you are a happy Buddha with everything, then you are signaling to the Universe that you are also okay with being mediocre. You will manifest what you accept. Contemplate what improvement really means and entails. If I am satisfied with how fast I run, then can you see how that would hinder me from improving? Improvement requires a big change in your mentality to always strive to get better. There is no finish line. Whatever you are satisfied with, that is what you’ll get.

I see suffering as being of the body, which I think of as pain and discomfort. Then, there is also suffering of the mind, which I think is dissatisfaction, unhappiness, depression, greed, anger, etc. Basically taking the present moment for granted and not liking it. Yes. What I’m talking about here is learning to accept what naturally arises. So I am speaking learning to love the suffering of the body, pain/discomfort. And learning to accept and love yourself when you are frustrated, sad, or whatever as a natural consequence to things that can happen. If your house burns down, people you love die, or you fall and break your leg, you are naturally going to suffer if you care about those things: your house, family, and your health. And that is okay to feel those emotions. When I say love your suffering, I mean to give yourself love as if you loved a child when they are suffering, so self-compassion. I am saying that you can always see the magic of life and fall in love with it and still experience all the emotions too. In fact, I suggest it is important to be emotionally sensitive and not closed off like I used to believe. I used to take a Jedi approach where you were always calm and happy and never expressed any other “negative” emotions. The thing is to never lose sight of maintaining self-control and self-love when feeling frustrated or fear or sadness, etc. A deeper level of love is to love all the emotions you feel, not just the “good” ones. The “negative” ones can give you great power and can keep you on track, but if your not careful, they can break you. Even positive emotions can also break you. Too much positivity can collapse into negativity if not careful. What does it mean to “transcend suffering?” Do you still feel fear, sadness, pain, etc.? That’s right. I am willing to put in the work to achieve my goals, but I still backslide in my pursuits. This is normal. To me, it is okay to be frustrated with backsliding. But like I say, never lose sight of loving yourself fully, which I see as accepting yourself and striving to improve. I don’t think I’m above mediocrity. I think I am exceptional at some things, but am mediocre in other areas. I strive to be exceptional in all things that matter to me. The hard paradox is if I am satisfied and complete as I am, how do I improve? Doesn’t improvement imply something isn’t complete? If it is perfect, why improve it? The thing is that I am complete as I am already. Improvement is something I give to myself because I love how complete I am already and know the potential of more that I can do with time. The default position is complacency which is being satisfied with no striving to improve. I agree. No amount of achievement will ever satisfy you if you cannot be happy with yourself now. What I am saying is that satisfaction for life is critical, but being satisfied with no aim to improve (complacency) is a trap. If I run for an hour and meditate for an hour very deeply, I will strive to improve that. My goal is to have fun, enjoy the process, but also to improve as well. I set high standards for myself. If I don’t follow through on it, I am dissatisfied. Not in myself, but in my performance. I totally agree. Maybe I was unclear in my communication. But what I was saying is yes, the deepest levels of satisfaction come from within but that it is okay to experience dissatisfaction to help you grow. Not dissatisfaction in yourself, but in your performance. That is the key that I was trying to illustrate. Always love yourself and accept the performance you gave, but don’t be satisfied with it if it doesn’t live up to your standards. Set high standards for yourself to honor your life is basically what I am saying. Aim for the sun. If you land on a moon, keep going and enjoy the ride. Yes, you are complete even if you land on a moon, but the sun is where you are fully blossomed. A seed is perfect and complete as it is, but if the seed wishes to become the highest of what it is, it will have to be willing to bear through droughts, heavy rain, wind, and storms. The same is with us. At least I think.

Stated that question and answer in my original post. There is a difference between loving yourself and being complacent/satisfied. It really depends on what you are meaning by satisfaction. If you being satisfied means that you are complacent, satisfied with just eating junk food and watching movies, then satisfaction is an obstacle. Like I keep saying, if you are happy where you are at, then you will stay there. But if you want to live up to your full potential, that is gonna take a lot of work and suffering to attain. Whatever goal you have in life, you gotta ask how much am I willing to suffer for this goal? It’s important to have realistic expectations. If you aren’t where you wanna be in life, then don’t be satisfied with that. Go after your dreams and fight for them. Of course you always wanna strive to be satisfied with yourself existentially speaking, but I am focusing on circumstances.

If you want something to happen, you gotta model it yourself. What is your positive insight without coming on here just to argue or judge?

Assuming Buddha and Christ actually existed, I agree totally. My issue is that it is really easy to misunderstand the Buddha. If you interpret him as the goal being to eliminating all suffering, then you also eliminate all that is good about life as a natural consequence. That is what I was saying he was wrong about if in fact he meant it in the way I interpreted it. All I am saying is that I realized for myself is that it is okay to feel other emotions besides happiness. It is okay to let yourself feel frustrated when you don’t perform your best. In fact, I suggest that being happy with a poor performance in life is a reinforcer to repeat bad performances. If you are happy doing drugs, you will continue to do them, but if you are mad at yourself for doing them, that could be what you need to bring about a change in you. People can easily turn Buddhism into a trap where they want to let go of all their attachments, desires, and dreams, and strive to have no emotion other than happiness, contentment, and bliss. But the issue is that the Buddha’s teachings on attachment for instance and suffering, don’t seem to me like they apply to the majority of people today. I hear a lot of people say to me that if they followed the Buddha, they wouldn’t care, and that hit me because I realized that the reason why I studied philosophy, and why I excelled at all the things I excelled at were because I cared. I still loved myself and was loved what I did, but my perfectionism showed how much I cared about being good at the skills I cared about. Maybe this is my misunderstanding of Buddha’s teachings and if so, I guarantee I am not alone. For instance, I do agree with Buddha about striving to live in the Now, but the thing is that if you go all the way with any teaching, it will stunt you and become a trap. Living in the Now is always a reality for you whether you are thinking about future or not. All teachings need nuance. Meditation is good, but like I said, at some point you gotta get off the mat and learn how to meditate when you are in the moment of suffering. Suffering is eliminated not by avoiding it and emotional fakery and toxic positivity, but it is rather “eliminated” when you no longer perceive suffering as suffering. That is my take on it at this point anyways. I appreciate your all’s thoughts and feedback so far.

It’s gonna mean something to you. That is what matters. I think this is a trap that even Leo warned about. Not all meanings are at equal footing. It is like saying that the Left Wing and Right Wing are both equal footing. But they are not. You can feel inside yourself and determine whether eating junk food or working out is more meaningful. They are both relative but that doesn’t mean junk food is healthy because it is relative. Life is meaningless but you living as a human if you treat it like that, then there is also no reason to breathe. I pointed this out in my Desire Contemplation post. Meaning needs to be constructed to survive in this meaningless universe. Life is meaningless which makes it infinitely meaningful because you can create whatever meaning you truly want. Life is meaningless goes full circle. I think it is important to be careful here with understanding of relativism. Relativism doesn’t mean that everyone is on equal levels. There are degrees. For instance, Hitler was more selfish than Gandhi. Is this just my opinion? Feel inwards and be truthful to yourself. Of course, Hitler won’t introspect truthfully and he will say he is selfless. But that doesn’t mean it is true. Relativism doesn’t mean anything goes. It means something is only true under certain contexts and parameters. Sure you can but be careful what you go for. Remember, this is a post in the personal development thread so while mediocre may be an illusion at highest level, I am talking relativistically here on insights around survival. To say mediocre and success is illusion to average person would derail them not help them. What do you expect lol. We are talking about personal development. And you make it seem like stage orange is a bad thing. You can’t reach the highest stages if you don’t have the basics from other stages mastered. This is a stage Orange thread and that is okay. Even after you awaken at Turquoise or beyond or whatever you wanna call that stage, you gotta be able to bring it back and integrate it with lower stages. Realizing you are God is one thing, but living like God is another. That’s true. It all comes from within. What I mean by satisfaction in this particular thread is more like contentment or complacency, where you are happy where you are at and don’t care about going forward. In a way, that is a low level of satisfaction. A high level would be what I indicate above which is to maximize your creative potential and not just sit around on the couch all day. At some point you gotta put on your shoes and take them off. Balance. I appreciate your all’s feedback and thoughts so far.

Being “hot” I assume you are referring to physical body is a facet society/culture has brainwashed upon you as a form of psychic control. All genders struggle with this notion of being “hot.” Heres the reality. It doesn’t matter how your physical body looks in terms of what society thinks. We are all gonna grow old (if we are lucky) and die. Even the hottest people in the world will become the “ugliest.” Everyone will be the same dust in the end. Hot is an illusion. Strive to be mentally hot not body hot because at the end of the day, the quality of your mind is what you have control over. Both your body and mind will decay with time, but the point is to develop yourself and live up to your best. At the end of the day, everyone has insecurities and just realize that you aren’t alone in that. Notice how everyone has insecurities. It is quite normal actually.

Yes. I love my time alone. My mind fascinates me more than other people. Social life can be very awkward for me because I only love talking about controversial things and things few people are interested in like philosophy for instance. I’ve always seen obsession and repetitive behaviors as a positive. I have always been obsessed by things that I love. Meditation and doing other activities may be helpful. But I think following your obsession can be good if your obsession is aligned with your heart.

If you are going to create an identity out of being Aspergian, it might be a good idea to have another perspective, possibly a mental health counselor/practitioner. Self-diagnosis can be dangerous if you don’t know what your doing. Of course, the diagnosis game is arbitrary. I have Aspergers and ADHD, but I never defined myself by it. I saw myself in a positive light. I was not very social, had trouble communicating, but I loved spending time alone playing with toys and things more than with other children. I still kinda do this today, but with my mind. I know some people who have autism suffer from negative outcomes of being isolated. But for me, I was always labeled as weird by others, but I never cared what they thought because I was more interested in music, tennis, chess, etc. I was also very hyperactive and never knew how to “act” in social situations. But I focused my energy on what I liked rather than social drama. I was obsessed with being the best at whatever I did. I was a perfectionist. I could spend hours doing the same thing over and over again, as repetitive behaviors are a symptom of autism spectrum or aspergers. Today, I am similar. I never had medication. Activities that trained my focus such as tennis, trumpet, chess, magic, etc. were my “medication” that helped me build the skills to manage symptoms and enhance them in positive ways. But remember, you are not a diagnosis. You are unique. However, diagnosis can be a great tool to help you understand how unique you are.

The Force is the best description I think of reality. When you say God, people think you are religious and think you are monotheistic. When you say The Force, that captures pantheism and the essence of reality much deeper. Reality isn’t a man in the sky. Reality is The Force, the energy and consciousness in all things. The Force is a better term because God is assumed to be a powerful being, whereas the Force is pure magic with no being. The Force represents pure Love, relative morality, and the embracement of both light and dark sides. Whereas the term God implies an absolute morality.

Don’t be a stormtrooper. Become a Jedi like Yoda and meditate with The Force. As Rose says “don’t fight what you hate, save what you love.” Jedis = Journaling, Education, Discipline, Imagination, Solitude/Spirituality

Keep it simple. Wake up, eat food, drink water, and then follow whatever lights you up in that moment. If you are grinding through some routine, your mind is gonna be soft. Be creative with your life. Keep it simple. Try doing something completely different. Try not going by routine but go by inspiration for one week. See how your life changes if you go by inspiration instead of grinding. Keep it simple. Do what works. Don’t do what doesn’t work. Discipline means to be a disciple to what you love. Do what you love and you will have energy guaranteed. If not, then there is something physiologically/psychologically wrong or you don’t really love what you are doing. Running and working out gives me energy. Here is the counterintuitive move, to gain energy, you first have to expend energy. If you are working out your body but not your mind, then that is a problem.

My mate, the whole point of a morning routine is to energize you for the rest of the day. You don’t need to be doing a 3 hour morning routine. If you fill your morning with a bunch of tasks, your gonna burnout. For me personally, I don’t even have a morning routine per se. I tend to follow my inspiration rather than some rigid routine. Doing something different each day makes new neural connections and activates and engages different parts of the brain than if you are doing same thing each day. If you did 100 push-ups everyday, you wouldn’t grow after a certain point. You have to vary it up and work on different facets. It’s not about how long you meditate, it is about how deep you go. Learn how to meditate deeply in a 10 minute period. Here’s the key thing: Your morning routine should be simple to energize you to get your tasks done. I feel like you use such an extensive routine as a way to procrastinate or prolong doing the tasks required that day. Shorten your routine to 30 minutes. Then tackle the hell out of your main project that day. You attentional capacity and mental resources are limited each day. Use your mind when it is fresh rather than using your prime attention on tasks not required. Can you be energized for the day in less than 30 minutes? 15 minutes? Why 3 hours? I said it all here. Again, your working memory and attention are limited each day. Use your mind when it is fresh. $$$$Again, the whole purpose of a morning ritual is to give you the energy and motivation/inspiration for the rest of the day. If your morning ritual is making you tired, you are doing something wrong.$$$$ Edit: Watch The movie series Rocky. You think Rocky Balboa’s morning ritual takes him long? Keep it simple. Rocky just eats eggs, stretches and goes for a quick run. Good luck.

Awesome! Thanks for the reading! It was pretty accurate and helpful!

You are pretending you are real All others are yourself. Other people aren’t pretending, you are! Why are you pretending?

Here is my thought, I could be wrong: Buttons could symbolize the need for closure, security, comfort, etc. I think of buttons as wanting to cover ourselves up, to put clothes on ourselves. I think the buttons could symbolize that a part of yourself hasn’t been fully explored or realized yet. Hence, your true body is behind your clothes so to speak. Next time you see buttons, take note of your state of mind and situation to see what it means for you specifically. If I saw buttons a lot, that is how I would interpret it most likely. Edit: Why do we button at all? Is there a part of ourselves that we are still insecure about? Maybe that could be what button is pointing towards.

So glad you have the courage to share your gift with others here. I encourage you to keep practicing your psychic abilities no matter what people say. Not all “truth-realized people” have tapped into their psychic potential. I aspire to develop my psychic abilities in due time! Psychic potential is as important as truth. Truth is something you do for yourself and psychic powers are something you give to others. At least that is my perspective of it as of now. I have taken the Myers-Briggs test many times and I go back-and-forth between INTP-A and INFP-A. I consider my personality to be a deep, critical, and creative thinker. I love my own solitude and love being out in nature. When I am around others, I am initially shy (introverted) at first. Once I am comfortable, I can become the life of the party. The activities I have done and excelled at have been me being a tennis player, magician, chess player, trumpet player, writer, and singer. Everything I desire, I pretty much excel at. Ambition is a strength of mine and perfectionism can be a shortcoming. I have high energy and am hyperactive, engaged, and am humorous depending on the vibe and comfortability I feel in the moment. Not sure if you need any other information. As for a specific reading, I am open to whatever you can read from what I have given you so far. Welcome to the forum!

The God’s view technique, or view from above as called in stoicism, is about maintaining objectivity even in the hardest moments. A simple fact you can realize in hard times is that you aren’t alone, and suffering is a temporary storm that will pass. It takes practice and it is hard to do this technique while in the moment but with practice you can. It helps me to not be so attached and helps me appreciate how big the universe is and how small my concerns are. i’m not sure if I understand your question, it is really natural to me. All you need is imagination. Imagination is a vital skill that needs to be developed and in survivors of trauma, imagination can become weakened/stunted according to Van Der Kolk. To strengthen your imagination, you need to first practice seeing things in your mind’s eye. Think back to your imagination when you were a child and work from there. Visualization is so powerful that we can either use it to empower ourselves or to make ourselves suffer. Edit: One skill that I’m really good at that I think is one of the most important skills to have is the ability to reframe negative events as positive. The ability to reframe is essential to live a happy life. Without reframe you were at the whims of external circumstances. For instance if you get fired from a job you can see that and reframe that as an opportunity to find a deeper part of yourself that you may have never found. Another is to see you’re suffering from the bigger picture perspective and that there are lessons that can be learned from our previous experiences such as toxic relationships, etc. Reframing is essentially a different perspective on your current dominant narrative. And in narrative therapy we have a dominant narrative which is the story that we tell ourselves. But there are alternative narratives that can contain empowering stories that we sometimes don’t tell ourselves. Alternative narratives look for the unique strengths that we have and then reframe that to our given circumstance. Read up on narrative therapy. I have used it in my work with clients, and it works.

Zoom out of your own point of view. Take the view of God. See all the planets, stars, etc. Realize how small your problems are compared to the universe. Realize that nothing matters and it will all be okay. When you take God’s view, you realize you aren’t alone. You can be secure in knowing that everyone is insecure. Start questioning your worry, and realize that no amount of worry can ever change a situation. Worry and anxiety is like a merry-go-round, you are spinning and going nowhere. Distancing is a psychology technique you can use to find insights into your problems. The best way is to always honor and follow your highest inspiration/desire. Do an activity that is fun and that you can engage with like walking or music. I believe Einstein had an insight into general relativity when he was out for a walk. Maybe you will have an insight too! Edit: Find your ideal hobby/coping skill. For me that is walking, meditating, and running. Remember to always follow your highest desire and everything will be okay. Don’t confuse your highest desire with fear. Happiness is a mindset, anxiety/depression is a mindset, and Heaven/Hell are mindsets. What is your mindset? Where did you learn your current mindset from? What is your heart’s desire? See my other posts for more info if this doesn’t make sense.

I have been contemplating the nature of desire for a couple hours now from scratch and here is what I have come up with so far. I am still refining my ideas. What is desire? - Desire is the minds capacity, action, and tendency for wanting some thing. - This definition is broad to encompass all forms and levels of desire. - Desire is not as simple as wanting this or that. Desire is the emotional energy that gives birth to all action. Forms of desire: 1. Improvement 2. Maintain 3. Possess 4. Create 5. Destroy 6. Let go 7. Comfort/security 8. approval/recognition/attention 9. Love Levels of desire: 1. shallow vs. deep 2. explicit vs. implicit 3. healthy vs. unhealthy (helpful vs. unhelpful) 4. Conscious vs. unconscious 5. authentic vs. inauthentic (important one here) 6. self vs. other (desire for yourself and for other) 7. Central vs. peripheral desires Was Buddha Wrong? Desire and attachment have overlap but aren’t the same. If you have absolutely no desires, you would be dead. To survive is to desire. Think of every action you take as a desire. You could even think of each cell of your body as having a desire to survive and maintain the systems of your body. Desire is not always conscious. Desire is the foundation for everything. To even use your energy to sit down and meditate needs desire. Life cannot be lived without some form of desire. There is even a certain desire in detaching from attachments. Why detach at all? The key difference between attachment and desire is that not all desire is attachment. Attachment is a shallow form of desire that is clingy and holds onto things, whereas a more broader or healthier desire is about being fluid and flexible in the ability of letting go. Liberation from suffering is having the right priorities and healthy desires put in place. Liberation is holistic, which means that all different forms and levels of desires need to be integrated. You don’t just have one desire. You have multiple desires that can often be competing with each other. I call these conflicting desires. Contemplate all the conflicting desires you have. Here are some of mine: 1. Desire to be physically fit vs. desire to eat junk food. 2. Desire to be ambitious/disciplined vs. desire to be lazy/playful 3. Desire for solitude vs. desire to socialize 4. Desire to be outdoors vs. indoors 5. Desire to detach from media vs. desire to remain attached. 6. Desire to meditate vs. desire to go to bars We also have a desire-center and desire-periphery. Desire-center is when desire is at the forefront of your attention, which is not always your most healthiest desire. Desire-periphery are all the other desires in the background that can compete with desire-center. Distraction is when inauthentic, shallow, and unimportant desires take up the space in the desire-center. The highest peace is the highest desire. When Dumbledore and Harry Potter were at the Mirror of Erised (I noticed this is desire backwards :D), Dumbledore says “The happiest man on earth can look into the mirror and see only himself exactly as he is.” The Mirror represents our deepest desire. The happiest person desires nothing but to see reality exactly as it is, to become one and whole with it. Dumbledore also warns Harry not to “dwell on dreams and forget to live.” Unhealthy desire turns into obsession, which could lead into suffering. You can even see the importance of desire portrayed in other pop culture films such as Aladdin (Genie lamp), Pirates of Caribbean (Jack’s compass), Bruce Almighty, Bedazzled, and others. The key is a lot of people seem to be misguided on what they truly want. You may desire fame or money or drugs or whatever, but is that what you truly desire? Introspection skill is a must here. An important part of the process is sorting out authentic vs inauthentic desires. The inauthentic can lead to a lot of suffering. Whereas, authentic desires can lead us to more freedom. Desire is not the enemy. Desire is rather the foundation and essence for life itself and living up to your full potential. The highest desire goes full circle into detachment and acceptance. Detachment isn’t a lack of desire, but rather the lack of putting emotional investment and identification in things/events. What do you all think? Was the Buddha wrong about desire being the cause of suffering? Let me know!

Desire is the essence of the Rocky Balboa lifestyle. Rocky Balboa isn’t just a movie, it is a way of life. Desire + discipline = ambition ambition + time = success/growth

What is the difference between intuition and heuristic and logic? How can you tell the difference? What is the best method for deriving knowledge and making decisions? Heuristic definition from Wikipedia: A heuristic, or heuristic technique, is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, short-term goal or approximation. Intuition definition from Wikipedia: Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Logic definition from Wikipedia: Logic is the study of correct reasoning or good arguments. It is often defined in a more narrow sense as the science of deductively valid inferencesor of logical truths. One of the perks of logic and rationality is that you can follow your chain of reasoning from the conclusions asserted. Whereas, with intuition and heuristics, conclusions are made with no apparent chain of reasoning. If you cannot track your train of thought, then how can you know if you are using intuition, genuine knowing without conscious reasoning, or heuristic, which is a mental short cut based on our biases. Intuition I think is a form of mental shortcut, so how does it really differ from heuristics? With heuristics, you can be quite convinced and can confuse them with intuition. For example, if you meet someone and have a strange feeling about them, is that intuition or heuristic being played there? Is your feeling grounded in what is true or is it biases you have picked up from the social matrix? Logic, on the other hand, can track chains of thoughts to help us pinpoint inconsistencies in our chain of thinking. Logic is a second-order phenomenon to senses/experience/consciousness. You might say that logic cannot be reliable because you can logic anything and can arrive at different conclusions. For instance, you may say that Christians are using logic to justify their beliefs and so are atheists. But is that really so? Or are you conflating logic and heuristics together? When someone justifies their beliefs, that is a fallacy (error in logic) and heuristic. Remember, logic is a way of thinking objectively about a situation, arriving at a conclusion through a chain of reasoning. If something in the chain of reasoning is incorrect, then your conclusion is likely to be incorrect because of a flawed foundation. An issue with logic is that your conclusion can be correct, but your reasoning to get there can be wrong in the same way that you can get the right answer to a math problem but not employ the right methods. This matters because of consistency. If you get the right answers by cheating off someone else (like believing in pastor without reading the Bible and thinking for yourself), then you never develop cognitive autonomy and strength for every day life decision-making. When it comes to the test (we all get different forms), you won’t be able to do crap because of the method used in this example. Logic is a method for following your train of thought that enables one to be able to detect errors in thinking (fallacies) and be able to make decisions without being influenced by emotions. With heuristics (and possibly intuition?), they seem to be heavily influenced by our biases and emotions, so we cannot fully trust them. Emotions are like weather and are inconsistent, which is why we can’t rely on them to make decisions. Logic helps us keep ourselves honest and to avoid our emotions from clouding our judgment, as we can see if heuristics. I have a sense that intuition transcends logic, but I am unsure how, if at all, intuition can transcend heuristics and biases? Edit: Another issue with logic is that multiple conclusions and contradictory conclusions can be arrived at with valid reasoning. In that case, the method of logic does not always arrive us all to the same conclusions, so this is also an inevitable issue with the system of logic and the human mind, but logic is still valuable because it helps us track our train of thought instead of taking mental shortcuts through emotional decision-making. You could argue that every decision-making is an emotional decision-making. But what I am saying is going that extra step to think things through and question your decisions to see behind their influence, which is an exceptional skill to have in society today. What do you think about all this? What is the difference between intuition and heuristics, and logic? Which method is a better way of making decisions in everyday life? Intuition I think is a form of mental shortcut, so how does it really differ from heuristics?