r0ckyreed

Thanks mate. Glad I got you thinking. ❤️? Good question. I would suggest that true acceptance also includes acceptance of thoughts. Thinking is a natural part of mind. Deep acceptance may lead to deep silence, but that is because thinking is also accepted for what it is as well. I believe thinking is a good thing, but thinking is often demonized just like desire in part because the negative aspects are generalized. I find quietude in my mind when I am able to accept my thoughts for what they are. My struggle is that I can’t maintain no-mind for very long because that is when I get really creative thoughts and insights. That is just my experience at least.

How do you really know that? Unless you can read people’s minds, or have awakened to the highest, you can’t possibly know what or who has reached the highest levels of consciousness? Even if you do awaken, you are so conscious that there are no others who are awake with you. It’s just you. What I learned here on this forum is that anyone can claim they are awake when they are really full of crap. What criteria do you use to determine if someone is awake? If you are already awake, then this question of who is most woke is absurd. Maybe so. Maybe there is music now instead of noise. I can’t imagine anyone living without thinking. I mean how does he even do math and keep track of his finances from his teachings lol. You see the issue with people who claim they have no thought but yet still go to the bank and survive? I believe no-mind can be short-term, but eventually you have to have a strategy for how your gonna get your next meal. Maybe what he really means is that his mind is playing like music instead of hammering like a monkey. He still has thoughts, but his thoughts are more deliberate and if higher quality. I would even consider talking to be a form of thought and even action if we wanna go deep with where your thought ends and action begins. Where is the boundary? To have no thought is death. That actually is one of the examples I listed in my journal that illustrates my point. If you had no desire, there would be no point in breathing. Why breathe? You both conscious and unconsciously will to breathe. Like I said in my first post. Our desires can be conscious or unconscious. Why breathe? Why do our cells bother to preserve our body and immune system? Why do we eat? Why meditate? It is our desire for life. If you hold your breath, you will feel your desire for life. If you didn’t desire life, then you wouldn’t breathe and live. How do we know? We put these gurus on pedestals and idolize them. And at the same time, that idolization blocks you from realizing that they are you. What’s the name of the book? Thank you for helping me clarify my points in my contemplation on desire.

Isn’t that also a desire? I say that because if I have an itch on my ear, a part of my mind really really wants to scratch it, but I have a desire to be in control of my emotions, so I refrain from engagement. The act of refraining from one desire appear to be the engagement in another. I agree with you about the desire to cling as a cause for suffering. I think that is what Buddha meant specifically. But not all desire is clinging. Like you said, desire is life. Without desire, there is no reason to put food in mouth. Peter Ralston I think even falls into the same trap of demonizing desire as well. He fails to account for unconscious desires that are currently present. I don’t think all desire is about the future. But I think the most common use of the concept of how much people use it is what Peter Ralston was talking about - The unhealthy form of desire. I’ll talk about that more after I have contemplated in more to see my blind spots on this issue. Nope. Why does he have a preference for silencing the mind? Maybe you could say that he is so conscious that all mind activity stops. But he has many desires going on in that moment such as the will to even breathe, to even converse with another person, to even move a muscle or stay perfectly still takes will which is desire. That is what I would say. I would also question his seemingly negative attitudes towards fear and desire. There is nothing I see specifically wrong with emotions of fear and desire for instance. It is how the emotions are used. Is one conscious of their emotions and acting in conscious ways or not? For me personally, I see a problem with striving to become emotionless. Fear and desire are both powerful forces that can be used for the highest love or highest destruction. The denial of desire, of ones feelings is the denial of the heart. The Alchemist is a good book on following your the highest desire of your heart. That is my thoughts right now, but I will contemplate it some more.

Good. Don’t trust any test for that matter. Tests are trying to map who you are. They have the potential of being helpful in seeing your strengths and blind spots. All tests though are limited. This test already requires you to have a high introspection skill. That is the problem with self-report measures. But it is what it is for an online assessment.

Are you more logical or intuitive? Take the test here and share your results. https://www.psychmechanics.com/intuition-test/ My results: Rational Ability = 45 / 50 Rational Engagement = 42 / 50 Experiential Ability = 42 / 50 Experiential Engagement = 44 / 50 My results indicate that my personality is more rational, but my preferences for decision-making are intuitive. I think this resonates. The contradiction/paradox that I am trying to navigate through is learning how to balance my intuitive and logical sides. I aspire to be more intuitive because I feel like it is a higher-order level of understanding. Intuition is outside of a box, whereas logic works in a box. And yet, all my explanations and thoughts about intuition are themselves logic. Should your lifestyle be built around logic or intuition? This is a hard one for me. I make goals for myself sometimes, but I always end up acting based on how I feel. After some thought, maybe it is better to live an intuitive lifestyle because the universe isn’t logical but rather more intuitive kind of like it is shown in Star Wars. Do you think contemplation is more logical or intuitive? I find it harbors both aspects (but more on the side of intuition maybe?) because you have an intuition but then you contemplate and investigate the reasoning to verify insight/intuition. What is the difference between logical thinking and intuitive thinking? How can you tell? Can we really trust intuition? Aren’t all religions based off of intuition? Logic/critical thinking may be a better method? What are your all’s thoughts on my questions? What are your all’s results on the test? Thanks!

Good one. I’m sure that could fall under desire for possession or comfort/security. I’ll add that one to my list. I agree. I think Buddha was talking about a specific form of unhealthy desire/attachment. I think it is a mistake to generalize all desire as suffering or even to say that “life is suffering.” Suffering is part of life and so is joy. I think this is correct. Desire is the driving force for life. I wouldn’t say that all desire is hedonistic, but many unhealthy desires sure can be. Higher forms of desire I think are more eudaimonic.

I think I got it now. Happiness is being satisfied of the present moment and suffering is being dissatisfied with the present moment, desiring something that is other than the present moment. The Buddha wasn’t arguing against all desire but of a specific unhealthy kind that leads to attachment which leads to suffering?? To me, satisfaction is the acceptance of reality as it is. In the state of satisfaction, our desires are more focused on the here and now. Instead of dreaming of a fantasy in the future, desire in the state of satisfaction could be the desire to do nothing but to bask in the beauty of meditation. Desire could be just to sit peacefully and fully taking in sensations. The energy of desire is in the present moment. Not sure what that means yet. Looking back at my life, everything I have done started with a will, with a desire. But desire is paradoxical because sometimes the act of letting go of something can get you what you truly want. I can be in my own way.

I would say that more specifically ignorance or selfishness is at the root of suffering. People can be misguided and ignorant about what they really want. And they can spend years climbing the wrong mountain. Not all roads lead to nirvana. Some roads lead to peaks and some to valleys. I think it is about raising consciousness to love and see the magic in reality and to not be attached to outcome but engaged in the moment. But to raise consciousness has to start with a desire and takes discipline. Without desire, where can we go? Do we really want to escape suffering and life, or do we want to learn how to love and embrace it such that it no longer has same affect? This goes to my next questions: Can you truly be free from desire and still live? Can you really surrender what you truly desire? What does it even mean to surrender your life and transcend survival? Can you really transcend survival? What would that look like? Would you truly want to only experience one emotion of happiness and peace or be able to experience the full range of emotions more consciously? This reminds of The Dark Knight Rises. Batman says he doesn’t fear death which is why he failed at climbing his way to freedom. He was then advised to invite fear back into his life and use it to give him the strength to make the climb. For the longest time, I thought that I wanted to become fearless and only experience peace/happiness like a Jedi detaching from all negative emotions, but I realized that I would rather have courage to experience the range of emotion more consciously. Courage isn’t the absence of emotion, but it is rather the embracement of emotion to take action. What do you think? Thanks!

Absolute Truth is what reality is and what exists always. God is the ultimate reality and what exists always. Truth and God are most fundamental. There is no difference. Now, if you are talking about the finite god that people imagine, then there would be a difference. The God of religion isn’t the same as the God of Absolute Reality. Religious people can easily confuse their ideas and beliefs for reality. This is called confusing map for territory.

Now, contemplate the role logic and intuition play in your life. You can start by reading and contemplating the questions I laid out in my first post on here or come up with your own. Yeah. I kind of noticed the circularity of this as well. This is kinda like the difference between implicit vs. explicit understanding. People who are more rational tend to care more about the details, steps, and chain of reasoning. This can be from the bottom-up or top-down. This can be known as inductive vs. deductive reasoning. It sounds like you are talking more about deductive reasoning, which is when you start with general idea and work backwards through the chain to specific steps. It is still highly logical, but it shows you how thin the line can be between intuition and logic. Ultimately, there is no such distinction. On the testing site, it says ability is related to your personality and engagement is your preference in making decisions. Your results may suggest that you are a highly rational person both in personality and in preference in decision-making. No test though is absolute truth. Lol. That would be nice. I guess developed introspection skill is the best thing you got to that. I agree. Intuition is the connection to our higher mind or subconscious mind. Logic is how we can make sense of it and process it. If you use both, which would you say you use more of? I like that. Intuition doesn’t need to depend it’s positions. Can you think of any other ways to tell the difference? I think dogmatic people or prejudiced people could say the same thing about intuition. Are they really using their intuition or are they just acting out of belief? How do we tell the difference between intuition, fear, belief, automatic thoughts, etc.? I guess we can’t explicate the implicit. But this is something interesting to me is how can we know we are following intuition or just being influenced by something. For instance, you may have a feeling to go to a certain place and you think it was your intuition, but you fail to realize that you were suggested and influenced by an advertisement. You get what I’m trying to say? How can we know if our intuition is really authentic or if we are subconsciously influenced by external sources to make a choice? That’s a good point. In their efforts to explicate the inexplicable, you could say they modified the meanings of original teachings. @Ulax I sincerely appreciate your post, time, and insights. I just read it all and will be contemplating all of that.

Nice. Interesting results. What are your thoughts on my questions. What questions do you have about the nature and interplay of logic and intuition?

Don’t rush through the magic of learning! I would much rather you solidly implement one book on that list into your life than to read all the books on that list with no application to your life. The key to good notes is to write down specifically how your behavior will change from reading the books. No need to write down redundant info. Just write down what you need to do differently than you are now.

I had a similar experience when I was around 8-9 years old. But I wasn’t terrorized by solipsism. Having the realization now vs. entertaining the idea, I still feel much happiness and love. Why are people so terrorized by solipsism? Is it designed like that so that God avoids waking up? If people told me about how terrible and horrifying a restaurant is, I probably wouldn’t go to it after many people telling me that. Ever since realizing that I am you, I feel like I couldn’t be any more connected to life.

I’m an introvert. I listen to who inspires me, and I spend time contemplating and basking in the beauty and magic of my solipsistic field.

From my experience, I notice that hardly anybody talks about the paranormal and psychic abilities, especially on this forum. I am interested in exploring my mind and gifts to the fullest. I believe we all have psychic gifts, it is just that not all of us have accessed them. I am wondering if anyone has experience with unlocking their psychic gifts or has an resources or books on the subject? I have already read The Holographic Universe, which has been an inspiration to me. I am a magician, but I would also like to enhance my psychic powers. I remember that one time, I dreamed of a conversation and it happened just like I dreamt it. I also remember being able to foresee what was going to happen as well. I think it is call connected to the power of intuition, but I would like to access my gifts more. Unfortunately, I have noticed that as I have gotten older, I am become more logical and thus out of tune with my gifts, intuition, and dreams. This is a flaw of the materialist paradigm. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

I wish to be more connected with myself and reality. We are all gonna die, but to me, the worst thing for me would be to live my life never tapping into the full potential of my gifts and dreams, etc. I guess the first step to accessing these gifts is to deconstruct negative beliefs/fears and the materialist paradigm beliefs.

1. I don’t want to depend on a substance to be access my gifts. 2. I have no desire to use substances right now. And it’s not legal where I live. 3. I want to be able to use my psychic gifts free in any setting/environment. 4. Drug use robs the joy and fun out of the process for me. If spirituality is a marathon and if psychedelics are using artificial intelligent legs or a car, then I would feel cheated. I have always felt that if I couldn’t have a mystical experience without drugs, then my mystical experience is not strong enough. The highest mystical experience and highest thing I think is to be able to have a mystical and magical experience with mundane, sober consciousness. If you can’t see God without drugs, then you don’t know what God is. That’s my thoughts on that because God is here and now, always. No need for drugs when you can bypass that middleman. 5. I value my mind. My mind is most important to me. 6. I want to directly tap into the source of my psychic gifts at will and bypass secondary things like drugs or crystals or whatever. I just wanna use my mind. Those are all the reason I have right now.

What’s wrong with mental masturbation? When you get the orgasm, you will appreciate the mental masturbation. Cool stuff Greenwoods.

Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it is right. You could say the same thing about human trafficking, DUIs, substance use, rioting, slavery, racism, or anything else. The morality of it seems more convincing when others are doing it with you. The ego-mind uses other to rationalize its selfish positions. Without a sense of other, it is harder for you to rationalize stealing online art.

Take a break. I'm not sure if this is true, but I can imagine that having your vision locked in close range for long periods of time could cause detrimental effects. You want to also look away out in the distance to engage your long range vision as well. EDIT: Actuality is here right now. You don't have to strictly look at your hand. Just be present in the now. Actuality is meditation and is being in the present moment.

Depends on your intention of the practice. What do you really want to get out of your visualization? What is the intention you are setting for it? This is up for you to decide if you think it is worth writing them down. If I had some golden insights and ideas that outweighed my initial intentions, I may write them down as the insights are running through me. This is one of the reasons why it is hard for me to meditate. But for me, I think it is worth it. However, I am trying to go to the next level and working on trying to let go and detach from me wanting to engage in my creative thoughts. When you visualize, it is important to set an intention or question to focus on. Sometimes you can be playful and explore your imagination. Your visualization can be for insight, creativity, relaxation, identifying limiting beliefs, exploring trauma/shadow work, overcoming fear, etc. Sometimes, you can train your mind to let go of the ideas and continue the visualization. This helps you train your memory, as opposed to being reliant on remembering through writing it down. Keeping your focus solely on the visualization can help train other parts of your mind. If you keep going off and on then your practice will be weak. So it is kind of a trade off, and you are the judge of what is most important to you. EDIT: I would also note that you may miss out on an even deeper realization if you disengage from the visualization practice to engage with the ideas and insights. It can sometimes be hard to tell if the ideas you get in your practice are the seed or fruit of the insight. The solution can be to experiment with doing both ways to see which strategies work best for you. But whatever you do, follow your highest inspiration.

True Freedom is that everyone gets what they want, and as a result, no one gets what they want.

Good. Go act on that inspiration. Life is paradoxical. You find your greatest treasures in the areas where you never thought they could be. Doesn’t matter right now. All you trying to do is plant seeds and water them with inspiration. They will grow fruit only if you continue to water them. The plant dies when you stop believing in it and giving it love. I hear ya. It is tough. However, there are other ways to use your philosophy skills down the road. Getting work experience wouldn’t be a bad idea. How can you know what you want without knowing what you don’t want? Use early work experiences to figure that out while also making money and building resume. Good idea. What is your plan to stop? Also, it would be interesting to examine your feelings and beliefs more around sex. Use a therapist and a journal. Btw, don’t expect you quitting the porn drug cold turkey. If you can, then great. Sometimes, it takes small, brave baby steps to accomplish your goals. Strive to take one baby step of improvement each day. It is helpful to have an accountability partner or coach because if you have set goals and failed them many times, it is not uncommon to lose integrity with yourself. You gotta slowly build back your integrity with yourself by setting goals you know you can accomplish that day. If you set too many high goals and don’t achieve them, you can imagine what this could do to your self-efficacy. It’s like having a friend who promises and never delivers. If you have such a friend, you will eventually lose trust with them. The same can happen to yourself. Gain back that personal accountability and keep staying hard! This is my last post on this post here. Wish you well.

Best Productivity Hack For Spiritual Entrepreneurs by David Lion https://youtu.be/HDxmILIExeY

I asked David Lion about discipline and here is what he said https://youtu.be/C_p8wo_UV2U This may be the problem. No wonder you procrastinate so much. Your goals that you set seem to be too strict and unrealistic. It is like your trying to run a marathon when you haven’t even ran a mile or even taken the first step. Start small. Work out when you get the inspiration to. Be more Blissiplined instead of disciplined. The energy you approach things matter. What excites and inspires you the most in life right now? Do that. It depends on what it does for you. How does that help and serve you? Does it excite and inspire you to be more of who you are or is it an escape from something? Notice how you feel. Notice the impact it has on your life long term and your beliefs. Where do you think you should start? Start with what inspires you and excites you the most. Nobody can tell you what that is. You have to feel inwards. No amount of logic will help you decipher what you feel most alive about.