Insightful27

I agree with you! I think meaning is something that is really core to our lives, and as you say, most of the other benefits we get through contemplative practice will change depending on our current life circumstances.

Hey guys, I'm looking for participants for a research project I am working on. I am currently the primary investigator of a research project on mindfulness at the University of Missouri. I am trying to understand the role that meditation (or other contemplative practices like Kriya) plays in the meaning of one's life. We are using a short (10-15 minutes) questionnaire to collect data related to contemplative practice, meaning in life, negative/positive emotions, and demographic information. All of the data collected is absolutely anonymous and confidential. It is difficult to find enough serious mindfulness practitioners for a study like this, so I would like to extend my gratitude to those of you who have the time to participate and encourage you to pass it along to anyone you know who engages in spiritual practice! As compensation, there will be a drawing for 10 - $50 Amazon gift cards for everyone who completes the questionnaire. If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to message me. Link: https://missouri.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_885vjf6eNPdlhC6 Thanks

Yes, that is correct.

@UnbornTao Thank you for your kind words! I am really excited about the work that we are doing, I will report back with my results when they come in.

@Davino Thanks for taking the survey! You raise a good point, that is something that I will think about in the future.

@EtherNine Very impressive! Thank you for participating, we are trying to recruit people like you.

I’ve read White Nights and Notes from Underground. I also bought Brothers Karamazov and I tried to read it but it is just so dense it seems pointless. I do recommend Notes from Underground, it is easy to digest and resonated with me a lot. I listened to Jordan Peterson’s commentary on it and I wasn’t disappointed.

The other day @Carl-Richard said something that stuck with me. This made me think of Leo's Burning Through Karma video, Maslow's hierarchy of needs and also David Deida's concept of Life Purpose. I'm at a stage in my life (graduating college) where I am making a lot of major decisions, and it is important to me to clearly understand how to walk on the spiritual path. The idea that I will eventually get to a place where there is "nothing else to do" strikes me as intuitive. Right now in my life the most compelling thing I want to work on is my dating/sex and social life. It seems like if I spend 3-5 years really working on this, then I will be able to move on to "more spiritual" things. My main concern is that this approach will lead to me deluding myself and chasing addictions in circles. Take a cocaine addict for example, will he be able to break out of his cocaine addiction by doing more and more cocaine? Maybe, but how long will it take before he reaches a breaking point? Modern psychology/neuroscience views addiction like a physical disease, on the biological level it can be essentially impossible to break away. I'm worried that this is what my pursuit of dating or even my career will turn into. Wouldn't it make more sense to take the path of renunciation, and free myself that way? I know that in that video Leo said this is an option, but that it maybe less practical. I really want to hear other people's experiences and perspectives. What has your experience been like with this approach to spirituality?

Yeah I am going to pursue Kriya, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Thank you for your responses!

I’ve spent a lot time doing Buddhist meditation practice and I have done multiple intense retreats. On my last retreat, I found myself (20yrs) wondering if there was a spiritual practice more aligned with where I am in my life (energy level, drive, ambition). I find it really tedious to sit in zen mind when I want to be doing something competitive like martial arts or pursuing my life purpose (psychology). I’m not sure if it was Leo or someone else who said that young men with lots of testosterone makes poor monks, but I’m finding that to be true. I wanted to see if anyone in this community has any ideas of spiritual practice that might be more effective for someone in my position, or if anyone has any thoughts on this topic in general. Thanks!

Also, I really like how you put this. This really resonates with where I am in my life right now. Always appreciate hearing your thoughts.

LOL, I should've said that I don't know if that is true. I haven't spent much time in the eastern yoga world...

@Leo Gura Thanks for the response! I bought a couple of the Kriya books that are on your book list. Is the best way to learn through reading those, or is there a more formal in-person course that I should take (like Goenka)? I have heard that Kriya can be dangerous without guidance, but I haven't confirmed that.

@cetus I started following Leo's content and meditating in 7th grade. I have found that as I have gotten older that there are some boxes lower on Maslow's Pyramid that I haven't checked off yet.

@aurum I've read a couple of his books, I really like him. Would love to go on a retreat with him in the future.

News Article “At least nine abbots and senior monks involved in the scandal have been disrobed and cast out of the monkhood” She blackmailed them for $11.9 million USD, which they then embezzled to pay her. I think this is such a great example of Maslow’s Heirary of Needs in action. It also makes me think of Leo’s video about burning karma. Trying to bypass egoic needs by acting like they don’t exist is never going to work in the long-term. It has to be an authentic transcendence from these needs, which a very small percentage of people have actually done.

Yeah and the fact that Abbots can move it around without anyone knowing is crazy.

What did you do to have fun alone?

I am in the process of applying to Psychology PhD programs, the entire aim of my career is to expand the scientific understanding and application of meditation and psychedelics. What areas do you think most deserve more research? The research proposal is for a grant from the National Science Foundation, so try to keep suggestions on the "sciency" side of things. I will take all recommendations seriously, I figure that there isn't a better place to ask for feedback than here. As a side note, I took Leo's life purpose course the year before I started college and it is surreal how all the insights/inspiration I got from that course have come to fruition. This summer I am getting paid thousands of dollars to travel to different monasteries and research meditation, something I would pay to do. I highly recommend the course, the money was a drop in the bucket compared to the value I have gotten from Leo over the years. I look forward to playing a small role in legitimizing meditation/psychedelics into the mainstream, so that others may benefit the same way we have benefitted. 🙂

Yeah actually there was research being done at Insight Meditation Society where they were micro dosing meditators on retreat and then measuring various signs of meditation progress. I would LOVE to do something like this. Thanks for your ideas!

@UnbornTao Well if I can get ahold of a general aspect of meditation that I could research then it is easy to break it down and make it specific/technical. For example, I want to do a comparison of Metta Meditation and Christian Prayer. This breaks down to technical concepts like mirror-neurons firing, oxytocin-dopamine-serotonin serum levels, etc.

@Raze Thanks for these suggestions! I just learned about the EPRC a couple weeks ago but SEMA is new and definitely something I will look into more.

@Carl-Richard Lmao maybe we can brainstorm together then. Are you also on the psychology side on things or more neuroscience? There are a lot of different options for neuroscience...

Recently I was in a philosophy class and an acquaintance of mine wrote his paper using AI, I didn't, yet we both ended up with my same grade. He admitted to me that he wouldn't be able to pass if it was an oral exam, and that he actually didn't know what he was really writing about. This caused me to realize that in the near future (10-15 years) AI will likely advance so far that my intellectual work will become purposeless, it will turn into merely a hobby. Obvious I am concerned about the practical aspect the job market narrowing (I want to research psychedelic medicine & do philosophy) but it also makes me apathetic to think that I won't be able to do anything that is really valuable or new if (most likely when) AI reaches a certain point in its development. Has anyone else ran into this with their life purpose? Any advice?

You know I think that this is also true at the psychological level as well. Our minds love to play into our negativity bias and hyper-fixate on the possibility of a negative future. This feels very grounding, thank you.