Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj

Maybe living in an ashram or a monestary will be good. Maybe you should investigate the monastic traditions and see where they are hiding. Personally Currently I have found a Zen center that will fee about 3000$ for a full year stay.

The more you do the more you realize that you have to do more. This creates a positive feedback loop which is great and at the same times kinda scary.

Personaly I'm going to become a Zen monk in either 6 months or 1 1/2 year so I can sit down and do self inquiry for over 6 hours per day.

Have you decided where and what kind of buddhist monk you will live as?

I really feel you on this one... Ultimately DOING will only hurt you, BEEING will kill you and you are caught in the middle. Maybe you should meditate some more and spend more time alone, unplug from stimuli and see what your heart wants after a week?

Plot twist: beeing a great student, having a successful career, lots of money, outstanding social skills, great family life, living in your favourite country will never really make you satisfied with life. What I have found out is that I've had and I still have some "worldly pursuits" that can be good to get out of ones system. The thing you mentioned about beeing unmotivated is actually a sign of huge wisdom. And you are FUCKING 16, that is just great, REALLY great, maybe you should trust that. I am in a similar situasition like you, I've also done self inproovment for about a year and it can feel wired especially when we are young, sometimes you fall asleep, sometimes you only care about enlightenment, eventually you come to a point of no return where you can not not try to wake up. This video always grounds me, it's like my favourite video:

I have been sitting for about 4 hours per day for a few weeks now in quarter lotus and the burmeese pusture and I am starting to have alittle bit of knee pain that dosn't pass away after 5 minutes of getting up. Does anyone of you had any problems with your knees that comes from sitting in a lotuslike posture?

Hmm... What do I want to run away from? Currently I'm procrastinating a little in school but that will be over in about five weeks, it's more that I wanna focus on self-trancendence more than self-actualization because doing self-inquiry drives me WAYYY more nowadays than finding my "life purpose" so to say. The more conscious I become the more I realize that spending your time becomming more concious is probably the most important thing me. Hard to explain, I really can't but if I am honest it's just an intuition. So in a nutshell: I want a quiet place where I can live for a while where you can just sit down, shut up and ask myself "Who am I?" and from what I understand is that going to a monestary is probably the best place to be if that is what you want to do. Ultimately I just want to have a good life. Thats about it!

Yes it does... I just realized that my profile picture has to be changed, Trump says he likes the chineese people and having the enso symbol with my profile name is just... Don't know if I should laugh or cry honestly.

The towel thing really works, or I used a T-shirt but whatever. Thank you!

I would reccomend staying with the "do nothing" or Shikantaza as it is called for about a month, then swap. 3 days is probably way to early to evaluate if a technique is the right one for you. I really like zazen I must say, I don't use that techinque but I would probably use that one or the "do nothing" technique if I didn't do self inquiry. In the end every technique works...

Thanks, I think I found my solution. Only 2 hours of the burmeese posture and the rest on a chair. The towel thing I will try out tomorrow. Thanks!

There are ALOT of benefits to meditation. I have meditated for over a year now and I have to say that the most important benefit I have discovered so far is: -I am in my feelings more and less in my head -I'm WAYYYY more intuitive, I just feel what is right for me -I don't supress emotions anymore -I cry and laugh more -I've had about 5 enlightenment experiences -Spend two weeks in a wired state of conciousness, it was some kind of half enlightenment for two weeks -Went from beeing suicidal to the happiest person I know -Dicipline -My worldview has changed, I'm less dogmatic -I tent to understand myself and others better -Easier to get rid of bad habits I really don't know when the effects dropped in but I'd say for about three weeks, my depression was almost gone and I was not super scared of my emotions. I have almost forgotten how it was to not be a meditatator and I will never quit meditating no matter what. The only thing I really have to say is that it is a bit hard to start to meditate... but not as hard as you think and no matter what it will allways be worth it! This habit is the best one I have discovered in my life, if it wasn't for meditation I would be dead now. P.S. If you start I would reccomend that you start slowly, for about 10-20 minutes per day, but do it EVERY SINGLE DAY. This EVERY SINGLE DAY is very important. If you want to step up and meditate more, do it slowly aswell. If you start really hard there will be a chanse of you getting scared of meditation.

Interesting! Seems like one hell of a journey...

@HenriYeah Zen is harsh, I heard that Sinzen Youngs teacher used to to sit for three days. I really agree in the last one,nit is really important that you don't just buy into all the cultural nonsense no matter who or where you are. I live in northern Sweden and I am currently 19 years old. And you?

@Henri Because I want to be somewhere where they focus really heavy on meditation, like 6-12 hour perhaps but I have not build up the dicipline for that yet. Also I have a really bad work ethic, I have wasted most of my school beeing lazy and scool atm is chill as fuck so getting a work ethic is something I will probably get out of living as a Zen monk. A military boot camp with self inquiry instead of guns is exacly what seems to be the right thing for me. How where the routines in your ashram by the way? I don't know mouch about ashrams.

I chilled down a little bit. It's fine now. I do about 60% of my meditation in a chair now. Still a little bit wired in my knees but it has passed away alot now and soon I can probably sit like i used to more.

Sounds a bit rough. Glad you thaught it was worth it! I have heard horryfying stories about Rinzai Zen and it got me thinking that I probably will probably have to live with the Soto monks instead, not sure though.

In say thay say it's best to meditate in the morning before breakfast. I prefer after breakfast but I'm going to try meditating 1 hour every morning before breakfast. It does matter I would say, but I can be wrong. Experient and see whats best for you!

I moved from coffee to tea. Then I had one cup of regular tea for a while and then eventually I just started drinking caffeine free tea.

Just relapsed after about 4 days. It's okay to fail, find out why it happened and start over again. You can do it!!!

I love beeing bald. I shave it every other week and I want to give you a quote of mine: "No hair, no hair problem". I recently found out that my dad lost his hair when he was 21 and I'm 19 years now so I will not cut my hair until I will become a monk. That will be about 1,5-2 years just to know what having long hair feels like. But remember... "No hair, no hair problem".

I am aformer coffe drinker and a former caffeine tea drinker and I have been meditating for over a year. I only drink caffeine free tea nowadays and some green tea of I've had a rough night and need to meditate about 30 minutes after I wake up. I would recomend getting rid of it but thats just my personal preference.

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