Husseinisdoingfine

Just this morning, as of writing this, I visited a Buddhist temple and meditation center. The place was officially non-sectarian but clearly followed a tradition and practice rooted in Zen. The reason I attended was that I wanted more order and structure in my meditation practice. I often find myself incredibly inconsistent and sloppy when trying to discipline myself—especially when it comes to spiritual work. I’ll set the goal to meditate for one or two hours, only to find some excuse to get up and end the session early—or take extremely long “breaks.” I want to do more work integrating Spiral Dynamics integral BLUE, for which I discovered through introspection, I'm clearly lacking. I also find myself coming up with arbitrary reasons not to practice at all. I set the intention, but then never follow through, telling myself I’ll just do it tomorrow. I don’t know why, but whenever I try to engage in any spiritual practice, I feel this internal resistance screaming at me not to do it. And even when I’m in the middle of it, every part of my body seems to be begging me to stop. I feel this internal hyperactivity within me, like as if I can't sit still, and I need to go for a walk. When I was in the temple, the feeling was there, but for some reason I powered through the whole two hours. I went to the temple because I decided I was done with the sloppiness. I wanted consistency and routine—and people who would, in a way, “force” me to become a better meditator. I arrived at the temple at 9:00 AM, when the meditation began, and it ended at 11:30 AM, with two 10-minute breaks in between. That means I completed two solid hours of meditation—something I almost never do on my own because I always find some excuse to stop early. When I got there, I was joined by two Buddhist monks from China (Taiwan), as well as ten other people. The monks were really cool—one of them became a monk at 21, and now in his 60s, he even has a Ph.D., I believe in Buddhist studies, though I’m not entirely sure. We introduced ourselves during one of the ten-minute breaks, and I mentioned Actualized.org and Leo Gura. Then, once the meditation ended at 11:30 AM and I went to collect my belongings, an older man approached me and said that he also watches Actualized.org. We started talking about our favorite videos and our admiration for Leo Gura. We were both long-time fans of the channel and bonded over our shared enthusiasm. Later, I spoke with one of the monks and asked him about different spiritual practices. He told me that he doesn’t believe his methods are superior, but that while in the temple, they teach according to the early teachings of the Buddha. They don’t incorporate methods from, say, Hinduism. I’m well aware of Leo’s critiques of Buddhism. But for someone as hyper as I am—who has trouble sitting still and can’t sleep at night because of sporadic, chaotic thoughts—just sitting for two full hours watching my breath is a huge improvement and a leap forward in my progress. It’s an accomplishment I don’t recall ever achieving before. Given how restless and undisciplined I tend to be, I’m genuinely celebrating the fact that I managed two whole freaking hours. I did it! That’s a massive improvement for someone like me. I fully intend to keep going, hopefully several times a week if I can, or at least once a week. The structure, the monks’ supervision, and the sense of routine have been incredibly beneficial to me—especially since I find it so difficult to stay committed on my own, for the reasons I’ve already shared. Pictures below taken from my iPhone.

Like Putin!

Full lecture:

If so, what exactly do you wear? Below is what I use. The Russich Leder Cuir de Russie by Farina, I wear in the summer and daytime. Whereas the Azzaro Wanted by Night, I wear during winter and at night. Btw, the two colognes above were gifts. I would never shill money for fragrances because I'm yet to decide if cologne/perfume is a scam.

China is building a new dam. Meanwhile in America, our congress couldn't even agree on build-back-better because it was sabotaged by only two Senators.

Rest in peace, ‘Cruizer’. 2011 - 2025 I’m very sad about this, I wish I spent more time with my cat.

Skip to 7:10. Vaush’s response:

New perspective.

So I did some research, and this idea that China has completely abandoned socialist ideals turned out to be wrong. The National People's Congress has passed laws supporting the creation of several workers coops. https://socialistchina.org/2024/05/08/cooperatives-in-china-current-status-and-prospects-for-significant-growth/ https://sacu.org/cooperatives https://www.thinkchina.sg/economy/cooperatives-are-making-comeback-china-preparing-combat-and-famine https://www2.fundsforngos.org/donor-agencies/chinas-thriving-co-op-movement/ The articles above are definitely worth the read. But this idea I had, and so did many on the left in the western world, that China was socialist in name only, turned out to be incorrect. https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/ehzwv3/china_after_2050_be_patient/

Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I read the title and I immediately thought of the physicist.

Donald Trump even slapped tariffs on an Island which has no people, only penguins. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heard_Island_and_McDonald_Islands

We already have a thread about this.

Why Are So Many Women Searching for Ultra-Violent Porn? https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-are-so-many-women-searching-for-ultra-violent-porn/

That guy has always been a player and super charismatic with da ladies, why would he need to resort to rape. I don't understand some of these people who have really good game. Its like, if some pick up guru has game that's really on point, then why is he getting charged with rape? I expect some ugly person with no game to get charged with rape, as he has no way of getting sex other wise. But no, its usually the opposite. Why? Is it the power?

I think this really speaks to the poor epistemology of the MAGA movement. Obama is right, if he did was Trump is doing, than the Republicans would have impeached him. Remember the Hillary Clinton email scandal? Where is the response from MAGA about the recent Signal leaks? Or how about when Trump improperly had classified documents in his Mar-A-Lago residence? Leading to his property being raided. They [The Republicans and the MAGA movement] even advocated defunding the FBI over this. When its their guy mishandling classified information, they defend him to the bitter end, because they're too self-biased and have traded an endless lust for power over epistemological contemplation, for which they never cared about to begin with.

Thank you to all who replied to my thread. Cruizer has been with me since I was less than ten years old, and so his passing feels like the end of an era. I have been crying some bit for the past two days, and all of your beautiful comments have really been helping me. I can’t believe that this thread has received as many replies as it did in such a short period of time, it even received a reply from Leo himself. I’ve said this before, but I view this forum as an extension of my friends/family, especially the more consistent frequent members. From the bottom of my heart, Thank you.

@Princess Arabia I think this thread is good enough. I view this forum as an extension of my family/friends, so I wanted to share this moment. Cruizy was there when my grandpa was still alive, who saw Cruizy through Skype calls as he lived in Russia, so this cat was a historical family relic.

I’m of course very devastated by this loss. We adopted Cruizy when he was 1 years old and I’m 22 years now. So you do the math of how old I was when we adopted him. Cruizy was found by my mom’s coworker when he was less than one year. He was found abandoned in a field of a farm, covered in scratches and barbed wire. The coworker attempted to raise Cruizy, but he was actively terrorizing the other cats she owned, so much so that the other cats were getting depression. So to see if the other cat’s depression could be alleviated, she gave my family Cruizy. This was supposed to be a temporary thing, but he later grew on us. Cruizy was with me for the bulk of my childhood. Through all of my life problems and successes. From middle, high school, through college, I remember Cruizy. When Cruizy’s heath was getting worse, a day before he died, I sat with him in the basement alone until midnight. When we first took him home, he sat in an alcove (or nook) in the laundry room for days. I had to lure him out with meat. But right before he died, he went back to the same nook in the laundry room, where he hasn’t been for years, where I would later discover his body. Pic above is the alcove in the laundry room. 2011 - April 4th, 2025