ZenMonkey

If you give it up it is very possible that you feel empty. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing. It could be this very emptiness that you try to cover by video games. So depending on what your goals are you could either replace it or just be with that emptiness. Leo describes this in his episode about addiction. Also having friends who don't play might be a good thing. I myself struggled with video games. For me it was a means to escape a feeling of incompletness and emptiness and try to get away of the present moment. You have to decide for yourself if it is something like this. I would call it a distraction from more important things but it doesn't have to be the same for you. Also can a fullfilling life come from the pleasure and excitement of a video game? Or doesn't also pain arise from there because you are always on the hunt for the next exciting or pleasurable thing, the next dopamin hit? Can you still enjoy this very moment or is your mind occupied with the game and craves it if you can not play? If so is this fullfilling? Think how this is for you.

@Nickinicki343 I had this question in mind for a long time as well. I could see that I had build a lot of dogma around this topic. But lately I am quite happy I can do it in a more and more undogmatic way. So when I can I go for vegan food but when I get invited or somehow something not vegan lands on my plate I just eat it without judging. I still eat mostly vegan because there is a honest love and compassion towards animals and my body just feels better on this kind of diet. So I think an undogmatic and non judgemental way is a good solution.

Here is another way. I took this quote from one of Jeff Fosters facebook posts. He is a spiritual teacher. - Jeff Foster

Also documentaries? Here would be two: I can also recommand Peaceful Warrior. It's a great movie.

Buddhism is one way but there are many more. Advaita is also very popular with Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj as the big sages. Then there is for example sufism which is a tradition from the middle east. And nowadays there are great spiritual teachers in the west (like Eckhart Tolle) that might be easier to understand for people from the west.

I think it's best to listen to your intuition. To me strategy sounds like your mind that wants to control. But I don't know maybe it is what your intuition tells you. You can sit in a cabin your whole life but might not become enlightend. In the end the external situation doesn't really matter. Nisargadatta Maharaj got enlightend within three years of practise and he lived in Bombay, one of the most chaotic and busy cities on earths and was also busy selling cigarettes. Also take care to not put the whole thing off to some point in the future when you'll live in a cabine. Otherwise you'll miss the chances you have now.

@Irina Irina Ah, okay I see... That are some good points.

"Consciousness is whatever is reading these words right now, and understanding them." (Francis Lucille) Most teachers don't make a difference between consciousness and awareness. Only some (Nisargadatta Maharaj) referre to them differently: Consciousness is always of something and awareness is beyond that, on its own. And there can be no consciousness without awareness. (Here Rupert Spira explains both teachings) Mindfullness means bringing your attention to your present experience, internal and external.

@Kserkkj Regarding social anxiety I can recommand you Noah Elkrief from personal experience. He has a whole lot good stuff on his channel, also more video on social anxiety.

@NoOne There are three states: waking state, dream state and deep sleep. Waking state and dreaming state are quite similiar, the differrence lies in the continuity of the surroundings and in deep sleep you are not a self-conscious person, yet 'I am' remains. I think it's not that it doesn't exist, you just don't have any specific memories of it. What do you think? "All the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping are subjective, personal, intimate. They all happen to and are contained within the little bubble in consciousness, called 'I'. The real world lies beyond the self." -- Nisargadatta Maharaj

@kellyyhengg @Irina Irina I think a relationship is not supposed to make you happy. That's what disney tells us, but with this belief we hand over a huge task and responsibility to our partner. It's our inner work how can a partner ever fullfill this? "It’s not sunshine and rainbows and a constant euphoria. It’s not about breaking up because you’re no longer happy. A relationship ends when you’ve each served your purpose to each other, in terms of growth. You part ways when you’re meant to part ways, when there’s nothing more you can learn from each other, when you’ve, quite literally, grown out of each other." A quote from this site: A Relationship Will Not Make You Happy (So Stop Looking For Happiness There): But I feel that even that is not quite right. We misstake love with ego attachment and addictive clinging. But that goes into a spiritual direction. If you are interested, check these texts of Eckhart Tolle out: Relationships - True Love and the Transcendence of Duality Love/Hate Relationships (He basically describes how we try to cover up our pain by relationships and when it doens't work anymore we blame the partner.)

@WhatAmI What we see as love in relationships today is mostly only ego attachment and addictive clinging. We are addicted to the other person and as with every addiction we try to cover up our pain. But instead of covering it up we can also go through it. So if you only cover up your pain in a relationship, it is a distraction. That said, after some time the drug will no longer work. There comes a point when your partner behaves in ways that fail to meet the needs of your ego. The feelings of fear, pain, and lack that had been covered up by the relationship will resurface. If you stay conscious here you can use it to grow. This is mostly from Eckhart Tolle. He has some good stuff on this topic, check it out: Relationships - True Love and the Transcendence of Duality Love/Hate Relationships

@FocusOnTruth From what I read there are very detailed instructions about your posture for zazen. Zen gives a lot of importance to it. But about the mind there is often less and various advice. Dogen Zenji only says: "Practice non-thinking." Kodo Sawaki says: "Just sit and shut up." and "Zazen is practiced with your body.", "You manifest Buddha with your raw human flesh." Suzuki Roshi gives the advice: "When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer. In five or at most ten minutes, your mind will be completely serene and calm. At that time your breathing will become quite slow, while your pulse will become a little faster." Others advice you to be mindfull or observe youself. So I think because there are differnt schools in Zen it's hard to say this is Zazen, there are different types. Also it's said it is a practice and not a training so you don't want to get anywhere, there is no goal. Just what's here that's it. But I also only studied a few books and texts, I am not an expert.

@Nicolas Rupert Spira once put it like that: for animals there is only experience for humans with ego there is a I and the world for enlightend beings there is only consciousness So I think it means they are present but didn't realize themselfes. The two states are a bit similiar though.

@ZenDog You identify with the one who goes in and out of presence! Something goes in and out, but who sees that? Also "im back stuck in my head" is just a thought. By believing it you believe it into existence.