Someone here

What is there, other than experiences seen through consciousness? Has there ever been evidence of something besides it? Has any empirical object been found without the presence of consciousness? Is there an argument that has not been filtered through it, relied on the logic appearing within it? Will theories arise outside of it? Is any memory remembered without it? Are there facts that stand on their own, that are not touched by consciousness?

This is an important topic that I feel qualified to talk about as I studied Buddhism and the concept of suffering in Buddhism. So, Why Does Life Suck? Have you noticed yet that suffering and misery is inseparable part of life ? And if you haven't ,don't worry, you are for a rude awakening as you grow up and gain experience. This wisdom goes back 5000 years in the Buddha's teaching "life is suffering " . But why ? Why does life suck fundamentally? According to Buddhism its because of your desires and cravings. There are so many more things that make life so hard. It also feels like they come in waves. one bad thing happens, and then they keep coming, like the world wants to kick you when you are down. So why does life suck sometimes? There are times when it has nothing to do with you, how hard you are trying in life, or how good of a person you are. Life gets hard, bad things happen, and sometimes it just plain sucks. The fact that life sucks sometimes is never going to stop because life is filled with challenges and difficult moments that we simply can’t avoid. Even if you had unlimited money, fame, or fortune, you wouldn’t be able to avoid the inevitable difficulties. The Good News: If life is always going to suck, and adversity is always going to be coming for you, you can’t control that. So stop trying. You can’t control anything in this world except your reactions. It’s time to stop focusing on the suck and begin focusing on the good in your life. Life is all about perspective, and perhaps right now you are choosing to obsess about the negative, the lack, the suck. This is addictive because we are biologically programmed to do so, to assess all situations for danger through the negativity bias. We are biologically programmed to focus on negativity because it keeps us safe and forces us to avoid things that may cause us harm or discomfort. We have evolved since the days of constant physical threats coming from wild animals or ominous sounds, but our survival instincts have remained intact. Because of this, we focus on the negative, and we now have to learn how to fight with the feelings that naturally arise from this. The First Noble Truth in Buddhism is the idea that everyone suffers and that suffering is part of the world. Buddhists believe in the cycle of samsara, which is the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. This means that people will experience suffering many times over. All of the things a person goes through in life cause suffering and they cannot do anything about it. Instead, they have to accept that it is there. People may use temporary solutions to end suffering, such as doing something they enjoy. However, this does not last forever and the suffering can come back when the enjoyment ends. Buddhists want to work to try to stop suffering. However, the first step is to acknowledge that there is suffering :it happens and it exists. The Second Noble Truth is the concept that something causes suffering to happen. For example, when a person is ill, they can only end the illness by understanding the cause. To do this, they may go to see a doctor, who may be able to diagnose the problem. This enables them to begin to understand the cause of their suffering. Similarly, the Buddha taught that people need to understand the cause of suffering in order to move forward and leave it behind. The Buddha believed that most suffering is caused by a tendency to crave or desire things. A person might crave something nice to eat or desire to go on a nice holiday or earn lots of money. Buddhism teaches that through being dissatisfied with their lives and craving things, people suffer. If a Buddhist wants to end suffering, they should search for ways to avoid ignorance, hatred and cravings. If they can do this then they will become free from samsara and reach enlightenment. The Third Noble Truth is knowing that suffering can end. Buddhists must recognise that there is a way to stop suffering and move away from it, because by doing this they can get closer to reaching enlightenment. Buddhism teaches that people should not be too focused on wanting many different things as the enjoyment won’t last. Buddhists must try to stop craving as much as they can in order to work to end suffering. If you have any questions. Feel free to ask ?

@GreenWoods We are going in circles. This isn't gonna lead anywhere. I guess different people have different paths in life .

Only things which are directly experienced can be said to be absolutely true, everything else is just good guesswork. So why is it then that when you directly re-experience that football hurtling towards you, it is in the place you expect it to be? Why is the world is consistent and hangs together following certain trajectories and laws?

@GreenWoods Since happiness is a state of mind, then the source of happiness must lie within the mind and not in external circumstances. Outer things do not make us happy; they only provide temporary distraction from our inner unhappiness.

Yeah well ..I kinda agree to a certain point ... It's not possible to distinguish the two.. Unless you go lucid on a dream. But for now.. You can't tell which is which. That is.. You don't know if you are dreaming or awake right now. You might have just woke up from one dream to enter another dream. And this might go on endlessly. Which is interesting because it kinda show that there is absolutely no difference between dream and "reality" in terms of phenomenonal experience. The same thing.. Sights sounds and different kinds of perception are identical. Except maybe in the dream state its kinda unstable and dark.. And there is a huge lack of consistency. All of which are the opposite in the waking state. It's pretty solid and consistent. But dreams only seem inconsistent after you wake up and compare them to the waking world. So it's not highly unlikely that this world too might be highly inconsistent relative to a higher order of reality that you might wake up to. Interesting stuff .

@Nilsi I don't understand your point /points. can you make a post explaining where do you agree and disagree with me ?

Of course there is a difference. An easy way to differentiate between our dreams and reality is by using a reality check. A simple one is counting the fingers on one hand. They should add up to five. If you are in a dream, this will likely not be the case. If you are suggesting that your life is a dream, then why would it matter whether we are dreaming or not? If you are not dreaming, then life goes on the same way you always thought it did. If you are dreaming, then cool. Live out your dream life and go back to the real world when you die. There is no point in pondering this question because regardless of whether we are dreaming or not, life goes on the same way. It would be difficult to prove that this is all a dream. In conclusion, you can use a reality check if you are referring to the dreams we have every night. If you are alluding to the idea that reality is itself a dream, it is futile to waste your time trying to prove it.

@NoSelfSelf I agree ,dick only makes me a male . But being a man is different story . I agree with the points you mentioned about taking ownership of the trajectory of our life .being our own bosses. However not all men are masculine enough to take responsibility in life . That's something I'm struggling with myself. Masculinity to me is defined by a man’s drive, motivation and compassion. A man in previous decades was defined as tough, rugged and mean. No smiling, except at a woman .. and no homosexuality at all. When i found out that i might be gay, that changed attitudes. And rewired my entire belief of what makes a man a man.

I understand what you're saying. I will try to explain my point again briefly.... Consciousness is changing and morphing all the time. We are not even sure about that fuzzy line that distuinghes "illusion" from "reality" . Because we experience dreams but we know that dreams are not real. Or less real than the waking world . So how can we trust that which decives us every night when we dream? Of course we can't. The only element that is present in both states of "illusions" and "reality" is the fact that the experience is happening or being experienced or held within Consciousness. Therefore the Consciousness of any experience is the only sure thing that we cannot doubt about reality. Does that make sense?

What do you mean "I'm not a man "? ? I mean I'm not non-binary . Or do you think that gender is a social construct as Leo talked about . Idk there is a lot of social expectations from men and how they should act and what it means to be masculine. To be the provider of a family .to work hard .Work your ass off every day all day to put food on the table. I think the main challenge for men today is the difficulty that comes with shedding old-fashioned ideas of masculinity. The idea of treating sex as a reward for hard work, promoting the idea of harassing women or almost tricking women into sex, was really normalised for me as a kid through a lot of TV and films, even family-friendly. On top of that, I grew up in a friendship group of guys who only knew how to communicate to each other through insults and jokes at each other’s expense, and it’s taken me years of actively fighting that to stop myself from just being mean to my male friends. Every now and again I’ll still do it, almost as a reflex, but I try my best to be more kind and complimentary. But I think it’s so difficult for men today to retrain their brains and behaviours, because so many of us are brought up to act a certain way

You are dead wrong. If there is no substance to reality, how come it exists ? It must be made up of something, no ? Otherwise what are these objects and perceptions you see around you all the time ? And There is only one fucking substance out of which everything is made. Which is consciousness. And this is not speculation or mental masturbation..apparently you are conscious right now .and everything in your experience is held within your consciousness. Consciousness is simply everything and anything. This is Consciousness. That is consciousness. You are consciousness. The brain is consciousness. Anything you think or possibly doubt in a million years that isn't consciousness IS fucking consciousness... Tada! And it can't be "defined" because there is nothing which is not consciousness to define consciousness in terms of it. That's why it's a mystery.

What I meant is that there is three forms to the same substance. Liquid ,ice and steam . Yet the three are one substance. They are water . So the real is the H2O molecule despite the different shapes and forms it takes. Similarly..consciousness can take different forms. Infinity of forms actually. But consciousness is the substance of everything. And it doesn't change as the substance. However it can take different forms. These forms are changing all the time .so they cannot be the bedrock of existence. Consciousness alone as a substance is .

Yeah great video from Leo . Though technically what I'm pointing out in this post is that we can't be certain of the ontological standards of our experience (dream ,awake ,simulation, brain in a vat etc). We can only be certain that we are conscious right now. and conscioconsciousness is the only real certain thing. I mean your first person subjective experience of the world . Right now..you reading my answer on a forum to the question , “How is it possible to be certain that I am not dreaming right now?”, you are a mortal human; as such, you are experiencing the Dream of Mortal Life. You can ascertain right now that your mortal life is merely a dream by committing suicide. Unfortunately, even if you kill yourself, you will awaken in a second dream . You will at that point again believe that you really are a human; but that will also be a dream. You would then need to kill your human self to be awakened from your human state. At that point, you would know that you are an eternal human, who was having the Dream of Mortal Life.

When I hear the world masculinity, I think of the very stereotypical stuff that’s often lampooned in media : rugged beard, chopping wood, not talking about feelings, watching second world war films and going to football games. I’ve come to dislike what the word stands for. It’s not like I’m super far away from things you’d expect from someone “masculine” .. I enjoy football, I play a lot of video games, I’m tall and well-built and fairly hairy. But I also like complimenting my friends on how they look, talk about my feelings etc.

How about caring and protecting a family. Is that a sole responsibility on a man alone?...My identity as a man is centered around my family. I have done my best to love, support and provide for them and feel that I did a pretty good job even when faced with hardships. I believe that respecting others, doing the right thing, and a hint of altruism is essential to being a decent man.

Yes .Sex is overrated. Check out this thread of mine :

@meadow I'm open to constructive criticism. But he is just trolling and wasting my and his time .

A common mistake guys do when they are trying to approach girls is they want to act macho and masculine. Overly masculine to the point they are not being themselves. They are acting .and girls are very sensitive to that .they can sense your inauthenticety. You don't magically become a man with bigger arms, a bigger truck, a bigger salary, a bigger house, or a bigger penis. These are fronts When you tie your masculinity to external stuff, you're living and breathing from a position of neediness. You're saying: "Here, look at how big my stuff is. Do you approve of me yet? Do you like me yet? Am I man enough yet?” Instead, let go. Let go of caring about her approval of your conversation topics, of your apartment, of the size of your bank account. Let go of caring about her approval of your job title, your resume, or your car. When you let go, you become vulnerable. And when you make yourself vulnerable, you display confidence ,true confidence. You're saying: "I don't need your approval, because I love myself just the way I am." When you live like this, you will become more masculine. And you’ll also become a helluva lot more attractive to women.

Simple and short guide to attain enlightenment or liberation. You are basically composed of two things..the body and the mind . Taking good care of the body is all that is required in this aspect . The mind is the real Trickster .The mind gives you thoughts all the time . Good thoughts,bad thoughts, happy thoughts, sad thoughts etc. All you gotta do is to recognise that you are not your thoughts. They are like passing clouds in the sky .you are the sky. The ever-present awareness. And by your very nature you are already awake .but thoughts cover the sky and make it seem like you are in a low state of consciousness or state of ignorance. Your job is to be . Not be this or that. Just be . Being alone is enough. Silence also is a core pillar. The more you spend time in solitude drowning in silence the more what I said will makes sense to you . Your true nature is like the state of deep sleep .pure empty formless consciousness. The waking state and the dream state are superimposed on that original state . All you gotta do is relax .relax your mind .by simply focusing on the space between thoughts. That space between thoughts is crucial. If you can expand that space and remain thoughtless as long as possible the more you will start experiencing unconditional peace. Serenity and pure joy . P.S listen to this video as you meditate or fall asleep . Wonderful pointers from nisargadatta maharaj Peace &love ✌

Because you fear death .

That's an interesting one. I'm trying to do the same .I also use a homemade fleshlight made of simple equipments like a an emptied Pepsi can and two sponges covered with gloves and olive oil as a lube. I'm not sure if it will work . I also I'm trying to hit the 90 days nofap challenge. Perhaps all I need is to take a long break from wanking it to let the skin regrow again and becomes sensitive again.

I know a lot of you guys here struggle with porn and masturbation addiction and it's affecting your life negatively (not everyone, so if you have no problems with porn then this thread is not for you ). Here is a simple hack that will help you overcome porn addiction : Reward yourself . Say if you manage to do nofap today you will allow yourself to eat ice cream..if you manage to do nofap for a week you will allow yourself to play video games ..etc you get the idea. Very simple but very effective Of course you can reward yourself for abstaining from porn with anything except porn itself !I know some of you are just funny. What you have to understand is that this is a serious addiction . To overcome it you can't depend on logic alone ...otherwise we would all do nofap effortlessly , But the human brain is FUCKING stupid .when you present to it an endless pool of naked women doing all kinds of sexual acts just a click away from your finger tips ..your brain gets fucked in his ass and starts to operate illogically.so we have to trick our brains by these kinds of hacks to make nofap actually rewarding by doing something pleasurable (besides porn) after your nofap achievement to make your brain associates it with pleasure ..so now you are making yourself addicted to nofap . the brain is 95% subconscious and 5 %conscious ..so when the urge hits ..the brain doesn't give a flying shit about our long term well being ..it only wants short term pleasure..this is why after you relapse you are like"fuck what am I fucking stupid or What?!" Yes your brain is stupid ..just a dog wants pleasure and run away from pain..so you gotta trick it and associate nofap with short term pleasure to motivate it to succeed . They've done an experiment on rats ..they conduct their bodies with heroin which get injected to them if they click on a button...beileve it or not the rats keep pushing the button and get heroin surges until they died in few minutes. Now ..the primitive parts of our brain is like that..it doesn't mind if you kill yourself by overdosing on porn .it just wants dopamine. This is why you need to trick your stupid brain in order to overcome any addiction. Any questions. Feel free to ask .

I think the issue is masturbation not porn . You can't get physical desensitisation in your penis from merely watching people fuck on a screen. It's the death grip that's causing that it my estimation.

Which one? Can you link it ?