Someone here

in my experience there is a difference between the ego self (the false self which is illusory) and the true Self (we might call it God or Love or Infinity or whatever ). Enlightenment is both a gaining and a losing process. You lose your false self and gain the true infinite Self . The ego doesn't go away with enlightenment. Ego is a deep and fundamental aspect of mental operation. Its Rather a projected self image, which you had taken to be real, is seen as an illusion. There is no doer. You see how the ego program works. A feeling like pride arises from it, and you realize that emotion makes no sense. It is not the ego that needs to die, but its illusory beliefs. Both enlightenment and death are creations of the egoic mind. The truth is, neither really exist, you only think they do! Your task in awakening to the truth of your existence is not to rid yourself of ego, but to purify it and to live in harmony with it.

So to summarise.. Why so much suffering in the world, so much suffering on your path? 1 self-awareness. Do you think a rock will suffer if you torture it? 2 survival. The movement of survival and the struggle to keep the body in homeostasis. Ever renewed needs. Etc. Pain and pleasure are like guiding signals to push you away from what threats your survival and towards what keeps it. 3 judgment. Attachment. Likes and dislikes. See when you were a little kid you were peaceful most of the time. Because you were pure. As you grow up you get attached to all kinds of shit. You form a whole identity out of your attachments. And shit will not always go your way. And when your attachments get threatened you will suffer.

I also talked about this technique in my simple enlightenment guide here ..so you might want to check it out

No at least that's how it is for me . I don't watch porn without masturbating. And I don't masturbate without watching porn . Maybe it's different for other guys .I dunno really.

There is no easy way out of samsara, if there were, everyone would do it, but there is a simple way. To just sit, free of thoughts, bringing the awareness to the heart, and remain there until eventually we will see who we are, beyond the mind and body mechanisms. To meditate on the heart is to expand the awareness of our beingness, that is the self, the I am of God within. Everything else is illusory, just a dance of love and light experience.

Well..according to my research The Buddha identified three types of craving, which in turn are related to what are called the three poisons : ignorance , attachment and aversion The types of craving are: Craving for pleasure: the desire for sense-pleasures, wealth and enjoyment. The basis is ignorance as to the Four Noble Truths and impermanence. Craving for existence :an ego driven desire for becoming, continued survival, identity, importance, and so on. The basis is attachment. Craving for non-existence :the desire not to experience unpleasant conditions, situations or people. The basis is aversion. The path to liberation from Samsara (the endless cycle of life, death and rebirth) and its suffering involves extinguishing deluded craving and the “fires” of attachment and aversion. Cultivating equanimity can pave the way, whereby we accept pleasant and painful experiences equally, and abandon striving to gratify and reaffirm our ego.

Just to get out of the boredom I'm experiencing. Just shower me with your questions . It could be about anything. Philosophy. Science. Spirituality. Psychology. Sexuality. Society etc. And I will try my best to compose a perfect answer. Only personal questions are not allowed . Lemme hear ? ?

We can fly as well.we use airplanes to fly .

@BlurryBoi sorry I don't quite understand your question properly. Could you try to rephrase it in a different way ?

Actually ..if reality was just pure formlessness..that would be the literal Definition of heaven . But since there is form, there is duality, and therefore there is suffering.

Masturbation and porn are inseparable . Who on earth watches porn but doesn't masturbate or vice versa ?

You move your arms and legs with your mind all the time. Moving things is one of the things our mind does.

Is it really that big of a difference to fap with or without porn ? For me they trigger each other and lead to each other . I can't even masturbate without watching porn.so I would say cut them both from your lifestyle and reward yourself with anything else .like you can come up with a list of a hundred things to replace porn and masturbation. From food to video games to music to going outside etc

Lol wtf ?

@Arcangelo do what you want and whatever you find healthy for you. This thread as I said for those who struggle with porn and masturbation addiction.

Both lead to each other anyways.

Yes exactly. I did some research and found some of the potential paths I can go through philosophy. I think There's a lot of work going on today in contemporary philosophy, somewhat related to previous philosophers, but it's mostly growing and there are more interesting things to study as well. I can go at least two paths as a philosopher, i can become an academic and write on whatever issues ranging from traditional metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, to more contemporary stuff like philosophy of physics and biology. I can also do historical philosophy if i find philosophers from the past to be particularly relevant. There's also the public intellectual path where i can use my philosophical knowledge as a way to reach more broad audiences. But the only question is how am I gonna do it ? I study business in university and haven't taken any courses on philosophy. So I definitely need to take courses .

One doesn’t see “evil” or “good” more clearly after awakening , one sees “mind” and it’s “projections” of evil and good more clearly. Meaning, “good” and “evil” (and all other judgments) exist within the perceiver, not the perceived.

Why is time an illusion? What do you mean by time? And what do you mean by it being an illusion? Time exists. Sure. We even have a word for it. We are even talking about it right now. It's just like everything else.. What you think it is.... Isn't actually what it is. our naive perception of its flow doesn’t correspond to physical reality. including Isaac Newton’s picture of a universally ticking clock. Even Albert Einstein’s relativistic space-time.. Which is supposed to be an elastic manifold that contorts so that local times differ depending on one’s relative speed or proximity to a mass is just a simplification. In other words the universe is like a movie.. All past presents and future are contained in the same place (for lack of better words). But that's none of your business as you are completely bought into the linearity of life. Better question be What is time? And good luck answering. won't ask you how you came up with it or why you're so sure the present moment is Al there is for my pov . The problem is that if, as you say, "there is no future or past" and the present is all that really exists, existence is so incredibly fleeting it makes things seem pretty insignificant don't you think? If that doesn't bother you, this will: We live (quite consciously) in the present moment right? And to live consciously in the present moment one would have to be aware of one's doing so. But, of course, if the present moment lasts merely 10^-43/sec then how can one be aware of the fact that one is in it? One cannot even be aware of it! There's no time! (And yet you claim that the present moment "is your perceptions") You cannot use the word "Now!" meaningfully because it takes longer for you to say "now" than it takes for the present moment to pass. If a one-syllable word cannot even denote the moment you intend it to denote, how can talk of the present carry any meaning? How are we to live presently in a mathematical point?

Hey man Art. To me is something undefinable .what you should want your art to show is a piece of yourself Something we can all relate to; a memory, a song, a poem, art should make you feel something. Art is a gift, a tool we can use to hide beauty in ordinary places and things. If you want to broaden your understanding of design and the world that art is beyond your knowledge and experiences..start taking courses and classes. If your love for creating burns so bright and deep within you then you should be determined to find a career path that will allow you to explore the world of design and art every day.

I am definitely a night owl ….I have always been someone who likes being awake in night….I know I am nocturnal . I donno….may be it's the calmness at night which makes me feel peaceful and happy or the air of mysteriousness which revolves around it. It's not that I can't wake up early morning ….I can ….and I have tried for a few months too….but it didn't go too well with me though. Plus ….I love gazing at stars and moons and the sky….and thinking about life in general. What about you?

On the surface, everything you do is ordered by your mind. Your thoughts about yourself feed into your actions and provide for a sense of agency. This remains true even when enlightened. The self is still present, thoughts still happen, and they still feed into agency. For most, this is as far as one gets. I’ve seen many people that feel like they are constrained by their imperfect minds. And so this is true, so long as you’re identifying simply as a mind. The process of awakening involves a lot of study and learning. The study and learning happen in the mind. But it slowly alerts you to a different way of conceiving self. The next step outside of mind is pure awareness. Meditation is needed to access this. The study and learning teach you how. When one meditates, one starts to escape the hell of mind-identification.

@wayneleekw thanks brother . Glad you found it helpful

Where did I tell you that you are not awake or that you don't get "it" ?There is nothing to get .my message in this post is clear. I clearly said that "by your very nature you are already awake ". Why didn't you focus on that sentence rather than the body &mind thing ? You think that by cherrypicking one little sentence that will make for a valid critique of the entire post which you overlooked? And which is the cause of your misunderstanding No I clearly understand that what I write is correct. I asked you to tell me what are you composed of from your own direct experience and you didn't answer me . Clearly you are a body. You can see it. Touch it. Etc. And clearly you have a mind which thinks thoughts and comes up with clever objections to what I'm saying. So I don't understand what's so "misleading " about the body-mind model . My intention from this thread is to help guide people to simple recognition of their true nature as awareness and free them from their thoughts which clouds their perception of reality. What's wrong with some 'feel good' replies if the topic was helpful in clearing up confusion and point to the direction of enlightenment? Then again that's not my intention from posts like these .you are only projecting this idea into me .

If you read the entire thing you will see clearly what I pointed out that your true nature is awareness which is like the sky and the mind =thoughts which cover up our true Nature. So there is no contradicting. You are pure awareness. But that awareness manifests itself as a special specific body-mind . If that's not clear to you then certainly the message is not for you .