Someone here

@Nahm thank you man for trying to help and offering new perspective. @snowyowl Chronic anxiety is messy and unpredictable, overpowering and insidious, physical and mental, and at times so unexpectedly debilitating I’m unable to speak or think clearly or even move. But even those words don’t describe exactly what I’m trying to say. I’ve turned to visual language to help illustrate what I mean, when words aren’t quite enough. I used to pray when I was a little kid.. Especially when I lost something (like my toys) or when I get sick or something. It's not wether or not God will reply to me.. It's more of the relief that I am experiencing these moments. But now I'm kinda becoming an atheist or pantheist.. I'm not reall sure If God is "out there" somewhere listening to me. So then I feel like prayer is pointless if God does not exist as a separate entity from myself. And apparently there is no point in praying to myself if I am God. I should just go and makes things happen.

Yay. So excited

Meditation is lame and boring af. @m0hsen Thanks. Will look it up.

What is it?

Exercises release endorphins which makes you feel good. But. How exactly does meditation get you high?

Sorry man can't take you seriously

The question is, what is authority for? Protecting us from criminals and terrorists, internal and external enemies, or regulating the lives of citizens in every detail for arbitrary ideological reasons? I mean about citizens who respect law and follow rules. Or both sides of coin are true at the same time? The authority protects citizens from criminals, but who will protect citizens from authority? How big should the authority be? Either a city state or empire? Multiethnic federation or centralized nation-state? Which one is more effective? Which one is more harmful or useless? Which one is more dangerous? See? There is a huge difference between authority and authority depending on size and social innervation. Only the state's law enforcement should have authority? Or the authority can be peaceful, related to trust and social honor more than exclusively right of using violence? There are so many philosophical questions are still open here. No one knows the answers, or no one cares.

Some would define Authority as those in power and control, but I tend to disagree. Parent, the police, traffic warden, teacher, adult: each would then be included. Strictly speaking, they are no more than in the position of directing and enforcing, period. Authority is the establishment, in the broad sense of the word, including the establishment that be. Authority is assigned when there is substantive support and followers, but not necessarily a majority. For example. a country may have more Christians than Buddhists. With substantive following, both should be recognized as the Establishment. The same applies to the ruling party and the Opposition, and to the gay community, which long-suffering has come out of the closet. If only it had been recognized as the Authority sooner! In a narrower sense, a teacher can be recognized as the authority, but only in the sense that he is senor and more knowledgeable, but not because he can assign homework and impose punishment. I don't know about you, but I had challenged a teacher, with no regret. Not smart? Fine, but I am no smart-ass. Is a dictator the Establishment? Should you decline him as the authority at the risk of your life? My advice: Be smart, and lie as you must. Deep in your heart, stick with your conviction, which must come to pass, sooner or later, like freedom and democracy in Hong Kong, which you must support, at least as an Establishment

@ryangold your welcome!

Scenario 1: 1 half of your brain was transplanted to ROBOT A and the other half of your brain was transplanted to ROBOT B. Who are you then? Are they both you or you are the robot with the most identical thought processing, personality and memories with your human self? pls try scenario 2 Scenario 2: if you upload your consciousness in COMPUTER A and COMPUTER B copies your consciousness, disregarding the originality, who are you then? if you say both because they have the same datas then you are reproducible. If I reproduce another copy of those data would that be you? pls try scenario 3 Scenario 3: Supposed you had an accident affecting your body mostly and requires your brain to be transplanted to another synthetic body. You then wake up without memories of who you are and you're thought processing change and personality turn exactly opposite of who you are originally, is this still you? Except for your brain, everything in this synthetic body is new with regards in the set of data, information and hardware can we still call this synthetic person to be you? At what point do we draw the line whether or not you're still you? are we all just streams of data and information and thought processing? if so, if we can make a human exactly like you in appearance and everything would that be you? what if we replace you with him, would you matter if you're just reproducible?

@roopepa thank you. It's hard for me to focus on anything good or positive while dealing with this intense stress and anxiety. It took me a long time to realise I had anxiety because my anxiety doesn't necessarily manifest itself in panic attacks. I would describe my anxiety more like an intense dread. My anxiety is more like I can feel my whole body shutting down, I freeze and my brain freezes too I become overcome with tears and I cant talk...especially to describe what is wrong... it sucks and it happens all the time. It also occurs in social siutations...its like and invisible wall suddenly descends around me and starts to close in...and it's like Im trapped in it and so can't communicate with other people nearby...yet in a way i also don't want to...the wall keeps me safe inside...but it is also terribly lonely in there and i want ot get out. So its strange conflicitng feeling of wanting to break out but being unnable to move. I'm probably rambling right now.. But anyways. Thanks for trying to help

Remember... Talking about a nightmare strengthens the image. This makes the memory more scary, and the dream is more likely to recur the next night. If you remain calm, and encourage yourself c think about something more pleasant, you help the memory of the dream to fade away (just like most of our dreams do…)

@Nahm I'm not even anxious about specific things. I'm just anxious lol My therapist told me Anxiety is a normal, human feeling of fear or panic. When we face stressful situations, it can set off our brain’s in-built alarm bell system, which tells us something isn’t right and that we need to deal with it. Our brain wants the difficult situation to go away, so it makes us feel more alert, stops us thinking about other things, and even pumps more blood to our legs to help us run away. Most of us worry sometimes – about things like friendships or money – and feel anxious when we’re under stress, like at exam time. But afterwards we usually calm down and feel better. The difference in my case is that I'm not anxious about specific things (except maybe death). But it's for no reason at all. My case is very strange I take medications now and I hope I get better soon. I will try to upgrade my meditation practice as well, in listening to your advice.

@Tim R Remind me of the distinction between pain and suffering. And, of course, there can be suffering without pain. In fact, most of our suffering has nothing to do with pain. It is indeed induced by negative emotions like sadness, shame or guilt, or by situations like deprivation of freedom, loneliness, distress, depression, empathy, social rejection, oppression, etc. Imo The importance of understanding suffering cannot be overstated. Avoiding or lessening suffering is one of the major goals of our lives, and therefore it has a tremendous social significance. In view of that, it is strange that we don’t allocate more resources to research on suffering. In most cases pain =suffering. sources of suffering like disease and hunger, but it is also clear that a lot of suffering is internally generated. But that's not the case most of the time. Most of the time pain =suffering.

@Nahm I did talk about my problems here on the forum in the past. Mostly suffering from anxiety. Mild depression. Existential fears like fear of death. And having to work while being a uni student simultaneously. am not a laid back person. I never have been. I worry and get stressed and can be quite negative sometimes. Last year, this started to get slowly worse. It took a long time to notice it but I lost control of how stressed I was getting. I would randomly start crying in the taxi on the way to a party or struggle to answer the phone at work because I was terrified. I felt like I was losing my mind – thoughts were racing constantly and I kept seeing images in my head of death. Then one day at work I had my first SEVERE panic attack. Nothing happened, I was just at my desk replying to emails and then suddenly I felt myself losing it. It was like I just couldn’t cope anymore with anything. I didn’t know I was having a panic attack at the time – all I remember is feeling like I was going die. I did post about my issues before and you were always trying to help me. So thanks for That.

In my experience there is life and there are some proplems. Seems like we live in two different planes of existence. So there is no point in discussing any further.

But aren't you just kinda masturbating when you assume God is out there separate from you and can hear you? I mean God is not a person right?

Sorry not sure how this is true. If you burn yourself on the stove.. How is that pain a function of your thoughts? @Inliytened1 so how can I pray to God if I'm God ultimately?

Yes. I understand that. You want me to meditate, not think. So that I can realize there are no problems for God to solve. Right? I don't quite agree with that. First there are problems im my life. And there is difference between prayer and meditation. But hey maybe you are right. Maybe I need to meditate deeper like you (I know you do it 1 hour daily) I'm not a good mediator tbh.

It feels great. I remember I used to cry for God when sometimes I lost my toys a little child. And it's such a relief to pray. But now I'm I'm clouded and confused about how I'm supposed to pray if God is fucking me lol

I will. Told ya will ponder what you said.

Interesting. I will think about it. Lol what makes you say that? I meant it genuinely. Thank you. Totally agree ? Haha good for YOU

Yeah I think there is similarities. But also meditation is just sitting silently and emptying one's mind. While prayer is directly talking with a higher power (God) and asking it for guidance. They are not the same thing. Good for you and happy to hear ?

@28 cm unbuffed thank you ?

@mandyjw let's say you are going through extremely difficult times. It's so tough that you can't just do it on your own. You need a higher power to guide you.what are you going to do? To whom are you going to pray? Nonduality doesn't accept a separate sky daddy who can hear and answer your prayers. Because god is the universe bla bla