Someone here

@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

So I should just "surrender"? Can one pray to the universe?

I want to be able to pray to God as a separate entity exists beyond my power without being clouded with the hints that God is me.

Recently I made the claim that my early grey hairs are due to me being wise (I think I was joking) My friend rose to this and found an online test claiming it could score my wisdom (it was on nerdtests, can't add url). I was actually a bit crushed that it scored me only 33%. Although I took what solace I could from the fact that that number is said to have some occult significance (I don't know much about that stuff), I was actually quite gutted as I've placed wisdom pretty high in my aspirations my whole life. I was wondering, can any of you think of a way I can find out once and for all if I am wise?

How do you know whether you're enlightened tho? ?

Just by asking whether I'm wise means I'm not wise?

Come on man.. Don't get too absorbed in the no-self worldview too much.? We can still talk relatively and assume that there are separate selves with separate "wisdoms". And some people are definitely more /less wise than others. I assume as one grows older and gains more experience and exposure to life, he gains more wisdom. So in that regard you are right. I'm not wise.

Nobody knows.

I bet if I made a thread asking "how do I know if I am enlightened", Leo will lock it and will tell me something along the lines "dude, stop mentally masturbating" ?

It's An even more important question Is how do I know if I am enlightened?

The question of what is real and the followup question is the world as empirically observed real are very broad philosophical questions essentially representing an entire branch of philosophy. For this particular concerns, about whether only you are real and the other people are not, look at it like this: Consider the amount that what you observe conforms with a world that goes on while you are not looking. For instance, when you leave a room and then come back later, all the other people are not in exactly the same spot as they were. Rather complicated events unfolded according to strict patterns such as physical laws. The amount of computing power it would take to simulate such a thing, even moreso if was post hoc, is well beyond the capabilities of the human brain. Thus, if the rest of the world is not real than you--as in your body and brain--are almost certainly also not real. So, no, you are not the only real person in a world that stops being real once you stop looking at it with only a bubble of reality around you imitating what it would be like if that bubble was actually in a real, bigger world. But maybe the whole thing is fake, and then we are just left with cogito ergo sum, noting that the "I" is not defined. However, the difference between so-called simulation and so-called reality might be naught if there is no observable difference. Even if this whole observable universe was a simulation on some alien supercomputer, what's the difference in terms of reality? What does it matter if the tiny particles of the universe are actually each an electronic bit in some supercomputer or if there is no such supercomputer and the particles are particles. What is a particle really? Just a piece of information. It is only meaningful to call something a simulation when simulating something actually means doing less than having the real thing. A stuffed animal is no longer a simulation when we actually build an animal piece by piece, atom-by-atom that is identical to the so-called thing it simulating, an animal. Video games at current technology only offer virtual reality because they are not powerful enough to simulate the amount of information encoded in what believe to be reality not even to the practical end of offering an identical experience to a user or an identical mind to the virtual beings as those held by people in the allegedly real world.

I know this will sound weird, but I will give it a try. Since I was a teen I used to feel like I was the only real person and everyone else and everything only existed when I saw them like in a dream. I am 25 now and feel that way again. When I leave a room I feel it no longer exists. I feel that nothing existed until I was born. This means no real person won the 100 million dollar lottery last week and at the same time nobody died in an earthquake last week because neither of them really exists. Sometimes I feel I created the universe and made myself a part of it but purposely forgot so that it would be more interesting. I am just your average person. Maybe this is how I wanted it. I feel the answer will be revealed when I die, as if my life is just a long dream. Does anyone else feel this way? Even the guy who bullied me in 8th grade, did I create him ? I just ask myself are there really 7 billion souls on this earth plus the 20 billion that ever lived or just one: me. Sometimes I really think hard about this. When I see someone leaving work, do they really go home to a family or do they no longer exist til I see them the next day. I am not mentally unstable and would like to share your thoughts. Thanks.

I can let go of my helpless attempts at comprehending an incomprehensible universe if only I can have faith and trust in the universe. Tbh I don't trust the universe at all. And not sure how "to build" that trust

I have a really hard time comprehending time, and as a result motion (location changed over a period of time). I'll watch my hand wave in front of my face (for whatever reason), but really all that I am experiencing at each point in time is the location of my hand NOW, and a memory of where it was before. I never really can see it move - all I have is the vision of it, sitting still at this point, and knowing where it was before. Motion is something that has changed from time a to time c. But at what time does it move? Is it point b, in between a and c? But look at point b: it itself is still. There is only motion because...and we start over. Motion doesn't seem to be possible right NOW...we can only "know" it exists or have memories of it. And in reality, it also seems impossible to me. Another thing about time, is what the smallest "time unit" humans have. If I am engulfed in something, not paying attention to time, only what I am doing, it could be maybe even half a second. Everything happening in that half a second happened at once. The laugh "HA!" all happened at once. Then if you pay attention, you can consciously realize when you are at the beginning hhh of the HA, and the end aaa of the HA. But still, a snap is too quick even for paying attention. I can hear no beginning or end - just it. Yet, two clicks can happen within the amount of time a snap takes place, and I can hear both of them. Maybe the human brain is limited on this, to the point where eventually two clicks could be close enough just to make one. But just pondering the existence of these clicks is really really confusing.