Elshaddai

Is there even a concrete answer to this age old question?

Iv'e been writing down alot of my thoughts on paper and on the computer and i think that writing is actually very crucial for one's personal growth. the problem is that most people's minds including my own are basically monkey minds that jump frantically from one thought to the next without giving them much time to really think things through but only skimming the surface level of things for the most part. writing helps remedy this by allowing you to review and reflect on your thinking and also not having to remember them so your mind is free to think new thoughts. anyone else agree with this? i would love to hear your thoughts.

This quote comes to mind: “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”- Joseph Campbell

@JosephKnecht You are right I tink so aswell!

The thing about the internet is you can think of it like the matrix in that you can always unplug from it (when not using it for work atleast). No one is holding a gun to your head forcing to use the internet so feel free to read a book, go outside or weave baskets or almost anything else.

@Ramanujan i actually have the book, so i'll give it a read once i'm done with my current one thanks!

What does it mean to suffer consciously? does it mean to apply awareness and mindfulness to my suffering? Can you prove that statement to me?

I want to pursue higher levels of consciousness and so far I only found meditation and arguably psychedelics to help with this. what are some other things I can do to raise consciousness?

how can pursuing my passion lead to higher consciousness? I am an athiest agnostic simply because i have never experienced god, so i don't see the point in believing something without any concrete evidence(the bible/Quran/other holy book doesn't count). Is it true to say that suffering always leads to higher consciousness? I have definitely been guilty of that lol, still haven't found god yet though. I think you gave great advice here, the activity I'm doing doesn't seem to matter as much as the consciousness/awareness/mindfulness i bring to any given activity. and yet I'm sure some activities are more conducive to generating higher states of consciousness, such as meditation and is what i'm looking to do more of.

these exercises Seem like good thing to try out. although i'm an athiest personally so I have my doubts about the value of Islamic prayer and prayer in general.

Am I a biological robot acting out a large chain of cause effect reactions or do I make conscious choices freely as I see fit? I think i'm agree with the notion that there's no free will but I want to hear other opinions on the topic

I want to know what is the quickest way to grow and become enlightened. So far besides psychedelics i found strong determination sitting to be the most efficient but are there other ways?

I often guilt myself often for not meeting the goals and deadlines i set for myself, Especially personal development wise. My mind tells me that i'm not good enough or that i should do more tasks, make more time for study, get back to reading books, exercise more etc This happens even when I'm having a relatively productive day. Now granted I'm not the most productive person and i slack off and procrastinate alot, but i feel that guilting myself isn't the most helpful thing to do about this. I hope you can help me with this.

@Yarco this is very good advice, thank you. Like you said i think the reason it's a problem for me is because it does interfere with the present and creates rumination and emotional turmoil. I use often set goals that are too much for me but i work with a life coach that helps me set realistic goals so thankfully that's not an issue.

Title

Personally I enjoy spending time alone and I'm pretty introverted, but can silence really ultimately lead to growth, spiritual experiences and liberation if done with enough intensity?

Every thought that arises, don't believe it at face value

I should preface this by saying that I don't condone mixing and using drugs of any kind. In my psychedelic journeys so far, I sometimes smoke cannabis at the end of trips to help me relax from the "blissful madness" and help me sleep after using something like LSD, but if i'm honest, i've been addicted to smoking weed for a very along time and even though I see the benefits of just smoking cannabis, being addicted to anything doesn't help with personal growth. does anyone have any advice or positive and life changing experiences to share from combining psychedelics and other drugs together?

This is something I've been thinking about for a very long time. Ever since I came across a philosophy known as antinatalism, which in a nutshell states that life is full of suffering and pain and it's better for people not to be in order to spare them life's suffering. I have to admit i really sympathize with this attitude and doubt if i should have kids. I mean what's the point of it all right? Death is guaranteed anyways so why create new life at all if it just leads to nonexistence? Isn't it better to prevent this futile prossess called life and keep possible infants in a state of blissful nonexistence?

Replying to this 3 months later so i'm not going to reply to everyone's comments but i'll adress some of the points people brought up. First of all, I never claimed to be an antinatalist, of course the are many amazing and beautiful things in life, my point was to emphesize that there is also tremendous and undeniable amounts of suffering and pain that all living beings experience on some level. care to explain why? I completely agree with this sentiment, no matter how rich or powerful and healthy a person is, suffering is guaranteed to come his way.

These are questions I've been thinking about while contemplating my latest acid trip, didn't find any answers to these questions though. Any thoughts on what thoughts are?

Iv'e dabbled in the mystical writings of various religious traditions and many accounts of the ancient mystics from the past and I wonder is it possible that one can be both extremely religious and pious, if not fanatical to one's traditional faith and be fully enlightened? Someone like John of the cross comes to mind. Reading accounts of his life he seems to have lead a very intense contepmlative life but was also loyal to the Catholic church. So are religious traditions a viable path for full enlightenment?

This is a HUGE issue for me. Everytime I have to do something, anyhthing, that I don't want to do or too afraid to do I just find myself putting it off all the time and distracting myself from thinking about it. I see this pattern has been reoccuring for most of my life after graduating high school 6 years ago and spent literally years in this way of being. It's also part of how I stumbled on actualized.org, I needed some advice! But So far though nothing quite worked and I regress to my lazy habits. Even today I have an aversion to doing hard work and my ego to put it bluntly just bitches and moans and whines about how life is hard and terrible because of the hard work I need to do and will do. Any advice would be really appriciated guys, In my opinion this vice of mine has been goning on for too long now!

Title says it all really. There is quarantine where I live so I decided to trip on acid with the intention to understand my fears. The trip itself was amazing and filled with bliss and ecstacy like i've rarely experienced before in my life, but as I remembred I need to contemplate on what fear is I thought that by doing that I'll just ruminate and I didn't want to go into that thought loop and didn't see much value in doing that. also I feel that I didn't get much insight from the trip since I was too overwhelmed with the feeling of bliss and ecstacy. So for my next time, how does one contemplate effectively? should I just go with the flow of the trip and let insights come naturally or should I just sit, ruminate and think things through proactively as much as I can?

Found This channel very interesting channel some time ago about a Lithuanian youtuber who lived as a hermit and documented the spiritual journey he has been on YouTube ever since 2008. I find myself very attracted to the eremetical and solitary life and i find alot of inspiration from someone who actually lived this very intense and austere kind of way to live. Very interesting to see him grow over the years.