Tim R

@Gesundheit Nope, because to love someone can also mean to restrain someone. What you gonna do, condemn and oppress the narcissism in him/her? No, of course not. You accept the narcissism as given, entirely. Only then can you change/alleviate it. *some people are simply not serving your selfish agenda (again: "selfish" is not a bad word)

No. There is nothing more selfish than the desire to become enlightened. @Gesundheit Don't label "selfishness" as something "bad". SamC got it exactly right. And as I already quoted Jung; "Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses." @Gesundheit If you don't have access to the book, here's a lovely excerpt from the book read by Alan Watts.

Word...? @Eren Eeager Do you remember where/when Leo said that? Gotta add that to my quote collection Yeah, it's easy to be "selfless" as long as selfish desires are fulfilled. Guess we all are selfish to some extent, even the greatest masters. But how to "measure" the degree of selfishness/selflessness? What is a "high level" of selflessness?

As I said, it's entirely ego-centric/ego-centered. It's I dealing with me for the good of myself. It can't be done. You can't lift yourself up by your own bootstraps. Ever tried that as a child, pulling on your suspenders, hoping that you would start to fly? Guess we all did

It doesn't exist, so there's nothing to get rid of. You can of course realize that it's an illusion, but the nature of illusion is, that they are also just illusions. Furthermore, "you" (ego) can't do anything about it since "you" don't exist - equally of course, "you" can't not do anything about it. Quite the opposite. It's the most egoic thing you could possibly attempt to do. It's completely egocentric, literally. Which is good. Because only so can you realize that it was a complete hoax all along.

Spot on

This guy spent 86 minutes in the quietest place on earth, he beat the previous record of 67 minutes. After a while his mind started to race, then at a certain point he began to hallucinate. I was wondering, how long do you think a very experienced meditator could spend in this room? Preferably someone who's experienced with psychedelics and hallucinations - because this guy was clearly freaked out by his (very mild) visuals and his mind got very busy, very quickly.

That's what I was thinking too. Which is also why I'm puzzled why nobody has attempted to beat the record? Maybe it's weirder than we think. On the other hand: how weird can this possibly be (compared to psychedelics this is obviously absolutely nothing), I mean common, some mild hallucinations, as Daniover9000 said it's a really nice opportunity to observe a new state of consciousness, nobody disturbs you, you can meditate as long as you want... sounds lovely!

https://erowid.org/psychoactives/faqs/faqs_tryptamine.shtml Scroll down to "Self-synthesis of DMT Derivatives". This is as close as you'll get to producing your own 5-MeO.

Well, but life isn't all suffering. There can be intense joy in life. Remember that moment when you were happy? Remember that feeling of "Man, even if my life would be mostly a nasty and unpleasant experience - it would be worth it to experience this one moment of joy and happiness"? Now, I know that many people don't look at life this way. All they want is the pain to go away - but you see how this is actually also a way of saying "Yes!" to life? Because fundamentally want you want is a happy life, obviously. You don't want "no life at all", but a life that is worth living. People who are suicidal say that they don't want to live anymore, which is the actually the result of the desire for a happy life, but having lost all hope that they could ever live a happy life, and so they say that it would be better not to live altogether. Which is perfectly alright, imo. @Elshaddai You say "spare them life's suffering". Which is of course the same as saying "spare them life's happiness". By not bringing anyone into existence, there's nobody to spare from life's suffering/joy. Also, you say "death is guaranteed", which is true. Therefore you must remember this: when you're dead, it's as though you have never lived. Let that sink in... It also means, that it's as though you have never suffered. In the end there really is not right/wrong answer to this question, because it's completely up to you whether you think life is worth living despite the suffering or not. Both ways are acceptable.

Lol, of course you can't do anything about it. But you're also not blocking yourself from awakening.

Indirectly it might do so, yes. By making you more focused, less stressed etc you can work more efficiently and so forth. But it might also make you realize that being rich isn't necessarily a desirable goal

Hang on - you didn't experience this on any psychedelic?

I don't think any guru would say something like that. They might say "you suffer because you are under illusion (attachment, ego, etc.)", but suffering itself is definitely real and not an illusion. In fact the Buddha said "life is suffering" as his opening statement, so.. Suffering is not an illusion. Maybe it is in the final analysis, but the illusion is real and so the consequences are real in a certain sense, too. Not if one has truly understood nonduality. You don't walk around seeing all the suffering in the world and brush it off, saying "oh that's nice, that's good, nobody's suffering". Quite the opposite is true - you walk around seeing all the suffering, saying: "oh that fact is not good - it's suffering and it's real despite the fact that it is GOOD". Of course it is GOOD. But its suffering and suffering is real to those who suffer. The illusion is also Real, that is nonduality. Maya and Brahman are identical and so all the suffering is just as real as Brahman. If someone hears about Zen for the first time, they might think something like "oh well, apparently I'm the Buddha anyway and so I can do whatever I want to do! Time to wear filthy clothes, steal things, be selfish, be violent, I'm the Buddha, I'm enlightened, I'm God, I can do as I goddamn please!" - but that only shows, that one hasn't yet truly understood, because if you did understand and you really knew it to be true, you wouldn't have to say or do it! @Dodo But I understand the predicament. Depends on the person I guess. How much guilt is involved? You said she was like a mother figure, so maybe one feels guilty towards her and thinks that it is your duty to suffer, in order to... what - expiate? Would you feel guilty if you wouldn't take away her suffering? Observe this guilt, what is it? It also selfishness. So what are you to do? - Not to help is selfish and you feel guilty because of it. - To "help" doesn't happen out of love but out of the selfish desire to get rid of you guilt by expiating! So you always end up being selfish. And then you feel guilty for that. It's a perfect trap. All you can do is realize that the trap isn't real and that there's nobody trapped - and then what? Well then you realize that you can't do anything wrong. And so this question about whether to help this poor person or not has no right nor wrong answer.

Lol, no

To assume that anyone is in the position to decide whether we are allowed to commit suicide or not is exactly the same as assuming to be in a position of deciding over someone else's life/death altogether. Are you allowed to live? Well, nobody is in the position to decide that for someone else, at least according to our common sense and law.* Are you allowed to die? Do you see how this is basically the same question? *I live in Europe; death penalty is not allowed, so my reasoning might vary to the laws of your particular country.

Love is unconditional acceptance of what is, yes? Yes. Existence/Reality "does" exactly that - by virtue of existing. You see?

@hyruga Look, to give money to the beggar isn't necessarily the same as doing something good to him, let alone the same as loving him. He might be a heroin addict and by giving him 50 bucks you've provided him with the means to get some H to shoot up his veins and possibly die from OD. Of course you could offer him some food, however they oftentimes don't want to take food from strangers because they are afraid that the food might be poisoned (you know how there are some people who really hate dogs and so they hide poison or broken razor blades inside meatballs which they then scatter in parks, so that the dogs eat these meatballs and die or get injured). I once had a long conversation with a homeless man who told me many many things about his daily struggles. Very insightful. Anyway. You can "practice" loving the world - but it's phony. It's not actually loving the world but acting as if you did. And you hope that by acting as though you love the world, you will eventually start loving the world authentically, but to be honest, I don't think that's the right approach. All it will do is turn you into a fake person who tries to act saintly. Don't do that. If you're gonna be selfish, be selfish. Be honest about it, that's the important part. Because by being honest about being selfish, you can find out who you really are. To be selfish is to say honestly "I love myself". That's great! Now you have to find out what you mean by "myself". What is it that you love? And as you'll find, the beggar is you. And only then can you love the beggar. But then, it's honest love.

@The_Alchemist Please stay respectful to other people on this forum and stick to the rules.

I'm pretty convinced that this man is either a Zen Master or some Daoist sage like Zhouang Zhou (who is known for his fooling around) ... His childlike, humble and honest way of talking about poopy-pants is just pure, incarnated wisdom.

God damn how can people be so cruel?.. Absolutely no empathy whatsoever for those poor snakes. This is just plain cruelty under the guise of population control. Not to speak of these people letting their children smear their handprints on the walls with fucking snake blood, they just desensitize their children towards animal cruelty.

@mmKay I know, I heard you. But it is not an example, that was my point. Mr Beast is the last example of a business transitioning to Green, because his whole business is essentially Orange - his transition to Green would be the end of Mr Beast as you know him. He is the embodiment of Orange values and so if he were to transition, he would literally lose the core/essence of his business.

Although there's obviously some Green in him, I don't wanna dismiss that entirely - #teamtrees for example is an absolutely lovely idea.

@mmKay Sorry mate but this has very, very little to do with stage Green. His giving away of money and food is not in the least bit inspired by compassion or empathy - all these people driving up to the restaurant in their big SUVs, hysterically screaming as he reaches them a stack of bills, eager to consume the burgers his team prepared - this is Orange right to the core and of course Mr Beast leeches off that. And guess why? Because it appeals to his mostly orange subscribers and community. That's why. So he can gain subscribers and make more money to do some even crazier stuff with it. They absolutely love this idea of being filthy rich, so rich that you don't have to care about anything. Which is the actual reason why he gives so much away - not out of compassion, but showmanship. The whole Mr. Beast enterprise lives on the love of money, consumerism, materialism, entertainment, luxury, etc. Mr Beast is the most Orange person I could think of when it comes to YouTube, geez you could literally just use Leo's list here as a checklist to describe Mr Beast. That's nothing bad tho. If it wasn't him, someone else would take his place. But don't confuse his show (which is what it really is, a show) with some SD Green desire to help people.

@SirVladimir I really like that one!