Tim R

@Edward95 I guess that's due to his health situation

That's nostalgia. Nobody perceives the sensory impressions that affect him unfiltered. We involuntarily filter what we see and hear into important and unimportant things (our memories) and since people constantly rearrange and reinterpret their memories throughout their lives, some memories become more important than others. Beautiful and pleasant events seem to be more permanent than sad or boring ones. I guess that's because people are constantly trying to reshape their memories to generate the most successful and happy biography possible. I mean, who would pretend to have led a meaningless life full of failures and embarrassments? On the other hand, sad events can also be permanent (perhaps even more permanent than events that one perceived as beautiful or pleasant) due to their intensity, since it's important whether such an event shaped and changed your life or whether it was decisive in some way. Also you could think of Nostalgia as a mechanism to balance your psychic state, especially during rough times (like this whole damn year). Sort of an emotional escape door. Basking in pleasant memories to temporarily forget the shit of today In German there's a word called "Ostalgie", which refers to nostalgia towards the DDR (eastern part of Germany). And the DDR wasn't exactly a nice place, and it was certainly not a nice place compared with western Germany, especially not nowadays, which is why "Ostalgie" is such a strange phenomenon.

Meta is relative. In a sense, you're always meta in some regard.

I have no clue what that could be. You might want to see a doctor to check for physical symptoms.

Yeah ok, uhm.. Don't?? Did you do high doses? Did you combine them with something else? Might be something like HPPD (I'm not saying that it is HPPD, just maybe something like it) Just lay off the mushrooms and other psychedelics for a couple of months, see how it goes. Could you elaborate a bit more? Why do you think you're gonna die?

@Hotaka How exactly did she die "for him"?

So many people on this forum regard the ego as their foe, as some psychological aberration, like a tumor, like a mistake, like their worst enemy. And yes, I know. selfishness/egoism is the source of all devilry and evil and so forth, we've heard it ad nauseam. But to treat the ego as some horrible thing/idea that we must get rid of is 1. not going to work 2. egoistic in and of itself The ego is just as much part of the divine as anything else. Accept it, treat it as you would treat your pet, love it, nurture it - and before you raise out of your chair, appalled at this statement: to nurture your pet is not the same as fattening it. But to keep it healthy and always in check. Jung says in his book "Modern Man in Search of a Soul": "We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses."

@DecemberFlower You are confusing love as an emotion with Love as existence. Fear is Love, though it might not necessarily be love.

That's not how survival works tho Survival = maintaining some particular form/identity Fear = emotional response to threat to that particular form/identity Haha, but that's still our ego fighting to survive, only in a cooperative manner

@Javfly33 I'm sorry to hear that and wish you great strength. Reminds me of Spira's screen-analogy to consciousness. In that analogy your father would be like a character in a movie. In reality he is of course the screen, pretending to be some particular character and when this character dies, then his consciousness doesn't go anywhere (because it was nowhere to begin with). The screen (consciousness) is nowhere and therefore can't go anywhere. @Javfly33 Concerning reincarnation: to be (re)born or to die is to identify with a certain pattern/form. Let's look at a river. "The river" as such doesn't exist, it is a constant flux (hence it's true nature is emptiness/shunyata). As the ancient philosopher Heraklit said "Pantha Rhei" - "everything flows". The moment you identify this pattern as "the river", it is born. But because it ("the river") is always changing, it is also in a constant process of dying. This is the eternal cycle of (re)birth and death: Samsara. Birth and death are identical, because the moment you say "there it is!" - it's gone. Here's another example. Look at the flame of a candle. We say "there is the flame!", whereas in reality, there is no flame, only a hot stream of burning wax. "The flame" as a pattern/form that you could identify as such is of course an illusion - therefore Samsara is just an illusion. And as our last example, let's look at the ocean: there aren't any waves, appearing and disappearing. There's just the Ocean - Nirvana! playing and pretending to be Samsara.

Smells like Zen

@Nahm Enlighten us, what is ego if not thought?

No. But you can alleviate narcissism in general, that's what I meant. (at least as far I know, maybe I'm wrong)

@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