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Hey Huz I read a good little account the other day of someone who stayed in a monastery for a few years. It sounds quite hellish but I reckon for some people its the way to go. https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1jumpc/staying_in_a_zen_monasterytemple_for_1_month/

What is your solution? How do you suggest someone disidentify from their ego outside of meditation?

Try sitting cross legged on a cushion. This will make it much harder.

I guess the reason you are getting frustrated is because there is no you to find. Whenever you are 'seeking' then you are acting from the standpoint of your ego. With the self enquiry it's a little different to the normal meditation as you are using your ego to come to the realisation that there is no you, and sometimes what happens with this is that all of a sudden the rug is pulled from beneath the ego and all that is left is awareness. So the intellectual realisation can trigger the experiential realisation. It's not going to happen over night though so I wouldn't get frustrated with it. Regarding the frustration during normal meditation, if this is happening then you are still identifying yourself with the ego. You have to let go of 'you'. A way to make this happen automatically which works for me is by practising the strong determination sits. Once things start to get really painful I accept the pain and the situation I am in, basically the ego surrenders, it takes a while for this to happen but when you do this the pain goes and so does your ego and you are left in a state of kind of nothingness where your vision goes strange and the pain is not there either. You also have a sense of not being in your body. Its pretty cool. One thing I would say is that sometimes I will have really bad meditation sessions where the monkey mind is on full whack, but then afterwards I will feel very relaxed. I think there is a saying that goes something like 'with meditation you notice your gains off the mat'

Hey man. Do you know how many 19 year olds I know that are thinking about putting money away for their future/investments? ZERO. You are ahead of the game my friend, don't worry about not saving money the last 2 years, I spent my whole 20's pissing money up the wall and I have zero to show for it. I deeply regret this. I've had fairly good jobs, and even my own business, but I have absolutely nothing to show for it. I'm only just starting to invest in my future at 31. I am late but it could be much worse. You don't have to work retail - you could work outdoors, on a construction site, farm work, in an office, delivery driver, removals, the list is endless. Find something that suits you. Start saving, and use the time it takes to save to start researching where and how to invest your money.

I'm not sure there are any books on life coaching specifically. I think you would have to read 100's of books on a myriad of different personal development topics. Take Leo for instance.. Over 200 books in 2 years.

There is a book called 'Reminiscence of a Stock Operator'. Give it a read its a true story and gives you a great insight into trading and what it takes to be successful.

Don't put any real money into it until you can triple your demo account using strict money management. i.e. 1% risk per trade.

Binary options, spot forex, futures, contracts for difference, they are all just different games in the casino. Different ways of potentially taking advantage of the rise or fall in value of an asset without actually owning it. A leveraged product basically. I've never trade binary options as I find it a little restrictive in the sense that you have to wait until the expiry to exit. Most people will lose money in this game, I've been at it for 6 years and I still don't do it for a living. Regarding which system to use; you will be hard pressed to find a system/strategy that works. The ones that work are left under lock and key. Most successful traders tend to be discretional and by nature that means no real system anyway, more of a knack or feel of which way prices are heading built up over 1000's of hours of screen time. Its a dirty game my friend . It provides no benefit to anyone other than adding liquidity to the market. My advice is only do it if you are passionate about it and if you plan on helping others with the money you could make, otherwise you are just another cog in the dirty wheel. In all honesty there are much easier ways to make money. Looking back if I knew what I knew now I would probably never have got into this. But hey ho.

What is your self esteem like? I have the same issue where I thought I wasn't selfish enough, but actually, deep down the real issue is that I don't feel that I deserve anything good. I just labelled it as 'not selfish enough' to deny that I have self esteem issues.

I don't think Leo markets his videos. The way the video is presented is very professional. The background is clear, making it less likely for the viewer to become distracted. He also wears a plain black tshirt to bend with the background. Additionally just before the body of the video there is a well suited, inspiring jingle, and this synchronizes with an animation sequence which leads up to the logo, all of which have been made to fit the theme of actualization. Blue, black and white go very well and are pleasing to the eye. I reckon this alone would have cost a couple of thousand dollars to have done professionally, if not more. It's all very professional and you know just from this that this guy is serious about what he does. It gives you confidence in the product before you even see what he has to share. The content he delivers has been thoroughly researched and is delivered in an effortless manner. This probably has taken lots of practise and many hours spent practising public speaking and communication techniques. The whole thing is just a very well rounded package, all the boxes have been ticked. Obviously the content is the most important thing but he's gone to the effort to make sure there are no rough edges in any aspect of the product.

Hey it looks like you are heading for this with full force. Nice work. You mention sitting for longer will bring out past traumas... This is something I really need to experience as I have things from my past that I still haven't goit over.. How long would you advise sitting for to achieve this? Currently I am doing 1 hour strong determination sits, have been doing then everyday this week, but not really feeling any benefit yet... Oh and they feel like hell every time lol

I liker this quote. Anyone know any good books that focus on motivation?

Get Cetus, just out of interest, how long did out take for u to experience this the first time? Thanks

Hi all. I've been doing 1 hour SDS this week and I'm wondering if I should be taking breaks I.e. one day on one day off as I'm worried I might burn out. I know from experience when I burn out it takes me a long time to get my momentum back.... What are your thoughts? Also do you guys try to be aware of your thoughts during sds? I find it quite difficult with the sds to focus until the pain really starts and then I try to focus on accepting the pain, but no watching of thoughts...

It's spring here in the uk and we are having a period of really good weather at the moment. I've been in a rutt for a while and I'm out of work, but this weather has really changed my attitude and I am so motivated at the moment. Anyone else experience the effect the weather has on you? If so how do you deal with those dark and gloomy days when there is low levels of sunlight?

I think Wolf of Wallstreet is good for showing entrepreneurs how not to do business hehe. I worked in that industry for a short while and its sickening what people will do to make money.

Well, if having a healthy esteem means it is easier to transcend, I have a lot more ground to cover than I originally thought

In my opinion someone with a healthy esteem still ranks themselves against others. How can one say he or she has a healthy esteem if he or she has no one to compare against?

@Guest A great thread. Hope you come back with more insights soon.

hmmm. This was quite weird. Anyways, here we go. I believe that when we are born we are born in a state of enlightenment and have no sense of self. Over time our bodies develop giving more capacity to our senses and we are also tended to, good or bad by our parents and the physical world. We are named and spoken to and through this we slowly develop a sense of self and lose touch with awareness/oneness. The only problem I had with this was "If I am really just awareness, why have I been assigned to experience the physical world through this body, why not my friend ricks body, why not scott's body, why not my sisters body or some one I've never even known?" Then I remembered an experiment by a guy called Dr. Masaru Emoto where he would take water and have people say positive or negative words to it and quickly freeze the water. If the water had been exposed to positive comments the crystals would show a pleasing symmetrical form. If they had received negative comments they would show a warped and messy crystalized form. Now I have no idea if this experiment is valid or not but it sparked a realisation in me that although I had considered this before, I hadn't really seen it from the angle I was now considering it from using the water consciousness test as an analogy (although it could actually be more analogous than we think if the test is valid).. Our sense of self/ego is formed in the same way that those water crystals are formed and our sense of self/ego are as much who we are as those crystal formations are the water. What gives me the sense that I am this body, is unique, like every formation of a water crystal, but it isn't real, not one bit. Hmm I need to ponder some more about this. If anyone else has any thoughts as to why we are 'designated' a particular body, please share.

I'm still struggling to intellectually understand why awareness is experiencing through this body and not all bodies... Kinda feel like I'm making progress but also re evaluating areas that I thought I understood intellectually about this journey. Is it only the ego that ties me to this one body? If that's the case it kind of feels like we are creating a paradox by saying that the ego isn't real.

Stop worrying about my beliefs, I don't exist.

Haha. Good answer