snowyowl

Our monkey mind uses distractions like not focussing and changing techniques as a backlash against the meditation discipline. As a beginner I found it helpful to meditate in a group to not fidget, constantly look at the time, want to finish early etc. There's mutual support when meditating with others. It's difficult to meet up now with the coronavirus, but have you thought about online meditation meetings?

@Adamq8 thanks

@jim123 Hi, I watched your video and can see you're a caring person who genuinely believes in this type of Christianity and trying help other people. So thanks and I wish you all the best. I have a mixture of reactions to your message, too much to go into here. Yes I accept that Jesus was God in the sense that he realised his unconditional love. Love which we all are but don't see it yet. You put a lot of faith in the Bible as an accurate record of God's word, that's another way I disagree, I'd say the Bible is all very human and a mixture of deep wisdom and also foolishness, and history, written in ancient out of date historical culture. I've already been to hell and back in my life, I know what it's like, and it wasn't Christianity or belief in Jesus which saved me. Heaven and hell are right here my friend, not in a future place. But I don't want to change your mind or convert you away from what you believe, if that's how you access Love then all is well. Love and blessings to everyone whatever your path.

"Ever heard the expression "felt like time just stopped"?.. The answer is in the question..." I had a thought today about time. It doesn't exist separately from the physical world, really time is just counting the cycles in nature: earth's rotation, orbit round the sun, pendulums swinging, quartz crystals vibrating, caesium atoms vibrating etc. Time is an abstract idea. Isn't consciousness/awareness like this too? There's no such thing as pure awareness, just awareness of stuff: that stuff may appear like individual objects, or the suchness of the whole unity. If there's no spilt between awareness and it's content, then it makes sense to say that reality is self-aware. Everything is conscious and physical at the same time - that was today's nondual ta-dah moment for me

I learned TM a long time ago (1980s) so my experience may be too out of date but here goes, I haven't heard it's changed much since then anyway. It was really just a mantra meditation which they taught me with a Hindu ritual (Puja), I had 3 meetings before this where we were told about it by the teacher and how much scientific research had been done (apart from telling us the actual technique itself of course). What I was paying for wasn't only the initial teaching, but was told I could get checked by an official TM teacher if I wanted it for the rest of my life. I didn't take it much further, I practised by myself for a few years and didn't get involved in the TM organisation. You don't get to choose your own mantra, it's a Sanscrit word or syllable assigned to you based on your date of birth (mine was "aing", you can find them on the internet nowadays). In hindsight, it was a lot of money to pay upfront for a basic technique which you can find anywhere else, and is only worth it if you continue to be a part of the TM scene in future. If, like me, you decide to move on to something else, it's money you can't get back. But I was young and naive back then, and didn't do my research into other options - at least I was young enough to pay a smaller fee. When I got involved in organised meditation groups after then, I made sure to just pay small ongoing subscriptions rather than lump sums up front. Unless there's something substantial like a proper course or retreat to pay for. My advice would be to try out some mantra meditation (if that's what appeals to you) first from one of the many teachers in books, youtube videos etc, and if you like mantra practice, do more reading around different schools. There's many other types of meditation to try out too, of course - eg Leo has done free meditation videos. You may still decide TM is the one for you, but you will be committing your money after you've made an informed choice. For me, I've learned a lot of different techniques over the years and adjust my practice based on my own intuition about what I need. I occasionally use mantras when I can't relax into a more unstructured practice like do nothing or resting in being. Good luck and I'd love to hear how you get on

Interesting topic. I've had mixed experiences with Buddhist groups in the past, Theravada and Zen (I'm from the UK). Some people are open minded and focussed on practicing meditation and mindfulness to discover the truth for themselves. Others are stuck in a fossilised dogma and just parrot out the scriptures they've learned as answers to all questions, ie they haven't experienced it for themselves. It's been the same with internet groups. But I guess I shouldn't judge too harshly, all religions and philosophies have a mixture of followers and I reckon I've fallen into the same traps myself sometimes.

The only definition of 'sin' I can work with, is separation from God. Sin is separation, division, selfishness. God is wholeness, integrity, unselfishness. So the whole garden of Eden mythology is talking about God incarnating him/herself into apparently separate selves who have this strange belief that God is somewhere else. If we think we are separate bodies, then it seems like we live & die, have happiness and suffering etc. Heaven or Nirvana is when that duality collapses. I've heard this expression before. Out of interest, what does "believing on" mean? Is it the same as believing in?

My limited knowledge is that money started off by using special shells & other natural things to help with trading, so yes I guess that's innocent enough. But I bet it didn't take long for people to start stealing, mugging etc to get their hands on it. Then people need protection from the muggers and protection rackets etc can start up. Gold - well you can find a little bit of gold lying around in streams but then when it built up to larger scale mining and smelting it needs organisation and bigger groups of people - so maybe that's when the hierarchy gets started.

Wise thinking, but I'd say it goes deeper than this. Why is there unequal distribution of resources? Because there's unequal power relationships. And why is that? It's deeply rooted in our psychology, just look at most animals, monkeys, chimps, lions, etc they are unequal too, inequality's been around way longer than humans have.

of course, 99.99% of us are unenlightened (incl me) so we aren't very good at recognising who is

I agree with reducing waste, as well as moving to less processing of food. But not reducing production necessarily, that would just mean more imports which take food away from poorer countries surely? Eg in the UK we only produce about 60% of our own food requirement, we've not been self-sufficient for a long time and create cash crops in poor countries rather than crops for their own consumption. Foreign aid and private charity to help poor countries is all very well, but only as a temporary fix. One of the biggest drivers of hunger is war - eg the current conflict in Ethiopia & Tigray creating refugees without the means to grow food. How long have they had fighting and famines in that part of the world.

@PurpleTree yes, if you're a good communicator and can speak to people's hearts and souls they'll come flocking to hear you - the danger isn't so much whether you will starve, but how to avoid creating a cult. @Javfly33 For an enlightened person the survival motivation is service to others - Jesus presumably felt that giving up his life was in the greater good, whereas Buddha felt that a long life teaching the dharma was the right thing to do. Who am I to judge between them? 'Why not "help ants"? ' Sure why not, St Francis helped animals didn't he? But I remember Leo also saying something like enlightenment doesn't automatically remove your bias and cultural conditioning, or give you emotional mastery. Numerous sexual scandals attest to that.

@Beginner Mind thanks, that's really clear. I'll stay with being rather than awareness for now as I can't seem to find pure awareness itself, separate from the contents of awareness. And I'll give my monkey mind space to be itself too, while it settles itself down

Hi, are you saying these two approaches merge together when you develop a more advanced stage of consciousness; or are they distinct techniques which don't converge until you get all the way to enlightenment? Just curious because I'm practicing the 'let it be' approach at the moment, but my restless monkey mind keeps asking if there's a better technique out there to try, it's never quite satisfied. If they're only really different at the beginner stage, then there's less need to shop around and get distracted and slowed down.

The Buddha already lived in a culture in ancient India where homeless ascetics were an accepted part of life, and ordinary working people supported them, that's why (in the story) a woman gave him a meal when he decided to pursue the middle way and give up starving himself voluntarily. Then he went on to create a monastic community (Sangha) - with support from the royal families - and made rules that the monks & nuns aren't allowed to handle money and grow their own food, but go begging from the lay community. This is still how many Buddhist monks & nuns live today in the far East, especially Theravadins, but in the West (also presumably other non-Buddhist areas), they have to make arrangements so there's lay people around to give them a roof over their heads, food to eat etc. I guess there are some folks who can live on their wits without much money & other forms of plugging into civilisation but most of us have never learned how to, the capitalist system would hate that

So, acceptance (= love) of the present and past, of the whole situation, and action from that acceptance is the good. But if we divide reality up into some parts which we like and accept; and other parts which we dislike and reject; that's a recipe for evil and suffering.

@IamMystic Different teachers suit different students - there's a relativity here - the very fact that you're calling these people teachers is putting yourself into the role of student. Maybe at your present state of being, Leo is just the right person to help move you on, but I'd suggest, don't write anyone or anything off as a potential source of learning. Including yourself. Maybe the more we expand our awareness, the more that everyone and everything shows us the truth

Ok, I'm trying to understand this, not sure if I've got it yet. I resist stuff, procrastinate too (resistance to doing things on my to-do list). Are you saying that resistance is like another name for lying to myself, creating a fantasy which is different to reality? But there's also a tradition from the east, Buddhism & Taoism, which says that we shouldn't reject or cling to anything - find the middle way - so are we talking about acceptance without clinging (clinging is as bad as rejecting)? Is it letting things be themselves without trying to change them? But then sometimes there are conflicts. For example, there's poverty and homelessness, I don't want to accept that, but it exists. So does my feeling of rejecting it exist. So presumably I need accept the whole situation, the reality of poverty, plus my thought that I want to change it? How is that different from what I'm doing already?

A couple of random thoughts: An accurate map, when you zoom in, contains a little picture of the map itself, and when you zoom in on that ... you get an infinite regression, because it is self-referencing. How does this relate to the ego, which is a thought trying to reference itself? A strange loop perhaps. A map is a load of abstract shapes and squiggly lines on a piece of paper, without any inherent meaning. Just like these letters I'm typing on the screen. The meaning occurs within our minds, ie the idea that the unreal picture represents, or points to, something real outside itself. But, this whole process is occurring within a single reality. My mind is somehow creating this distinction between abstraction and reality, the idea of one thing pointing to, representing, another.

@Natasha when you passed out, was it an experience of void, peace, liberation in time ? Did it last for a while with a beginning and an ending? Your story reminds me of when I had an operation under general anaesthetic. I remember starting to count down from 10 while inhaling the gas, got to 7. Then I blanked out and the next moment I woke up in the post-op room. In normal time it was an hour or two later. I had a void, peace etc, but no awareness of time so I couldn't experience it or enjoy it!

Sounds hopeful. I've no assumptions about Israel, or other middle eastern countries really. Also stage orange corporations and organisations are beginning to accept things like mindfulness and meditation as tools for productivity, wellbeing and achieving the flow state. We have that type of thing where I work in the public sector. You're just ahead of the curve, is all.

You're right, sometimes you just need a good hug. Says it better than all this talking about nonduality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Nwadike_Jr.

It's a tough choice whether to stand up against the mainstream culture, go to prison and potentially harm your future job prospects. I don't know about the politics & ethics of the IDF so I'll swerve that debate and look at how you can keep up a meditation practice in the army. If you can frame your meditation practice as a spiritual practice, won't they give you access to somewhere quiet where you can meditate etc? Presumably they allow religious soldiers to pray, attend services etc, so why not just talk to the padre like this is your path to God / Truth (whatever language works for you) and can they find somewhere for you to practice? Also what's the culture like with the other soldiers, are they open to accepting you or would you be seen as an oddball? I'm curious how progressive and open minded young Israeli recruits are. I don't think you should feel pushed into rocking the boat if you're not comfortable to. Best wishes and good luck!

If there's a choice of other crypto currencies out there, and Bitcoin is starting to show its age, then maybe there'll be some competition if the newer ones have a technical or price advantage. What is Bitcoin's advantage? Just its large size and brand image?

Yes, it's the ultimate fear of change. @Danioover9000 Could be you're developing some clairvoyance or telepathy - that's exciting - hope you find out more