mandyjw

Ok, I think I get it. Can't I reverse engineer enlightenment?

With running you choose, flow state or quiet mind, or rather it chooses you.

That's a fascinating question about animals experiencing fear. I believe that animals have a primitive sort of base ego. There are some dogs that are so full of anxiety that they have to be put to sleep. Sometimes it's caused by abuse, sometimes they feed into the owners anxiety and sometimes they are just born that way. They also act selfishly and see themselves as separate entities.

Yes, running puts you in a flow state, but long distances also quiet the mind and if you're in nature, nature is all that's left flooding your consciousness. It's just an amazing recipe.

The striking thing about Jesus was that he was totally fearless. He touched lepers, pissed off the wrong people and kept on doing it, went to his death on the cross without resistance. He got angry, got sick and tired of people, got sad and cried, all kinds of other emotions. But no fear.

I have young kids that I'm responsible for on a daily basis so trying them is not an option for me right now. In the future I'd be open to it depending on my state of being at that time. I started running long distances when I was 10 and for me it's always been a huge opening into the spiritual realm, even when I was too young to know what enlightenment was. Mediation is a completely different experience. To me mediation is more like work, running is more like putting yourself in the right place and time for an enlightenment experience to happen to you. In that way it's a kind of hack or shortcut like a psychedelic but without the dramatic effects and various risks inherently involved in that.

Go for a run, a long run, 5 miles or more, (work up to it) preferably in a beautiful secluded spot. Keep your thoughts at bay, keep going back to your breath, your steps, the nature around you. It's SO much easier than meditating and you will enter a certain state of "no you" much quicker. Psychedelics are for lazy guys who like to stay on their couches too much. Of course that's not true all the time, but a lot of the time it is. Sorry guys.

So if you're going to choose your diet, wouldn't you want to choose one that had been followed by generations of people who lived long lives? The only people we have to look at who ate meat only are the Eskimos. There are many examples of mostly plant based with very little meat diets around the world that people have thrived on for hundreds of years. The Eskimos had shorter lifespans and were healthy in their youth but aged quickly and died earlier than other populations. Also within the past 50 years we have polluted the oceans and air and meat is much more full of toxins than ever. There's almost no way to get around this. If you have some horrible health issues that you believe some bizarre reaction your're having to plant based foods may be causing, maybe trying this as a last ditch effort makes sense. Otherwise it makes for great headlines and click bate. Not for a healthy diet.

I've read and experimented with his advice for years and my conclusion is pretty much the same as Leo's. The brain octane oil in the smallest starting dose made me very nauseous. I also find that including healthy carbs in my diet and cardio exercise both of which Dave shuns make me much more peaceful, present and even keel. The keto diet which the bulletproof diet is, is great for severe health conditions, if you are healthy you'll do better going with something closer to a plant based diet.

Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now helped me with that more than anything.

What are you focusing on when you meditate? Your breath? The feeling of aliveness, in your hands, body?

Everyone else is just a reflection of you, so shyness is an unwillingness to see that or face certain parts of yourself. Often we are shy because we are afraid of being judged by other people. Examine it further and you'll find that we really aren't afraid of what they think, we are actually afraid of what WE THINK they think about us. So we are afraid that we will have to draw the conclusion about ourselves that we are whatever negative thing they think we are. If someone mistakenly thinks you are something you know you are not, you'll laugh. If someone thinks you are something that deep down, you are really afraid that you are it will cut like a knife.

Go into nature if you can or notice nature whenever you can. Every leaf and blade of grass is full of aliveness. It'll rub off on you.

Where consciousness meets form.

@Leo Gura This question has been bothering me a lot lately. Isn't enlightenment the ability to see all others as oneself? Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself and yet actually achieving that requires one to be enlightened. In order to go around harming others there to be a you and an other, one who has something to gain and one who has something to lose. Theoretically, you could be enlightened in that you are present in the moment for the majority of your time and yet when it comes to make decisions in life your ego comes out with a fury and there's a backlash of deep unconsciousness. But I wouldn't consider that deep enlightenment.

Thank you.

Which is hilarious in itself, I know. I thought that living in the present moment or "enlightenment" would be me happy or make my life flow, bring me fulfillment or make things as they should be. I thought I was making myself bulletproof in some way. But that was just another thought. I go back and forth like a ping pong ball between breathtaking realizations that there is no me to the same angry egoic outbursts that I wanted to get rid of so badly that it drove me to start this path in the first place. I feel like the volume of life is so turned up for me, the changing of the seasons and weather affects my moods dramatically, and I can hardly stand to be around other people for feeling their pain myself. For example if I talk with someone with a facial piercing I can feel the pain of that piercing at least in the background the entire time. Little things in nature bring me to tears frequently. Presence seems to be turning up the volume even more. I wanted to be able to function better not worse. I've gone full circle between the outbursts and spiritual realization, and I've done it again and again. I think I realize now that it's about surrendering and surrendering again. There's no getting somewhere, there's no getting something. There's no becoming someone who doesn't have depressive states or angry outbursts. There's no joy or despair but just experiences and what the mind decides to call them after the fact. There's no truth or correct standpoint and there's nothing really worth doing. My mind wants to take this more recent realization and turn it into a depressive sort of thing. But it's not that either. I want to stop wanting things and getting carried away with things and unless I keep telling myself "no there's nothing there in that for you", I'm not sure how to do that.

That's an interesting thought, I'm definitely bothered more by some than others. Piercings is just one example, it can be so many different ways I can sense suffering in someone, whether physical or emotional. I've tried and still believe in the practice of tonglen meditation. But I can only do it so long or I start to pass out, especially if it's a family member I'm with who is injured or in pain. I pass out whenever I get injured even slightly. I'm sure it is ego or past pain that's not worked through.

@Leo Gura You are right when you say that the emptiness is the beauty, joy and meaning but the nihilist is also right when he says it is despair and meaningless. Because to be empty and nothing it can't have any meaning or experience of good or bad assigned to it. Until this point I've always seen the beauty and joy part and now the other side won't be ignored any longer. I need to find the beauty in my grandmother's worsening dementia and death, I need to see the beauty in a mad over-consuming culture knowing I'm part of it, it's me. The first time I ever sat down to seriously meditate I closed my eyes and the sunlight just flooded my being. I had the realization that I am light, I am the light of the world as Jesus spoke about. But wait, that's half the story. I'm also the darkness. I IDENTIFIED with just the light and the beauty part. Fuck. I just want to be the light, please can't I just be the light and not the dark part? Maybe a little bit gray? No? Fuck. I have to learn how to hold both truths.

I just thought the whole thing was really funny.

@Shin Love it!

My mind is putting up one hell of a fight, when it thought it was unicorns and rainbows at the end it went along happily but now that it's fully seen that what's at the end is its own death it doesn't want to play along. It feels like I'm using it to get what I want, I want it to help me take care of my family and function day to day and even provide me with a comfortable life, but I'm denying it its promise of happiness in the future. I'm resisting total surrender because I'm switching from taking care of my life situation and there's no guarantee that I won't physically die. I've been told that my life situation will take care of itself. For example that beautiful verse in the Bible about the lilies clothing themselves, but I'm afraid it's another promise, another beautiful thought.

Eckhart Tolle and Kim Eng seem to do ok, although I think Kim is has challenges sometimes.

Because this forum is for people who are or think they are stage yellow, not turquoise.