vizual

The outcomes of those tests can change every time depending on your mood. When you are in love you will test as a feeler, when you are depressed and cynical you will test as a thinker etc. Also, the questions themselves in these tests are so simplistic that they can never accurately assess the cognitive processes that are happening within the test taker. Just because two people make the same decision in a certain situation, does not mean they came to that decision the same way, cognitively speaking. It's more reliable to study the cognitive functions of Carl Jung(on which MBTI is based) if you want a more accurate assessment of your personality. Because then you are more capable of explaining the cognition that goes behind the way you make decisions, in stead of just looking how you react to certain stimuli.

@Marinus It is because deep down you fear rejection. You experienced being rejected by people and as a defense mechanism you decided to put up a shield. If that "persona" gets rejected it doesn't hurt that much because what you perceive to be the real you is hiding safely behind that shield. The persona makes you feel safe, but it doesn't satisfy you spiritually. Keeping up that shield takes a lot of energy, so you resent people since they are the reason you are using excess energy. It is in our nature to preserve energy. Other people don't seem to have such a rigid shield as yours, and you do not like that instinctually. You are very picky about the people you let in, you are very judgmental about their "faults". Because when you do let someone in behind your shield, you want to make sure that person is "safe" to your true self.

In the eyes of God everything is right, there is no wrong. You thinking that something is wrong, is also right. So you can not try to ban wrongness from your life, since wrongness is also right. The path of self-actualization is actually going through the uncertainty of right and wrong, and learn from it. Not by running away from it by trying to contain it into a concept. A lot of spiritual and personal seeking is just a way of running away from the "realness" of life. It's very comforting to try to run from life in concepts like "nothingness", "spirituality", "God" etc. But if you still do not truly embody this in your day-to-day life. It is just that, concepts.

notice that intellectuality does not necessarily equate intelligence. An intellectual who had access to a lot of factual information is nog necessarily a smart person. True intelligence comes from love. Replace your yearning for intellectuality with a yearning for love and you actually become a smarter and wiser person. Love does not mean the rejection of rational thought but it expands on it.

It depends what game you want to play. If you want to play the game of fear(Success, money, power, sex etc.). Then yes, fear is a very good motivator. If you want to play the game of love, it's a terrible motivator. Actually you can't play the game of love at all with fear as your motivator.

I've been watching some videos from Jordan Peterson recently and he is always very adamant about people telling the truth. He's saying that you should always tell the truth regardless of the consequences. Well, maybe I am misinterpreting his message but it is an interesting dilemma nonetheless. Are "white lies" to be deemed acceptable? Does it aid a person in his personal growth? When someone says that everyone should always speak the truth you can confront him with the following dilemma. Let's say you are in nazi Germany and you are hiding Jews in your basement. A Gestapo officer kindly asks you "Are you hiding Jews somewhere in your Hause dear sir?". If you aren't a hypocrite and truly believe in speaking the truth you confess that you indeed are hiding Jews. The consequence of you speaking the truth is the cold blooded execution of the said Jews, you and your entire family. Most people would say, that speaking the truth has limits. In the Jew dilemma, most people would not tell the "truth" to the Gestapo officer. They would lie to save themselves and their loved ones. But where is the line? Let us say your girlfriend asks you if her dress makes her look fat. And indeed it does make her look kind of fat in your eyes. Do you lie to her to not hurt her feelings and give her confidence about her appearance, or do you speak the truth but at the risk of indeed hurting her feelings and self esteem. To get to the root of this dilemma we have to understand the function of communication. Why do beings communicate with each other? Well, beings primarily communicate with each other the smooth out and enhance the social cohesion and goals of the group. By using language people have been able to divide tasks and make concrete plans with each other to ensure the survival of the group. Note that without a group; language is useless and non-sensical. Language is by definition group oriented. To exemplify this: Let's say you stole a loaf of bread. You stole it just for yourself to eat, nothing about it, you weren't even hungry, you stole it for the kick of it. But let's say someone else also stole a loaf of bread, but he did it to feed his starving family. Now, if person A is honest he will say that he indeed stole that bread. And if person B is honest he will say that he did not steal that bread. You see that even though both persons gave a contradicting answer, they both spoke the truth. Why? Because they stayed true to the true function of communication. Person A hurt the group with his action and person B helped the group. Of course, now comes the question. We are not living in small tribes anymore. What actually is the group? Is my family the group? My coworkers? My countrymen? All living beings? Or is the group just me? Well, in an ideal world. The group consists of every being that is able to speak the language. When a bird sings he isn't singing to the snake that wants to eat him. He is singing to his fellow bird friends. As a rule you can say; the more people you include in your group, the truer your words feel. If you consider only yourself in your group, you are going to experience a lot of anxiety in your speech. Because you consider everyone you speak to as someone from another group, and thus someone that might be a predator to your group. But if you include every living being in your group, your speech is very liberating because you can not say any wrong. All your words are to collaborate, not to compete or destroy. The problem is that considering every being part of your group is hard. Since it totally goes against your social conditioning. But the payoff can also be big. Gandhi for instance dared to act and tell the truth as a part of the whole. He did not chose sides in his speech, his words were universal. He stood for peace of all..

The language we use is an expression of the group we hold dear. Language started as a tool to protect and further the interests of our beloved tribe, family, friends etc. Communication is power. It's not only the words we speak, but also the words we think inside our minds that show what we truly hold dear. If we only care about ourselves. Our thoughts are going to be very turbulent and neurotic. Why? Because the mind then sees everybody and everything as a potential threat. Let's compare the thoughts of a neurotic egotist to the thoughts of a true King. The King is a man who radiates poise, strength, class, compassion and awareness. But why? Why is the King so special that he radiates that, does he have different blood than the common man? No, the King's thought patterns are geared toward an entire country. His mind is wired toward the betterment of a huge group of people. Try to visualize that you are the King of a huge country, try to imagine that you are responsible for millions of people, and that they look up to you and count on you. Can you feel the difference in your thought space in comparison to the mode with you only caring about your puny self? Being a King is a state of mind, just like being a selfish loser. The difference between to two is that the King uses his inner communication to the betterment of an entire country, the egotist only for his puny self. What can be better than being a King? Well, try to imagine that the communication in your mind space is not geared towards a country. But your mind space speaks the language for the betterment of the entire universe. All the humans, animals, the planets, all the objects, even the fabric of space itself. Feel your mind using its ability to communicate to connect with everything in reality. Notice that the language of the universe is pure silence, there are no words here. You can communicate with everything, every object, every person, with pure silence. This is the language of love.

Nisargadatta Maharaj says I am That. I say I am This. Who is right and who is wrong? It depends who is asking.

When you experience an awakening it is very tempting to go around exploring your own world and re-labeling everything from your new found perspective. It's the same impulse when the bullied High school geek becomes rich and successful and is counting the days he can show off his success at the high school reunion to prove his superiority to himself. In Jim Carey's case, he's labeling the showbiz world(which he was a big part of) as shallow and meaningless. Yet, there he is. It can be very satisfying to look at old situations that caused fear and desire, and be totally impartial to it now. But it is another layer of ego one has to go through. I don't think he is enlightened, but he has experienced an awakening, probably.

Well, it seems you are doing a pretty poor job of "trying to be authentically content with reality" if you are having such doubts about it Maybe you should evaluate what you are really trying to get out of what you are doing. I mean, how are strong determination sittings actually aiding you? Is it about enduring pain? Is it about not moving and not thinking? Is it about determination?

Well, thinking is not going to get you to a satisfactory answer to your crisis of meaning. In one way, life is totally meaningless. Since every passing moment pales in comparison to the infinite amount of possibilities that are also present right now. Every moment in your life is a single drop of water in an ocean the size of infinity. But at the same time. Since every passing moment also possesses the "DNA" of every possible moment, every moment is also extremely meaningful. Which means that without the current moment you are currently experiencing, no moment can exist at all. Do you realize how meaningful that is? Think about it, Nothing at all could exist without the current moment you are experiencing right now. Since without that moment, infinity can not be infinite. The "DNA" of infinity is with you right now, and it appreciates and loves each moment equally. Infinity is not cold and empty, it is extremely rich and warm. Whether you think it's meaningful or meaningless does not really change anything. Reality is reality, look at it and enjoy

I agree with WelcomeReality. It's very attractive to try to escape your fear, anxiety and depressed states. Either by trying to run from it mentally, physically or drugs, sex, alcohol or whatever. But that just delays and prolongs the suffering. But when you actually allow the depression and anxiety you unconsciously learn how to deal and cope with it. Even if it doesn't feel that way. Your mind is actually wired to look for a way to improve your own mood and life. By allowing unhappy states to 'be' you give your brain the permission to learn, adapt and seek a solution. But this learning is mostly not immediate, it takes some time. And after a while the 'aha' moment can come so you can grow spiritually. That is why drugs, alcohol and other forms of escapism can be absolutely detrimental to ones spiritual growth. It tricks the brain into thinking that everything in life is 'ok'. So the unconscious does not try to make any effort to grow in that way. It takes strength and faith, though. And it's very tempting to try to escape the pain if the present situation if not pleasant.

The funny thing is, is that you have zero control over the content of your thoughts. Let's say you desire to become the President of the US, that thought of that desire was not in your conscious control. It's the flow of life that put that certain desire in your mind. So when you take Donald Trump for instance. Sure, he first had the thought of becoming the President of the US, and so his desire actually came to manifestation. But that desire was not of his choosing. So in a way, there is truth to it, your thoughts manifests your reality. But to think that you can jus think things to manifestation would be delusional. Your thoughts, desires and destiny are all intertwined into one. So if you take that quote apart: "What you think, you become", it kinda suggests that there is something that is control of what it thinks, and thus it can consciously decide what it wants to become. But the thinking and the becoming are actually one thing. Meaning, in truth, there is no causality between thinking and becoming.

You say that you have realized that everything is completely meaningless and subjective. Yet at the same time you interpret the words in your head as incredibly full of meaning and totally objective. Also, if you know that everything is meaningless then whether you feel good or bad is also meaningless, yet you seem to desire to feel good in stead of bad.

You are already enlightened bro. Trying to create the perfect circumstances for you to become enlightened only prevents you from realizing your own enlightenment because in reality there is nothing to control.

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. An answer only exists when the question is asked. The lamp is both on and off, and it's neither on nor off etc. Questioning duality is fun, you can do it forever and ever. There is always a new slice of cake to cut.

If you have big insecurities you are always going to attract people and situations that will try to poke at those insecurities. In stead of trying to avoid those situations and resist them by lashing out, it's more effective if you deal with your demons. If you are insecure about being unemployed that is your own projection about your current situation, objectively it doesn't make you any less valuable than any other human being. There of plenty of people who don't give a fuck if they are out of a job for a while, they would just laugh if someone tried to bust their balls about unemployment. Don't just lazily accept that your insecurities are part of your personality or something, that is what victims do. You are only a victim if you want to be one. Your insecurities is life's way of telling you, hey your perspective on reality is off here.

I recommend this guy watches some Star Trek on Netflix and realize that Spock wasn't always right. Logic has merit but it's extremely limited.

If that is the question then I would have to answer no. Reading peoples insights only inspires me to further my own search but the words themselves rarely, if ever, bring me some kind of insight which really helps me deepen my understanding of my experiential reality. For that, only my own words and analysis of reality seem to be of benefit.

Pretty good. But the ultimate question is, are you really experiencing this insight or is it a logical conclusion of the mind?

I don't have a family of my own but I think having Family as a value is great. And it can definitely be part of your Life Purpose. Imagine a child that grows up in a household with two parents who are always working full time, and where the parents are more concerned with their jobs than the cohesion of the family. Versus someone who have loving parents and do everything they can to raise their children so that they can grow up to be loving and good human beings. I'd argue that in the second case the children are more likely to be a positive factor in this world, all due to the love of the parents. I'm not saying it has to be that way though. But family is underrated in my opinion. It's too easy to take it for granted and if you feel you are inclined to put high value on family you should do it. Do not let some self help guru shame you into putting less effort into family and instead put it in some stupid career. You should do the things you feel you can put the most love into. If that is a career, fine, if that is family, also fine.

Isn't showmanship something that has always been the norm? I mean Hitler was a very charismatic man who was very convincing in conveying his convictions and ideas. And he was able to convince a whole nation to commit genocide and wage war with the world. Not only politics. Also look at sports, I don't know if any of you guys watch Boxing and MMA where they work with a Pay-per-view broadcast. But not necessarily the best athletes garner the most views or make the most money, it is the most charismatic and enticing personalities that attract the most attention and convince the fans to spend money to watch them perform. Same goes for acting, the best Shakespearian actors of the world are not the highest paid nor most popular actors. It's the one with the pretty face and the most charismatic personality(Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, etc.). You can go on and on.

Some people are genetically prone to store body between the organs in stead of the belly/thigh/ass area where most adipose tissue is normally stored. Especially liver fat is dangerous for your health. And if you eat a diet with a lot of sugar you are more likely to store fat around the liver since the liver converts glucose to fat, and that fat can get stored around the liver. Whereas fatty acids that come directly from the diet are more likely the be stored in the conventional places of belly and thigh area. The dangerous thing is that the symptoms of organ fat will most likely manifest at a later age (40+). And so it can easily be overlooked if you are younger.

Ever suggested that it might be helpful for her if she visited a therapist to talk about her past traumas? If you really feels victimized by the past it doesn't really matter how the people around her act, she will always find a way to put herself in the role of the victim. It doesn't help her at all if you avoid the issue and ignore her behavior, it will only damage your relationship in the long run.

@Peace and Love Yes, I read those books. I don't think Douglas Graham is a real scientist(or doctor for that matter, I may be wrong). I like the T. Colin Campbell book even though he does cherrypick some favorable data to support his claims. But then again, every scientist writing a book does this.