WelcometoReality

We'll see then. Good luck in your endeavors. @robdl if you have the time. Please contact me.

@Faceless I'd like to continue the discussion if you don't mind? Maybe we could continue in a private message to not hijack the thread more than we have already done?

Is it some kind of communist manifest? I'm sorry!

Those beliefs are just thoughts and they won't matter when you feel you are about to die. Can you be still when you feel that death is inevitable? You can't really answer that question in words. Only in action.

Thought can't focus on the other senses. Consciousness (or whatever you want to call it) is that which focus. I do agree that thought cuts the given experience to pieces. Words are like that by nature. Thought are like that by nature. However that is not the same thing as focus. Thought wants attention. It does not want to give away attention to the other senses because it needs the attention to prolong the illusion of self. When we stop giving thought attention the illusion of self starts to fall apart. Focus and concentration does not sustain thought. It's when we lack focus and concentration that awareness dips down and thought start to appear. How would the human race have survived if we started to think about what we should eat for dinner when a wild animal attacked us?

Ego is the identification to thought- and sense-patterns. So if you define enlightenment as "complete loss of ego" it is to no longer have any identification to any thought-sense patterns. There is no self, and there will never be a self. There is just identification to the I-thought. There will be opinions but no identification to those opinions. So no belief in that they are true. They will not be held onto as truths and can easily be reformed because if that.

That is just a thought. Seems like you had a glimpse. Now the real work begins.

It's just a shift of focus from mind to the body. It doesn't feed the self, actually it gives less attention to it. To mentally masturbate is to focus on thoughts. You're saying that focus on the senses fuels mental masturbation. How is that so?

@Tistepiste This is good advice. Ego won't give up easily. It will create whatever is needed to get back into control. You can read about it here.

Yes I agree with what you are saying but how does that help the OP?

@MarkusSweden In each moment focus more on your senses than your mind. Make triggers in your daily life that remind you to be more mindful, like a doorway trigger. There are a bunch of Mindfulness techniques you can use that will help you stop listening to your thoughts, so I recommend you do some research about it.

@Cortex Yes enjoy life! It's meant to be enjoyed. Just don't fall into the trap of avoiding lifes hardships because they will cause you to grow.

@MiracleMan All these conclusions are from the mind. The question to ask moment to moment is: Is there identification to the body-mind. Belief in thought. Belief in being the body, the person? As you wrote. There isn't anything you can 'do'. It's futile. But do you really see that? Because if you do you STOP. And STOPPING isn't anything you do. If you don't see the futility you continue to 'do' as you always have.

Two fingers pointing to the same moon, do they really matter?

@David Turcot great questions! Contemplating about the absolute can be quite a hard task though. Have you ever tried going the other way in your contemplations? Contemplating about the basics of your experience? What is a tree? What makes it a tree? Where does it start and end? What is the limitations of the word tree?

Could you improve without blaming yourself for past mistakes? If yes, then what purpose does the blame serve? Could it be that being so hard on yourself makes you fearful of doing these new things, because what if you make a mistake then it would have been all for nothing? It's hard for me to answer obviously since I don't know you so you have to answer this yourself but to be honest you sound like a perfectionist. And perfectionists have a hard time making mistakes and trying new things since they can't do something perfect the first time they do it. How do I know? I've been one myself. You know what? It's ok to make mistakes. It's ok to not be good at certain stuff and still do them. You don't have to be perfect. I recommend you do a 15 minute affirmation practice each day. Preferably for first thing in the morning and last thing at the evening before you sleep Listen to this video and repeat what he says out loud. It's going to feel silly, weird, wrong to do this but do it anyways. It's going to change your life.

So search for this entity within your own experience. Can you find it? How does that feel to blame yourself? What purpose does it serve? Where does this "blame" come from?

Do you think these thoughts or do they spontaneously arise? There is nothing wrong with the thoughts, any thoughts, because they are just thoughts. The suffering comes from believing/identifying with the thoughts. So when you see that you are caught in the thought stories focus on the sensations instead.

@Puppet Master Great! I'll see you there. ?

The mind likes to conclude these things. So yes If you look at every experience as not being special sure there is nothing wrong with that. However the opposite is also true, that every experience special. You will never have the same experience twice so everything is special. Which perspective will bring you the most enjoyment?

@Puppet Master sounds awesome. Sign me up to the masterclass pls.

@Solace could you link that study?

As long as you listen to people and without judgment people are going to enjoy your company. Because most people don't care about you but of themselves and if you pay attention to them you are going to make there day. But these feelings of being uninteresting and boring, maybe you should look into that?

Here is the answer. It's not what he was seeking but the realization that seeking is futile.