Gesundheit2

Can you narrow all that down into one very specific and short statement? What is the essence of ego?

Idk. I really don't think that's quite final (i.e. biggest picture possible). I mean, sure, identity is part of the ego, and it's based on feeling, but that's not all of what I experience as an ego. Identification seems more like one aspect/variable of the whole thing, and it's probably about rigidity vs. fluidity of identity, rather than the reality/actuality of the ego as a whole. If I am not identified with any thoughts whatsoever, does that mean I don't have an ego? I don't think so, because there's still an experiencer (experience, whatever) in that case. What's the difference, anyway, between a raw sensation and a sensation with identity/thoughts added on top of it? Doesn't the raw sensation count as ego, too?

@allislove Interesting. Although, does it necessarily have to do with I-thinking in specific? What about other-thinking? I mean other-thinking as in any pronoun whatsoever. Examples, this (it) is hard, that (it) is far away, she is beautiful, he is sad, you are smart, etc... these are all phrases that don't have I-thinking, at least not explicitly. Do they count as ego?

The separate self thinks that the separate self has Microsoft Word and not much time, and so the separate self used the "find and replace" function to alter the original post like this

As I began my spiritual quest about 7-8 years ago, I started questioning everything. One of those things was the shape of the earth, and all the telltales around it. At the time I did my research on the subject, the internet was flooded with conspiracy theories and all sorts of information that supports the flat earth theory, and of course, the opposite side. Recently, I've been having some interesting "conversations" with an acquaintance - a conspiracy theorist - who believes that there's an elite group of people who rule the world, etc... So, anyway, in one of our conversations, he told me that the flat earth theory is censored from YouTube and Google. I did a quick search, and that seems to be the case. Right now, I'm wondering about the reasons. I get it that conspiracy theories are not generally a good thing to dig into. So, I'm not against censorship of conspiracy theories per se. But what about different opinions? And what about free speech? Let's take it one step further and say that the flat earth theory is absolutely false. Still, why the censorship? It doesn't make sense to me. I mean, what's the point? Like if someone believes in the flat earth they're going to fall off the edge of the earth or something? I just don't get it. What's so wrong/bad about the flat earth theory? EDIT: Turns out there's no censorship whatsoever, only SEO-based results as it appears to me now. The initial quick search results gave me the impression of censorship because I didn't take the time to look more closely. In this light, it appears that "censorship" has become another weapon that conspiracy theorists use nowadays in order to feel righteous. I apologize for the misinformation. It was a hasty judgement on my part. Thank you all for your inputs and your time.

@lmfao @Zigzag Idiot Thanks. Will contemplate on that.

Yeah, man. I can see that. However, in which moment exactly could I ever know? lol

Here's a thought: If a woman comes up to her man and offers him a free opportunity to have sex with one of her friends (consensual and everything, and not a shit test lol), there is no doubt in my mind that most men won't think twice about and will immediately agree to have sex. On the other hand, can you say the same thing applies in the opposite case (genders reversed)?

They're just thoughts, bro.

They're just thoughts, bro.

I'm glad you said that, because it isn't about me, personally. I might be wrong and imagining things here in this case. Even though, technically, I have other reasons to believe in my hypothesis, but that's besides the point, because I'm not trying to prove anything about me. However, the point still stands that things like that happen for men all the time. That's why the concept/term "shit test" exists, because it refers to an actual phenomenon that men experience in the dating world. Hell! My ex used to ask me questions, and then after I answered them she would say: "I was testing you". I miss how transparent she was.

About half of the meaning of those scriptures gets lost with the translation, and the other half gets lost with time. If you aren't an original speaker of the book, you will barely read 10% of what's intended with the communication. And even then, you will probably get half of that wrong. And all that assumes that the book is actually original and was not distorted over time, which is very unlikely to begin with. As an example, the Quran was written about 1400 years ago. The language (Arabic) at the time was very different than now. Arabs read the Quran now and barely understand it, and these are the native speakers of Arabic. The first book that was written in an attempt at explaining the Quran to the common people (right now, they're called " Tafsir", aka interpretation books) was around 300 years after Muhammad's death. So, you see, in the span of 300 years people couldn't comprehend the book anymore. They needed scholars and linguists to help them crack the codes. That's how quickly wisdom loses its meaning and starts needing to get reproduced. Because language evolves over time, and wisdom has to keep up with evolution before it's forgotten. For me, personally, as a native speaker of Arabic, it took me a lot of research and studying of the original Arabic language (literally years) before I could finally start to really comprehend anything beyond the level of intellect. And that didn't happen without a huge development in my intuitive skills after years of inner work. So, in conclusion, no. Absolutely not worth it. If you're looking for wisdom, you're better off watching YouTube videos and reading recent books. This forum is great too, btw! Even better, doing enlightenment work as your main source for wisdom, and then reading something or watching a video on the side as a supplement for your insights. At the same time, there are truths that cannot be communicated no matter what, and only you can discover. So even if you listen to all the teachers in the world and understand everything they say, you're still gonna miss out on half of true wisdom if you don't do the work on your own.

I once got "tested" (not sure which type) by the devil herself. We were sitting, and I was talking about spirituality and telling her some insight. At first I didn't realize what she was doing, I only got it when I got back home. So, I'm saying yada yada yada, and she's asking me to repeat as if she doesn't understand my voice, and other times as if she's trying to grasp the deep wisdom that I'm sharing. She made me repeat the same insight like 4 times as if she was trying to tell me: "hey, you should listen to yourself saying that, look how stupid you are". Later during the date I discover that she's atheist and doesn't take spirituality seriously. Then when I'm back home my mind made the connection. I was furious! Nobody ever made fun of me like that before! How could she do that to me?! lol

@Husseinisdoingfine You're just a victim of a racist/ethnic propaganda. Bashar won the elections fair and square every single time. Everybody worships him down here and they all voted for him voluntarily, and will vote for him anytime, and all of it is according to the Syrian constitution. So those memes aren't actually directed towards Bashar. They're directed towards the Syrian people and their free choice. That's why they're racist/ethnic. If the people didn't truly love him, do you think he would have lasted that long? Even America couldn't take him down. Obama, then Trump, and now Biden. And whoever comes next will not be able to take him down. They will all go and he'll stay still lol. They're all just jealous of how much he's loved by his people.

Yep. That's why one of my ultimate goals in life is to have a land of my own that I can farm and live off from regardless of other people and technology. Good old agriculture is the way to go. It's healthy, it's natural, it's guaranteed.

@Seeker531 In his speech, he said that the sanctions are a reality that he's going to have to keep dealing with to the best of his ability. He emphasized on moving on to renewable energy sources for producing electricity because of the lack of oil (stolen by the US). He talked about his economical plans in general and how he's going to improve the situation for the citizens regardless of the sanctions and the stealing. I'm not expecting much, tbh. But that's because there's very little you could do in these situations, especially when you're faced with so much corruption on the inside and so many enemies and propaganda on the outside. The truth is, if it wasn't for him, the country would have had turned into a hole of radicals and terrorists, like Iraq. He managed to prevent that despite everything, and I highly respect him for that. He kept the country together (he lost some parts, but he keeps emphasizing on regaining them sooner or later), he preserved the government and protected the law. He's a national hero, imo. But even then, he didn't get my voice lol. I remained neutral.

@Husseinisdoingfine First time I hear that song. You must be too invested in the Syrian politics lol.

@StarStruck You once posted about a girl approaching you, so your looks are probably not the issue. And in accordance to that, what you said here indicates that you're getting high initial interest (girls think you're attractive), but then you don't keep up with the expectations, and so they lose interest. That means there's something that you're saying or doing, or a certain vibe that you're emitting, probably unconsciously, that's repelling them. So to them, you're basically like a cute clickbait that doesn't match the content of your products. And to fix that issue, you probably should stop the clickbaiting and start being more authentic. Reduce your fake PUA confidence and increase your actual confidence by being detached from the outcome.

Great progress overall so far. A few more thoughts... Everything that you do against your conscious will (such as addiction, compulsion, emotional reaction, etc...) stems directly from childhood issues, aka the shadow. When you have a disintegrated inner child, you will not be able to have the conscious control that you need to have over your life. Maturing from childhood (dependence) into adulthood (independence) is a messy process, especially psychologically, and it often involves a lot of turmoil. At the same time, you gotta ask: "Why should I strive to have any control whatsoever over my life in the first place?! Why can't I just be the toxic expression that I actually am without judgements or inhibition?" Can you see how trying to have control is also a form of abuse/trauma to your authentic, free self? Can you see that you don't actually want to have control, and that you just need to have it in order to fit into your society, which is a much larger and stronger shadow, so to speak? So, how can you heal the trauma with more trauma? You can't. Therefore, it only perpetuates. What's missing from the picture above is narcissism. What you have learned so far about it is negative, so you should immediately drop that term and replace it with the more user-friendly term called self-love. A narcissist is basically a child who's learned how to act like an adult as a coping mechanism for the lack of love that they experience. They're still the same child on the inside, they haven't grown up. They just have the appearance of a grown-up, when in fact they're as fragile as a house of cards. With enlightenment and consciousness work, you learn to embrace everything in life, the positives and the negatives. You stop demonizing yourself and others. You accept everyone and everything as they are. And so, as a result, you learn how to approach your inner child (weak, innocent, ignorant, needy, unloved, traumatized, abused, suppressed, judged, ignored, shut-down, etc...) with love/understanding instead of fear/judgment. And that's probably the one and only way to truly heal. For healing to occur, you need space and rest, and possibly support from others. But if you don't got much (or any) of that, don't grieve. You're still in luck, because you have yourself! God itself! What I've come to realize is that in order for me to heal my inner child, I must do what seems like the opposite of self-love. It's very counterintuitive and paradoxical, but it'll make sense if you have vision. For me to end the cycle of abuse, I must end the abusive patterns that are part of my inner child (unconsciousness). In other words, the child has to die in order for the adult to be. And that's not a bad thing, actually. {In fact, there's no inner child to begin with, nor even an adult to be or become. It's just God with labels put on it. So how do you end unconsciousness when you're unconscious in the first place? With consciousness, obviously! And that's the first, and really only, step in this process. It's all you need to know. The rest of the process is just you doing the process by being the process, courageously, and unapologetically.} Okay, so all that idealistic nonsense within the curly braces is only half of the equation. The other half is the one that nobody talks about, and I suspect that very few people know about. I know, but I can't say. Or maybe I can but don't want to. And even if I say it, chances are you won't get it. It's very simple that it's often overlooked for its simplicity, and it's not even hidden from you. You know it already on some level, because it is the truth. You're just actively, yet unconsciously, denying it by closing your eyes and holding up your hands against the sun. My only hint to you would be: OPEN YOUR EYES! WAKE UP!

My bowels do toxic shit all the time. I just don't brag about it, usually.

Could be a mild form of bipolar 1 triggered by spiritual practice or insight. If that's the case, then simply meditate more.

Don't know. Don't care. And grateful for both.

Realize that ownership is an illusion, which means that nothing in your life is actually yours, which means that you have been granted this eternal present moment for free, and that you're lucky to be alive.

For me, she just gotta meet the basic standards of a normal human being, and she must be a good mother for her children.

The final piece of the puzzle... “If poverty were a man, I would have had him killed.” -- Prophet Muhammad He understood, like I now understand. ___ Clairvoyance. Destiny. Orgasmic Vision. Utmost Clarity. I see my future. I can feel it getting closer. I know it will happen, because I can merge into it. When I imagine it, it resonates with me very intimately, very deeply. Indicating inevitability. Nature. Energy. Intuition. They send me on a permanent high, where everything gets crystallized. ___ I've worked hard for long enough. Learned my lesson the hard way; Work smart first, and then work hard. So simple! Yet it was hidden from me the whole time. And for my own good. So that I can grow. So that I can learn how to be strong. Suffering is the greatest teacher. Always keep your doors open, for it is a rare guest. Do not resist the bad moments. Tough times ought to make you tough. Don't ever give up. Soak up all of life. Embrace it. Merge with it. Be it. Integrate. Incorporate. Include. Grow. ___ On my way to achieving my dream life... I have everything in place. Only one piece remaining; Money. The things I can, and will, do with money are innumerable. My potential is severely dwarfed right now without it. Just imagining having enough of it puts me in a whole other state of mind. A state of Power. Imagine when it becomes reality. My imagination is a lot bigger than my ability to articulate. I have tapped into my full potential through imagination. I am a great person, perhaps one of the greatest ones alive, and I'm not shy to say it. I have qualities that make me better than most, when met with the right circumstances. Just like with health, you don't know the real value of money until you lose it. Fortunately, I've experienced poverty, and since I study in medical school, I am able to see the real value in both health and money. They're the most important and fundamental things in life, and yet at the same time, ironically, the most taken for granted. If you have good health and enough money, you have no excuse for living a mediocre life, let alone leading a miserable one. Your life should be incredible at the very least, and you'd be a fool to make it (or keep it) otherwise. I judge all the people who have health and wealth, but still don't know how to live properly. I am not like them and don't want to be. I wouldn't want to exchange this deep gratitude that I have with their ungratefulness. That would be ungrateful of me. ___ Various routes in my mind. Still deciding on which one I shall take first. The decisions will be made when it's time. It's all good, no rush, and no worries. Some thoughts on my future lifestyle as God with fully matured and integrated ego (the highest state of consciousness is when the ego fully merges with God)... Big mansion. 4 wives. Illegal to have more, unfortunately. A lot of children, at least a two-digit number. Countless acquaintances. Strong relations. Climbing up the social hierarchy. A house for solitude, more like a farm. I want to retreat for a number of years away from all humans. Moving out of the country, permanently. Traveling.