Saarah

@khalifa maybe flatten the illusion one

@Lha Bho sadhguru who helps people get enlightened made a funny joke something along the lines of saying he's planted many undercover ninjas, meaning half the enlightened people have gone back to their everyday societal roles and no one has a clue how secretly blissful they are. I think that'd be what I'd do! But who really knows what that kind of experience would lead us to until it's happened

@Samuel Garcia you're right, the only time you need to go to university is if it's a field you can't get into without it. I heard someone say something very interesting which is that university was built during the times when information wasn't as easily accessible. Today we have all kinds of books and courses and information we can take to build and develop a skill to use without it costing as much as uni. If you had £27000 (the minimum uni payment needed for uni for three years) to invest in that sort of material rather than uni, I believe the value you'd receive would be 100 if not thousands fold. It's definitely a rip-off. Because at uni the skills you learn are hardly relevant or applicable and so much time is wasted on testing and random unimportant details of that kind, your energies are best invested into making something that counts. the mentality that uni and academics today breeds is to go through textbook repetitive learning and get a 9-5, and you don't even have to be that good at your job because it's only about the hours you put in and not your performance. In the 4 hour work week book, Tim mentions how you could do some of the things you have to do in a 9-5 in like a couple hours and achieve much better results, but your wage would probably decrease because your employer would not be happy that you were not in the office doing something during those 9-5 hours. These days jobs are about hours not performance and that is a massive waste of time. Another issue with uni is, at this time of life when you're young, you can't really have had much experience of the world meaning most of us haven't figured out our passion. This means for the meantime we need to focus on making money and yet have the freedom to also figure out our passion so we can work on that. I think uni makes you go into something and then it's deadlock, you're stuck in that field and because of debt you feel you need a 9-5. I think if you look up being a passive income entrepreneur, make your money for now and then you'll have freedom to figure out your passion. The good thing about uni loans in uk is they don't affect anything and they get written off at a point, it doesn't really work in the same way as other debts do that are more problematic, but definitely paying them is such a waste of time and money. Only invest in something where the value exceeds the initial payment even if that value manifests some time in the future. Investing in education is good, but I'd prefer online courses that can generate much bigger results than uni for a much cheaper price. I've finished my first year of uni, and coming from first hand experience it is useless, my expectations were that because I was being taught by professionals in this field, I'd get so much value, but taking one example a lecturer just copy and pasted everything from a textbook I borrow free in the library onto a PowerPoint... Nice ??

I came up with one this morning "I'm perfectly happy for people to judge me, it doesn't add or take anything away from me" <3

@actualized1 I don't think age is an illusion because we can see with our very eyes that humans develop and then age and become wrinkly till they die. It certainly exists as a process. Age the tool, the numbers used is the illusion though because we all age at different rates and yet we've standardized it. Using numbers for age as a set amount of time is similar to saying everyone who learns piano for 2 years will develop X amount of skills, time isn't good to measure the development of qualities in people. Time itself is definitely our construct. It's good for practical purposes and even people who live in the present find time useful for that. But it becomes a problem when we cling dearly to different times that existed in our memories or we worry so much about the future, because we must be reminded it doesn't exist. This helped me when i had an exam i hadn't revised well for, i noticed a slight worry in me about failing the entire year, and i realised i'm worrying about a non-existent thing or hypothetical scenario which is just simply madness, and i said i only need to focus on what's happening right now, and right now i was fine and all my worry went away and the day was great even though my exam wasn't the best. I made a post recently about nostalgia because feeling that connection to the past is so bitter when you know all this about time and you can't shake your attachment from it

It's most likely you wouldn't reach enlightenment in that month, which means you're still stuck to your ego In that case, what would be the most meaningful way to live life in that last month for a person? Is 'doing' more necessarily a bad thing, or an undesired way to go from an actualised point of view? Like filling your time with a bunch of experiences, not in the bucket list sense, but in a sense that you were just taking in life, being present, enjoying all the fruits of this world, gratitude and appreciation for it. Would that be an enriching way to live that last month? Would being attached to the world in that sense though, and holding so much meaning to it, since attachment comes from the ego, would that instead be a sad way to live that month? Is it a time instead to stop and to 'be' and would you even be able to achieve happiness from being in that short amount of time? I ask because I'm trying to connect with what I want out of life, but in terms of what I can give myself in this very moment, that's why I'm putting enlightenment out of it and restricting the hypothetical time frame to a month.

Yesterday night, I had one of those strong feelings of nostalgia people get from time to time, I was listening to some old music, and thinking about humans and death and history and youth. Because I felt some strong emotions, I decided to contemplate about it, and the following thoughts that turned into a dialogue ensued. I watch her, I see, her heart, her emotions, they unfold. What's more I see she feels part of an entire world, it's full of meaning, other people, fond memories. As Saarah that I have always known, as she listens to that old music, I observe how it triggers her. She starts thinking with her feelings and feeling with her thoughts. She delves into a story about the past, about human work and existence, about the beautiful things they create. But she gets so attached to the feelings they create, the meanings they hold, and she tells me "I don't ever want these memories, I don't want human history, human creation, humans themselves nor my own memories and part in this existence, to ever leave me". And nostalgia hits her hard. Saarah always seems so real when I listen to all she expresses. As she continues to flower, her ideas and image getting stronger all the while, I stay composed. I gently remind her, "Saarah, it's not the Truth, none of it is ultimate, you must let go of yourself, I promise you, you will come out unharmed, and everything you love and cling to so dear, will no longer have it's hold on you", and she'd heard about me, the Truth, many times, but she felt oh so stuck. She told me "At times like this, I feel myself getting stronger and stronger, I'm struggling to see the way, my organism is overwhelmed by my illusion". Saarah feels love, beauty, joy and awe of herself and human existence. She remembers herself as a little girl, and she simply cannot shake the world she created since then. She remembers her childhood, her family, her achievements, all the features of her being that have flowered throughout her existence. She remembers the society she's grown up in, she thinks of all the other beautiful 'Saarahs' that exist in the world, who are all just like her, she's attached to them, they form part of her experience, her growth, they're part of her being. In the end I stop my observing, I decide to slowly fade away, and just let her be immersed in her experience, I give her the opportunity to observe herself. She tells me "I have heard you but I do not understand you, and one day I expect to connect with you, Truth, and this nostalgia I feel, and all the things like it, I will appreciate it for what it is, but I won't get swept away like I do now, I will leave me behind, and we can observe this together someday as one whole. For now, I am simply lost."

That's great, I am just beginning in meditation and I can't yet feel the joy of it because I'm attached to this world so much, I can imagine myself getting contemplative but not just being and being happy with doing nothing. Sometimes it's difficult to stop my mind it just races with thoughts and stories which leads me to doing more

@Filosofas well I've been listening to a bunch of Kylie Minogue songs the past few days, the 2000s ones are nostalgic because I was a child but it was actually one of her songs from the 80s that oddly made me feel nostalgic even though I wasn't born then, because it reminded me of how the adults I know now were full of youth back then, and it reminded me of how time passes , we get old and we can't go back in time to our youth, even on a societal level the old is so reminiscent, this is literally the only time we have to be young, the song was called 'Turn it into love'

@Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj LOVE IT!!! ??

One I made up was "It is entirely your responsibility, how you feel about anything" a couple I got from Leo's videos - Internal wealth is how happy you can be doing nothing - Accepting your handicaps requires that you love yourself over and over and over and over again and some others I have found

@appleaurorae Although he says you are supposed to not have a life, it is by cutting out all the unnecessary stuff that you begin to have a proper life When you stuff your life with things, what happens is you get so lost in it all, in all the doing, that you are no longer working at a higher consciousness level. You stop noticing who you are and what life is, because you will head down a spiral of doing. You will hold so much importance to all these external activities, you won't be able to separate yourself from them. And when you become stuck to them, you cannot be free. All your ideas about life, the beliefs, the neurotic ego, all of it will continue to be reinforced deeper and deeper, it will become entrenched, and you'll be once again heading back to meditation attempting to get out of the noise and the stubbornness of the ego. The video's conclusion is something that can be reached at more advanced levels though as others have mentioned, so for now just try to be minimalist with the simpler things like focusing on doing only one or two work related activities in the day. Maybe in the future it will no longer seem so extreme once you gradually start shifting to less and less activities. This is all long term so although the message is super drastic and shocking right now, being consistent and gradual will make it seem like the next step you'll want to take one day.

@DakotaBaba yeah, to me it seems very difficult to be attached to one pursuit so much, i can understand if we love certain activities and sometimes we enter a flow state with them or we stay up late because we enjoy it or are excited about completing some work, but i can't see myself with a purpose because I know that in reality there is no purpose, beings create purposes but what in the end are we trying to achieve with it? It's all about achieving a sense of wellbeing for ourselves and living congruently with our values, can I not achieve that with interests and hobbies and mini purposes, not this one big ultimate life thing? I think there are some people who are deep hard grafters but there are others who prefer a more laissez faire attitude but still work hard, just like some people prefer goals and others don't because they feel it's too rigid and less enjoyable an experience to be fixated so much on a goal. I'm trying to figure it all out still, I also can't possibly imagine what purpose id have for my life so that could be why I'm currently not able to see the power of a purpose, purpose sure is powerful but is it necessary?

@Lorcan @Mercy yeah I'm pretty sure do nothing and mindfulness are both a form of meditation as its all about the focus of the mind and thoughts, enlightenment work is also a form of meditation, they're all meditations! Lol

@Endew I would say self acceptance is the place to start, to let that flame of hope and positivity grow that you've already sparked as I can tell from your last sentences Its about being kind to yourself by understanding that you're not in a 'low position' but it's simply a 'human position' with no connotations of good or bad. You are adequate, and this is adequate, and whatever you do from here-on out is about nourishing growth from a place of prosperity which you build in your mind. Good luck, the world is your oyster so you can't get eaten up by it!

@Parki enlightenment says there is no you, or that you are Nothing, because Nothing is nothing, it cannot be a thing, and so it can't be localised, because space and time are things, nothingness is outside of space and time, so it doesn't have a location The second point is something that I struggled to understand too, I think because as organisms we are structured as points of consciousness, we are only aware of our own body because that's where as organisms, our consciousness is located however, I remember Leo's video about his enlightenment experience he said it felt like he was outside his body looking at himself, so maybe it takes enlightenment to stop being stuck inside your one perspective

@Vinsanity it's basically about striving to improve yourself from a place of love if you learn to love yourself as you are, you will more likely be kind to yourself and then allow yourself to grow, from this it can be seen you are both accepting of yourself and growing imagine striving to improve from a place of hate, I think you will descend down the growth ladder instead of up take for example if you were an anorexic and psychologically you hated yourself and your appearance. What does the anorexic do? They stop eating because they want to look better as they currently think they don't look good at all, from a place of hate came a desperate and harmful striving to improve which instead just made things worse because they become ill If you love yourself instead, you will be less neurotic in your attempts to improve yourself, which paves the way for healthier options of growth such as eating healthy foods as a specific example If I was bad at maths, having a hateful teacher would not help me improve, but one who was more positive would give me a good place to improve from so it's about improving from a place of accepting and loving yourself as you are right now, only then can you also grow

@Christian he sounds like a very controlling person, if anyone is ever controlling that to me signifies instantly that I must run a mile! He gets angry because you do not obey him, this is due to his expectations, the fact that he has all these expectations of you, and when you don't obey them he gets mad, it shows how he is in need of things from you to fulfil him, he does not love you if he does not let you be, again this is why I cant stick around controlling people, they will try to fit you in a box due to their own selfish reasons, meaning the relationship is about them, and not the two of you the worst thing is if he blames you for his anger, because it's his own expectations that are making him angry, you can't control external circumstances to fit your own values etc. Of course he is most likely unaware of this, before you leave him it'd help him a lot if you told him about how his expectations are making him unhappy and angry, and that he must work on it, but that you don't need to hang around someone who is in that state

@charlie2dogs how do you leave the body if you don't exist inside it in the first place? You're only aware of it by consciousness and that dies when your body no longer functions i.e. death just like before your body was created however, there is research being done about bringing dead people back to life, that could hold interesting implications if it reveals anything

@reez I'm currently reading the millionaire real estate investor by Gary Keller I think his name is. Careful cos he has a real estate agent one too so don't pick the wrong one it provides a big look at everything involved and is basically about strategy, also looks at different methods in terms of equity buildup, cash flow etc.

Haven't found a way to delete but maybe if you change email address and don't reactivate it may have your account stop showing up to change email address account settings > settings tab > email address put in a valid email address, you will have to make one, it says you have to reactivate your account from the new email address if you don't reactivate your account could possibly stop showing up, this might not work though if it stays linked to current email address until you reactivate from the new one, but it doesn't sound like it does that

@JevinR I was thinking about this some time ago, that death is the easiest way to enlightenment because you literally become nothing as your ego dies, but, you'll have plenty of that to come, may as well live this interesting life and gain the once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to experience life from a place of enlightenment while living

Alan Watts 101, Benjamin Smythe, Brandon Gilbert, Brendon.com (the burchard guy), thejourneyofpurpose, tradegy and hope ^^ all the above are YouTube channels, I haven't really bothered with them ever since I found Leo's Podcasts: radio headspace (no longer continued but I enjoyed listening the episodes are still available) and mindfulness mode blogs: zenhabits, tinybuddha, headspace daily, psyblog and Steven aitchison but the latter two are more everyday psychology than personal development @ChimpBrain

So I remember in Leo's enlightenment video he mentioned enlightened people need less sleep. Also yesterday during my meditation I was thinking how people are always doing because they're afraid to stop, but I thought isn't it crazy how we're doing something constantly without a break by just being such as through meditation? Then I thought what if enlightened people sleep less because they take that time to just be without keeping their mind ticking all day. Recently I've been battling with issues of sleeping more than I'd like and not being able to wake up early so I'd like to see if meditation and being more has an effect So I wanted to see if you're a regular meditator say more than a month you meditated daily, and if you can recall or even let me know after a few days what hours of sleep you feel your best at, maybe I'd see a correlation. It has just been the weekend so if you got to sleep your own hours you may remember I made usernames of the poll visible so I can see who voted for what hours to see the correlation directly however I've never used the poll function before so if that doesn't work so well please also submit your hours for each question as a post, thanks!

@zer0 Since your exams are this week and you have no time to adjust you're going to have to brute force it You'll also have to force yourself to get to bed early and make yourself sleepy, have a warm bath, and get super comfortable, dim the lighting in your room, don't do anything stimulating for the mind, and let your mind zone out, i'd recommend listening to relaxing ASMR videos, some of them will really help you to sleep the more relaxed you get!