HMD

One of the primary reasons for my habitual phone usage is the need to distract myself from my internal dialogues, particularly those related to financial stressors. This compulsion arises from a lack of control and mindfulness regarding my thoughts, making it challenging to pause and simply exist in the moment. I often find myself fixating on a limited set of concerns, leading to a desire to disengage cognitively and achieve a state of peace something that proves to be significantly challenging. To counteract this, I turn to stimuli that can effectively divert my attention platforms engineered to capture engagement and interest. The foremost example of this is social media. Platforms leveraging short-form video content, such as reels, epitomize this form of distraction. They facilitate a detachment from my ruminative thoughts, replacing them with a rapid succession of novel stimuli that elicit dopamine release. These systems employ sophisticated algorithms designed to analyze user behavior, thereby curating personalized content that resonates with individual preferences. Social media functions as a finely-tuned mechanism that caters to our inherent need for distraction, effectively positioning itself as a tool for cognitive engagement. I see social media as an intelligent and live parasite adapting to its host's behavioral patterns to optimize its own survival and profitability.

So, I was in the rabbit hole of trying to figure out how to give meaning to struggle, and I came across the question: Why is struggle necessary? I know for a fact that everything God created is perfect, so struggle is not a bug. But how? To make us appreciate things that are the outcomes of struggle? So that ease could exist alongside it as a duality? What I am trying to get at is perhaps if I understand why it’s there, then maybe I would be more motivated to struggle and weed out any laziness.

@Princess Arabia So your premise is: demonizing social media will keep me addicted to it. And awakening to social media’s true nature will put me (and then keep me) in a state of higher awareness, which is essentially what one needs to let go of attachments (or addictions). The problem is that to awaken to social media’s (or anything for that matter) true nature, one must already be in an elevated state of awareness, consistently. And to raise your awarness requires work, time, and effort. Raising your baseline awareness level is difficult. You may argue that wanting to raise your awareness is an attachment or that enlightenment is right in front of you, but that is a gross oversimplification, just look at people who take psychedelics and don’t do the work. Part of that effort and work to raise your awareness is to protect yourself from shit that keeps you in lower states of consciousness. You can say “there are no lower states of consciousness, everything is infinite love, you just can’t see it”, but again, that’s a gross oversimplification. Now, do you think that it's helpful to forcefully try to see social media’s true nature as a construct or as Love, God, or Mind?

@Princess Arabia I agree with you, Arabia. No matter how powerful the algorithm becomes, it can't affect me if I am in control of my mind. After I made this post, I realized that my inability to escape from my thoughts or disengaging from them was at the root of my problem. Shifting the blame onto social media wasn’t very helpful. However, controlling my thoughts takes time. In the meantime, I need to keep everything that preys on this weakness away from me. For that reason, it’s important to acknowledge social media for what it really is.

No measures. Just raw-dogging it.

@Yimpa By sprinkling DMT on it

🍑♌ is crazy good

@Leo Gura We would greatly appreciate an updated episode on contemplation, recognizing the significant benefits your work offers that are closely tied to this practice.

@The Renaissance Man I’m swapping it out for reading, and it's been highly effective. And social media platforms are far more dangerous than heroin. You have billion-dollar investments backing them, all working to make their products more irresistible. They study your deepest cravings and understand what you desire. This system is dynamic and constantly evolving. Plus, it gives off an illusion of safety, which is why it ensnares far more people than heroin ever could. @Hojo I don’t think it's a compulsion from within. I think it's manipulation. You are being compelled to do something, yet it's not a natural compulsion (For instance the compulsion to have sex). You can argue that accepting being manipulated as an act of God (The devil is also God), but you can’t forget that you are a human being too that needs protection from manipulators or else your life goes to shit. It's like you have a leech on your arm, you recognize that it is God, you love it, but you have to get rid of it. And to get rid of it you have to see the harm it is causing.

@integral That sounds much better, not gonna lie. I've also learned to keep this mystical side of myself mostly private. It's always more effective when someone notices those elements in my behavior or decisions rather than through direct conversation.

My family members don’t even understand what he says but for some reasons they don’t like him. They say that listening to him has made me too mystical.

@Hojo The devil in disguise

My family members don’t even understand what he says but for some reasons they don’t like him. They say that listening to him has made me too mystical.

@Yimpa I woke up a while ago, saw the truth, and went right back. It's only now that I finally got the courage to get back in. This is why I started watching Leo’s videos again, hence the reminder of my family’s feelings towards Leo

Can’t wait for it to get on the higher level of intelligence

@Leo Gura Spiritual Cartoons https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG_RUUjNARO/?igsh=cjI2ZHk5bWdpdW9z One of the ways to integrate spirituality with creativity.

@Sugarcoat Now we’re talking right. The payoffs that you mentioned are too niche with some struggles having no apparent payoffs. But what I am trying to build is a meta payoff that all suffering/hardships/struggles have. I have got several answers to this so far, such as: It is what makes life interesting. Without it, there is no point in living. (God mode argument). It helps you get to the Truth. Because once you struggle enough, you want to escape it, and one way to escape it is to realize the Truth (no self etc). It is essential for evolution. Without suffering/hardship, there is no evolution. So, in a way, you are working directly to further God’s plan. Struggle helps you get ahead. It's the cost you pay for greatness. As most people are biased against struggle, you can get ahead simply by carefully getting rid of that bias.

@Princess Arabia Ah yes, I missed that. Good insight.

@Ishanga Yes, that aligns with the suffering = resistance theory. Unconsciousness means you resist things in your experience, so they feel unpleasant. It's definately about the framing. If I know I have to get up and study something in my field to advance myself, I can see it as a chore, but if I see the truth of it, I would know that I am just exploring consciousness. This ties back to your point, struggle is unconsciousness. There is a trap here though, I have seen people’s ego hijacking their awareness of the absolute to the point that they don't want to do anything and announce that there is no point. There is some truth in this statement, but as it is coming from the ego, it leads to pain.

@Sugarcoat I am merely trying to give it meaning. I know it's inherently meaningless, but I like to exercise my creative faculties to give it meaning. By giving it meaning it won’t make the suffering any less , but it would make it worth it. From another angle you can see it as a bar chart, with one bar being meaning and the other being suffering. I am trying to increase the meaning without touching the suffering/ hardship.

@Breakingthewall Yeah, through simple observation, one can see how suffering and struggle lead to leaps in evolution. Yuval Noah Harari insightfully argues that our evolution is fundamentally tied to our capacity to create fiction, be it money, corporations, or other constructs. Once we envision a fiction, like our ideal self or a future goal, we must alter our behavior to transform that vision into a tangible reality. This process, however, often brings about suffering. We might wonder why nature or a higher power imposes this burden of struggle on us when striving for transformation. I believe it is to ensure that we approach our creations with care, thoughtfully considering what is truly worth pursuing and what ought to be let go. Alternatively, we could view this struggle as a test from nature to determine how deeply we desire something.

@Princess Arabia Yeah, if you just go back to being one with everything, the struggle component kinda fades away. But that's entering the domain of the absolute. But to make shit happen, to get results, you have to be in the relative domain. I know the distinction between the absolute and relative is imaginary, but it's really important to get things done. Now, if you master the absolute (Understand that you are not separate, among other things) and then come back to the relative, the struggle feels natural. There is no bias (or at least you are good at eliminating the bias). This connects well to what @UnbornTao was saying earlier. Does this resonate with ehat you were trying to say?

@Verg0 Thanks for the input. What I am getting from this is that suffering/struggle when tied to a higher purpose (for God) becomes easier. And anything that comes your way while serving God is bearable. Because it's for a higher purpose. That's one way to give meaning to it.

@Flowerfaeiry Can you please elaborate on this?

@UnbornTao Yeah that’s something I am wrapping my head around. Struggle seems to happen for us humans only. Like you said, a rock apparently doesn't struggle, it just is. No resistance.