Jordan

Yes, they are not true in the sense that no matter what believes they are, they are not as accurately representing reality as they seem. They can still be crazy powerful. They can cure cancer and destroy civilizations.

Aren't you concerned that you might be deceiving yourself with your own thoughts and emotions? Thoughts and emotions really don't seem like something you can trust in to tell you the truth.

This applies to me a lot but I can remove certain beliefs for a certain amount of time. I believe that all beliefs are so simplified that they are in a sense all untrue, even that belief but that doesn't keep me from believing at the same time that my beliefs are absolutely true even though I see it is very childish. I still have to constantly remind myself beliefs are not what I am telling myself they are.

Whenever you suffer, it is your choice to do so.

I just got The book of Not Knowing today after reading through these messages. I saw Leo's interview with Peter Ralston and heard Leo mention him in some of his videos but never read any of his books. I am looking forward to reading this one. It is really a massive book for me since I don't read much but I feel I am finally primed and ready for it.

For me I had nausea the first time with 5-MEO DMT. I sat up after a minute or so of plugging it. For my next trips forward, I spent the first 5 minutes or so lying down in the recovery position before sitting up when I feel ready and I never had any nausea issues when I do that.

Why do I always think I can go without my addictions, then I fail to go without them, then I still believe I can go without them easily. It is so weird. I always seem overestimate my ability to do what I say I will. Maybe I need to calibrate my estimation and see it as though I will defiantly give into my addictions if I physically can and the desire arises. That way I can plan accordingly how to make a change. Maybe realizing this is part of the awareness method.

Meaning is just something your mind assigns objects in your model of reality. It relates to how the object effects your survival. What else do you want to know about meaning?

I'll see if I can find a way to quit porn for 60 days. I don't have much of a plan other than deciding to do it to see if I can. I will see if I come up with any solutions that work.

Yesterday awareness worked for me. I was paying attention to myself, I noticed an emotion come up and I knew it was about to cause a thought about using my computer. I saw this was a trap so I forced myself to just focus on how I was feeling and blocking out any thought that was about to come up, made a decision to do something else and cravings didn't even come up for me.

I have addictions too with computer and phone use. I haven't done this but I think the easiest way is making it hard to use like putting the power cord in my trunk when I am not using my computer and make a decision just to use it 1 or 2 days a week. The extra effort to do it will give you enough time to realize that you decided not to do it. For junk food the awareness thing might not help if you still have it in your environment. You could get into the habit of only eating things you cook and make yourself and consider all other food poison.

Yea I am not interested in erasing the self or removing suffering. I am not sure why people are obsessed with that. I just want to pay attention to how I interpret reality. It makes sense to do it in as truthful a way as reasonable and in a way that lets me enjoy myself as much as I can. Keeping your body healthy and looking for what is good about the present moment is what will remove suffering if that is what you want to do.

Who says that if you suffer, you are causing it? That sound a bit silly. You can reduce suffering by interpreting in a different way but not choosing to reduce suffering is not the same as causing yourself suffering. Suffering is because you can't accept things the way they are. There is a limit to how much you can accept but you can expand that limit pretty far. It is about how you interpret your experience. You do have some control over that.

@Natasha Tori Maru That is interesting. I am glad he could teach you some important lessons. I often assume people that have mastered one area would usually be able to switch their focus on dealing with addictions and balancing their life at some point. It might be hard when you are good at something to start at square 1 for something else. It seems like after you walk face first into a wall 100 times with alcohol or woman you might want to find another way to go about things. I also have my own flaws, I just haven't mastered anything in particular haha.

@Carl-Richard I use the method from Leo's Guided exercise for realizing you are god" video. You just put your attention on an object and ask what it is, where it is, where it came from, what it is made of, what it can be used for, how old it is, ext. Then you realize that answer is not in the experience of the object and not true. Anything you imagine about something is not the truth of it. It is always different than the truth of your experience of the object. Take the experience as the only truth. Every answer you come up with realize that is not true and put your attention back on the object eliminating from your mind the previous answer since it is not true. Forget every answer that you realize is not true. If feel yourself breathing and ask what that is, you might have a story like I am a human and this is the feeling of myself breathing air into my lungs through my nose. This whole story is false. Throw it away and forget you ever heard of anything like it. You can ask where is this sensation happening. It is in my room, in my house, in my city, on the planet earth, in the milky way galaxy. Throw all that away. What time is it happening? 2025, during the time of the internet, cars, cellphones. Throw that all away. Keep going like this. I get into a focused state where I notice more things. I notice my subtle internal images while imagining answers that are false. I see that my imagination does not match with my experience the way I thought it did. I can see my beliefs more clearly and it is easier to understand what I believe and why.