toasty7718

@HMD it takes sincerity not to pass that off as your own. I appreciate the fact that you (among others on this forum) state when GPT wrote what they're about to say.

@Moksha Can you link that thread? I'm genuinely interested into what he has to say about being the "creature with the deepest understanding on the planet."

Entheogenic Liberation: Unraveling the Enigma of Nonduality with 5-MeO-DMT Energetic Therapy by Martin W. Ball, Ph.D.

@Yimpa absolutely, you’re not alone.

They say concentration is like a compass. Your compass needle can only point in one direction. Multitasking is bouncing your compass needle in many different directions from one moment to the next. Your inner compass is always speaking — and unless you quiet your mind and concentrate, you won't notice it. It's like your heartbeat.

The Ultimate Guide To Happiness - How Happiness Works What is happiness? Happiness is a tricky and counter intuitive thing. The notion of unconditional happiness is a ridiculous ideal. It’s impossible to achieve in practice. Your happiness as a human is very fragile and conditional. You don’t realize how much health and happiness are correlated until your health is taken away. Setting up your life conditions and situations is crucial for your happiness. Living properly is the key to happiness. “But Leo, isn’t living ‘properly’ subjective and relative to the individual?” Yes and no. If you’re living the wrong way you’ll be miserable, if you’re living the right way you’ll be happy. It’s a lot easier to make yourself miserable than it is to make yourself happy. Happiness comes from living virtuously, not from chasing pleasure. “Happiness... is more often found with those who are highly cultivated in their minds and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities” - Aristotle Happiness is more difficult these days because we live in an artificial environment. If you were in the woods (farming, hunting), your environment would have natural forces that force you to live in the proper ways — because if you didn’t live in the proper ways (good character, work ethic) you would just die. Capitalism is designed for you to constantly be seeking for solutions and never be satisfied Quick solutions, get rich quick — not how to truly find happiness and great character, this doesn’t pay True happiness cannot be purchased because it is the result of a well conditioned mind and lifestyle that takes years to cultivate. True happiness isn’t a quick little solution. Conduct a personal investigation into the nature of happiness — both in general and what specifically makes you happy. Just like with solving math problems, there’s no real point in Leo telling you what the solutions are for happiness. You have to find them out for yourself. The observation process will teach you better than anything from what he can say. By observing yourself being miserable through your old value system and your old behaviors, you’ll eventually develop the motivation to change those things. Not all things you think will make you happy will make you happy, find out what makes you happy yourself. Distinguish between the idea of doing a thing vs. how it makes you feel. The things that make you happy depend on your personality type and your genetic temperament. Your level of development and maturity is also huge Varying levels of spiral dynamics, meet at the level you’re currently at Tips To Figure Out What Happiness You Need Take the Myers-Briggs Personality Test Take the Big Five Personality Test Take the Enneagram Personality Test Recognize your natural level of ambition, on a scale from 1-10 Figure out how liberal or conservative you are How much order and regimentation (conservative) do you need in your life vs. spontaneity (liberal)? How artistic/creative are you? What is your level of risk tolerance? How masculine or feminine are you? Consider how much variety you need Consider how much socialization you need Consider how much contact you need Consider how many friends you need Consider how much sex you need (how much sex drive you have) Consider how much solitude you need How much time do you need in nature? How much success do you need? How much work and career do you need? How much impact do you want to have on the world? How much of a leadership role do you want? How much autonomy do you need in your life? How much learning and intellectualism do you need? How much spirituality do you need Key Points You come to know yourself by observing yourself and putting yourself in a lot of differing experiences and amassing life experience and seeing how you’re reacting and responding to it It’s difficult to know yourself if you’re young because you don’t have life experience. Expose yourself to more experience to come to know yourself better and speed up the process. Fundamentally — it’s not possible to be happy when you’re fighting with yourself. Distinguish between pleasure vs. satisfaction or contentment You’re not looking for pleasure, you’re looking for satisfaction or contentment. Chasing pleasure will not make you happy. Your brain has two different neuro-chemical systems for pleasure vs. satisfaction/contentment. There’s the dopamine system and the serotonin system. Dopamine is about newness, it’s not long term. Serotonin is more consistent and stable, you don’t get as high peaks or pleasure but it gives too long lasting stable happiness. This comes from cultivating your character and living virtuously. You do need some basic level of these things (food, safer, shelter, sex, money, house) to be happy. This is just the base line, this won’t make you happy. Chasing bigger amounts of it won’t make you happy. Make the distinction between success and happiness, it’s easy to mistake these things. Happiness isn’t about what you buy — it’s about who you are and how you live. Happiness should be thought of as a decades long commitment you make everyday to live “the good life.” The investment that you make everyday into your own development generates meaning and makes you feel good about your life. As you mature and develop and grow up the spiral, less and less material things will make you happy (money, sex, cars, houses, women, partying, luxury boats, jets) Spirituality will supplement all these things If you get into spirituality too young you might make the mistake that these things won’t make you happy, but you don’t do any of these things but deep down you crave it and you don’t burn through your karma. Distinguish between pleasure and meaning. Most people are chasing pleasure and not consciously creating meaning in their life. You want a meaningful life more than pleasure (this generates a passive income of stable happiness) You can’t be in pleasure all the time because your mind adapts to it continuously, it’s unstable this way. Be very careful with manipulation. To pursue happiness, it’s very likely that you’ll manipulate others. List of Things That Will Make You Unhappy Pursuing short term goals that don’t build long term capital in your life Temporary enjoyment, nothing remaining after the experience is done Chasing pleasure/dopamine hits Chasing martial objects Chasing fame as a substitute for love Approval seeking (trying to be cool and fit in Not being in line with your top values Lying, cheating, theft, deception, exploitation, fraud, criminality Being directed to do immoral things Hurting others, like animals War, living in a violent and chaotic environment Trying to control, dominate, and manipulate other people Being bullied or being teased Being disrespectful to others and also being disrespected Being broke or stressing over money Wasting your time and your life Doing work you find meaningless Being over-worked, over-stressed, and overly busy Trying to achieve quick success on a shady foundation (get rich quick schemes) Desperation and neediness Slacking off, being lazy, being too comfortable Avoidance of work and responsibility Doing work poorly Procrastination and not taking action Doing the same thing year after year Not taking care of your chores and having a dirty house Bad health (this is a big one) Feeling helpless and powerless Being unable to control yourself Being out of control of your emotions Being in a victim mindset Addiction (porn, sex, drugs, alcohol, food - doing things compulsively) Being enslaved to someone else A lack of freedom and autonomy Joining a cult Conflict and fighting with people Abusive relationships (verbal, physical, emotional) Hanging out with negative, abusive, unconscious, and immature friends or people Not setting boundaries with people Being a people-pleaser or a doormat Fundamentally — being inauthentic Trying to change people who don’t want to change Untruthfulness, falsehood, and self deception Ignorance and lack of education Dogma and ideology Conformity and not thinking for yourself Bad forms of philosophy Mental illness - find a way to manage it. Seek out therapy, seek out books, seek out counseling, seek out group therapy High emotional volatility and drama Judgement, criticism, and blame Perfectionism Arguing, debating, and trolling (toxic social media) Hatred, anger, intolerance, and bigotry Narcissism, arrogance, and ego Emotional immaturity Regret, shame, guilt, and self-hatred Lack of love Fear, insecurity, anxiety, paranoia Lack of socialization and social skills Inability to get laid Loneliness Taking on too much responsibility Living life too strictly and in too regimented a way Indecisiveness and failure to take action Not changing a bad or wrong situation Sweeping things under the rug and running away from things and avoiding challenge. This makes you feel weak over time and erodes your self-esteem and turns into “learned helplessness” Not taking care of your hygiene Hating your physical appearance. You have to come to a point of acceptance with your physical appearance even if you’re not a handsome or beautiful person, otherwise you’re never going to be happy. It’s challenging and deserves a video on it’s own. Obligations that you don’t believe in Foolish speculative investments that make you lose all your money Chronic loud noises and acoustic chaos Promising things to people that you can’t deliver Doing impossible things. You set yourself up for things that are just simply impossible. Reality will defeat you and you just have to accept that. Sometimes you do two things that are contradictory of each other ex: launch a business on one hand and pursue meditation on the other hand, you have to pick your priorities. You don’t have enlightenment and a successful business because you have limited resources and energy, you’d be working on one or the other 24/7 Being petty, selfish, and small-minded Low-spiral development Naive selflessness Improper use of your mind Trying to escape all suffering Excessive spiritual seeking or trying to escape the material domain List of Things That Will Make You Happy Anything aligned with your top values Putting your talents and strengths to use Being useful and productive Things that make you feel strong and powerful Developing new skills Process of training yourself in something meaningful Play guitar, getting better at golf, math, writing, etc. Anything that makes your mind stronger Self-education (if you’re an intellectual person) Doing sports (if you’re an athletic person) Doing art (if you’re an artistic person) Being creative (if you’re a creative person) Doing excellent work. There’s a difference between work and excellent work. Doing innovative and impactful work Big projects (if you’re ambitious) Being your own boss (if you’re an entrepreneur type person) Being in a leadership position (if you want to be in this position) Helping others and contributing to the improvement of society Proper time to rest, relax, and destress Human intimacy, companionship, and friendship Deep conversations Building your own family (for those who want it) Socialization (if you’re a social person) Charity, giving gifts, being nice to people Setting boundaries with people will make you a lot happier Your top two love languages (search up five love languages) Lots of time alone (if you’re an introverted person) Anything that puts you into a flow state Being on the edge Facing difficult things and meeting challenges Flexing your muscle, being powerful, exercising your power Making the most out of your day and life Making long term investments Confidence and developing it through work and experience. The antidote to insecurity is confidence, and this is exposing yourself to experience in whatever field you’re insecure in. Exploring life and having new experiences Travel — but not escapism travel Patiently cultivating a hobby (don’t underestimate). Pick one or two hobbies that you patiently invest into. You build mastery and experience for decades by doing this. This creates meaning overtime. It pays a passive income in terms of satisfaction. Being out in nature Physical exercise It changes your brain chemicals and makes it harder for you to be depressed Good food Being healthy Taking care of yourself Treating yourself with respect Deep solitude and solo-retreats Passion, living your life with enthusiasm (difficult, not a default) and inspiration Humor, developing your humor Building your own house Not actually building your own house — cultivating the space you live in and the sanctuary where you live . Decorating it. Cleaning it up. Investing into it. Doing philosophy (if you do it properly) Developing yourself up the spiral Self-actualization Wisdom Truth, being aligned with truth and avoiding self-deception Spirituality, spiritual practice and spiritual connection Awakening Exploring consciousness Consciousness of God Meditation Psychedelics and mystical experiencing Falling in love with yourself Being good Being selfless Love and beauty Appreciation of the beauty of consciousness and reality is a deep form of happiness. Just sitting alone in your room and looking at the consciousness of your room and looking at it’s beauty. Spirituality will make you see the beauty of everything very starkly A lot of these things are also a bittersweet challenge. It’s not pure raw pleasure. It’s very satisfying. After you build it up and develop some momentum, most of the challenge goes away and pays a passive income List of Things That Make Leo Happy Being creative, imagining new things, new business ideas Exploring his own mind and concentration Philosophy and truth seeking Learning new and interesting things Integrity Doing healthy things for himself Being out in nature Driving and road trips - flow state Sitting down in solitude and being completely unhurried Being his own boss Having complete creative autonomy Working on a meaningful project Doing serious and excellent work Exploring consciousness via psychedelics Pure appreciation of the beauty of consciousness Contemplating God and being aware of God Music Rain Snuggling under a warm blanket under the rain Deep intellectual conversations Thinking about his future Putting in a full day’s work and being productive Having a positive impact on society Innovation and making new discoveries Exercising his humor Digital design and graphics Good food Appreciation of female beauty, nudity, and sexuality Organizing, optimizing, and putting things in order Sitting and resting on his couch Investing in his house Reminiscing List of Things That Make Leo Unhappy Chronic health problems and having low energy Being on a strict schedule, having a deadline Having to do things just for money Doing work he doesn’t believe in Having a boss tell him what to do Fear of running out of money Wasting money Having to do menial chores (paying taxes, bills, etc.) Socializing and being around people for too long Having to manage people Realizing when he’s behaved in a bad or egotistical way Emotionally hurting others Being lazy or in a rut Not having a project to work on Arguing, debating, conflict, violence Smart phone addiction Chronic loud noise Over-eating junk food Having a bunch of social obligations Meditation and spiritual seeking Overworking Bad unwise investments and losing money Drama Key Points II Simple pleasures will make your life great. True happiness if found in organizing your documents and labeling things, for example. Spirituality has reduced Leo’s overall consciousness . . . . . . yet he still does it because his greatest joy is sitting on the couch contemplating God. Spirituality gives him the ability to recognize the absolute beauty of consciousness — being able for look at what he sees before him and realize how beautiful and miraculous it is You should tailor spirituality to your genetics, skills, and temperament Trying too hard to be happy will make you unhappy Don’t get preoccupied with the Buddhist idea of escaping suffering. Realistically, you’re never going to escape suffering — there will always be suffering in your life. It takes twenty or more years of non-stop Buddhist meditative training and most people just won’t commit to this. The deepest happiness comes from doing things for their own sake, not as means to some other end. There’s a spectrum of happiness (lower grades, medium grades, high grades, highest grades) The highest grade is consciousness, the appreciation of consciousness, and connection to God — realizing what God is and how it is structured. This is ecstasy. It rises above all form of human pleasure. It purifies you and your psyche. It changes you. Very few people have achieved this. The only way to achieve this is to be serious about God. Train yourself to maximize your appreciation of normal everyday things in life You cultivate your mind to be such that you appreciate the very ordinary things around you, and you’re not looking for something super magical or special Happiness isn’t about achieving some big goal. Stop waiting for achievements to make you happy. Be happy in the doing of your everyday life. Homework Create happiness journal. Contemplate what makes for happiness and “the good life” and keep a log of specifically what makes you happy. This list is cultivated over the next weeks, months, and years. Anytime you experience a little or big thing that makes you happy you write it down in this journal (cat cuddling with you, partner telling you they love you — write this down) Also make a list of the things that make you unhappy (this list can have hundreds of items) Eventually, you can look at this list and have a big picture view of what it takes for you to be happy and what is holding you back. Don’t mistake these teachings and take them for pure intellectual beliefs. It’s meant to have you explore how your own mind works. What’s true is what’s true for you. Your mind is very tricky. Your mind doesn’t want you to see everything very clearly because if it did a lot of your old values, habits, and beliefs will have to be given up (and you’re not ready to give them up because you haven’t burned through that karma yet and you haven’t surrendered to it yet) Everything you do has to be grounded in your direct experience

@MarkKol what an insight, that was a wonderful journal entry