Dan Arnautu

@Flare I have no beef with philosophers in general, just some of them. I love reading Seneca, Plato, Mill etc. I may be focused on the wrong western philosophers but it's mandatory that I study them, and that's what I don't like. We are now getting into Schopenhauer, although we don't study Adorno, Hokheimer, Derrida (only in aesthetics we did). Also, we don't study the stoics anymore (we did in the first year). As for Eastern Philosophy, my teachers dismiss it entirely. It's not valuable information. It's not a ”trusted resource”. A teacher of mine claimed there is no such thing as eastern philosophy, which is sad coming from someone so intelligent. Basically, here I can't study what I want to study like in other countries where you select your own courses.

@AlwaysBeNice You will rarely find ”answers” in philosophy. Bertrand Russell argues in the book ”The Problems of Philosophy” (cap. The Value of Philosophy) that the value of philosophy rests in the questions themselves. Also,

@AlwaysBeNice It was extremely nice at first. At this I point I already got what I wanted from it and it was a good experiment in order to figure what paths would work for me or not. Being a researcher is not for me and neither am I able to sit all day thinking about complex theories with no real life implementation. I have a more pragmatic, entrepreneurial drive that is not satisfied in the library. When I'm on stage I feel in my element and I'm gonna trust that intuition. In the meanwhile, philosophy helped me open up my mind, develop my own opinions and see the limits of reason. I also got to work on my communications skills a lot. I think it will help me later in teaching, coaching and mentoring.

@Dingus Interesting. Thanks for the tip. I might ask him to read this post and give me some feedback if he is willing.

Note: The mentors don't don't need to be alive right now and it is not required that you have met them in person (although it is preferable). It is enough if you have studied their work extensively, read their books and made a big impact on your life even if you have not met them in person. That doesn't mean that you should post here about every author that you've ever read about or of which works you have studied( because every one of them helped us up in smaller or bigger amounts). Post only about the most important ones. These are the people that had the biggest impact on my life, in my development and that helped guide my path to where I am and to where I am going. In no particular order, these are: Life in General Leo Gura Showed me that creating an extraordinary life for myself is not an impossible task and that everything in life is not as it appears to be Tai Lopez Followed his programs and in spite of all the hate he gets, he started with nothing and now teaches others how to get where he is. Learned a lot from him about how to live a good life and how to adjust your life for hapiness, not for work or money. Seneca Showed me how to live a great life, how to get tranquility of mind and how to not waste my time on this earth. Andrzej Sapkowski Showed me what the highest hero's journey looks like and what it takes in order to go through it myself. Fitness Omar Isuf The guy that got me started on my fitness journey in highschool. A guy that I'm grateful I stumbled upon until today. Greg O'Gallagher (Kinobody) Showed me how to create an extraordinary physique (put on a ton of muscle, dropped a lot of bodyfat and gained confidence in myself and my abilities) Radu Antoniu (ThinkEatLift) Same as Greg Career and Business Tom Hess The top music career mentor and guitar coach in the world. Showed me how you can make a six figure income easily by teaching guitar part time and how to have a succesful and fulfilling music career. Corrado Sgandurra (a guitar coach who mentors and coaches professional musicians) My current in-person music career mentor and guitar teacher Mikael Akerfeldt My No. 1 music inspiration, guitarist, composer and vocalist that showed me what it takes to create great music, what great music actually looks like and how to have an impact on the world through music. Cal Newport Showed me how to have a fulfilling college experience, how to be succesful in college, how to create systems that automate success and how to have a great work ethic (a great foundation for later in life) Arnold Swarzenegger The prime example of a self made man that achieved the top spot in 3 different careers (bodybuilding, acting and politics). Read his autobiography and made me believe that I can achieve whatever I want if I am willing to put in the work and ignore the naysayers. Also there he listed all the traps that can be found on the path and shows you how to avoid them. Gary Vaynerchuk Showed me what is needed to cash in on my passion in a world where reaching eyeballs is of utmost importance. Tim Ferriss Showed me how to achieve success in anything by deconstructing what world top performers do. Robert Greene Showed me how to achieve mastery in any field and how talent = 0, how the world is not good or bad (that it's just a power game in which you can take control and win), how to disrupt the pattern and win the power game. Dating/Relationships/Love/Sexuality Coach Corey Wayne My go to for dating, love and relationships. Showed me how women actually think and how to relate to them. Spirituality Eckhart Tolle The first spiritual teacher I encountered on my path. Showed me for the first time what mindfulness and presence mean, showed me that the past and future are illusions, showed me how to quit worrying and how to treat the mind for what it really is, a tool, not something that should have control over me or of which I do not have control. Sadhguru An example of an enlightened being that is not ignorant of the other domains of life aside from spirituality. A man in the business of human wellbeing that showed me a more pragmatic side to spirituality. Andy Puddicombe (Headspace) The person that got me into meditation and mindfulness by following his programs (I still follow them). Got me to relate to my thoughts and emotions in an entirely different way.

@Barna Thank you very much. I've already watched some of Matt's other videos. Good stuff.

Hi guys! Thanks for taking the time to read this post! DISCLAIMER: I take full responsibility for my internal state. I don't blame spiritual teachings or anything else for how I feel. So, since I started to learn more about spirituality, I started facing a loss of motivation to build new habits, continue my old succesful ones, work on my skills etc. THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT I'M NOT STILL DOING THEM, but just that my attitude towards them has changed. For example, before (learning about spirituality), I experienced great joy from hitting PR's in the gym, looking better and better and getting stronger. Now though, my mind seem to be putting negative twists to every sign of progress that I get in any area of life. For example, I may sometimes hit a milestone, and my mind would say something like: ”Yeah, you hit a milestone, but what's the point, it won't matter in the end.”, "Oh, so you've learned 5 new scales on the guitar, but you know you are not your skills or your ability, so it still doesn't matter in the end." or "Ok, you've put 5 kg of muscle and got rid of 10 kg of fat this year, but you are not your body, so don't be so excited about that 6 pack." I know that one thing to do would be not to engage in these compulsive thoughts and rather just observe them for what they are. BUT, I want to go deeper than that. I want to be able to change the interpretations of the experiences back to something more positive, that would amp me up rather than bring me down. How can I find the ambitious side of myself again that experiences joy from mastery (of anything) ?

@Stoica Doru A zen devil is not just one who is able to do evil after enlightenment. It can also be one who uses being enlightened as an excuse to not engage with the outer world, to not learn history, biology and all that is not related to spirituality, to not achieve mastery in anything and that considers all things outside spirituality meaningless. So in a sense, yes, a Zen devil can be an ignorant person seeking enlightenment or an ignorant enlightened being and not just a manipulative or evil enlightened being.

@egoeimai Haha, thank you. That really brought my mood up. These long lasting problems in my head seem to be resolved quickly as I get insights in conversations with other people. This has always been the case for me. I usually need to talk to someone so I can figure out a solution in conversation. Even if it's just a monologue and the other person is just listening to me. Before, it has not been a problem, but now, being in college, I don't talk to many people and I spend like 80% of my week alone in my own thoughts and awareness, haha.

@egoeimai Thank you for answering! No, I did not have any of these thoughts before spirituality. Before learning about spirituality, life for me was much more exuberant and spontaneous. I was always the happiest in the room, took pride in my work ethic, abilities and so on. Right now, I don't know what I am missing. It may be a new unconscious belief that just because I need to disindentify myself from certain things, that I am also no longer allowed to enjoy those things, ex. my body and natural talents. (as I am writing this, it seems like a good insight that I haven't thought of before). These nihilistic thoughts seem to be unconscious. Another reason may be the fact that once my ”false sense of security” has been shattered (when I took comfort in my assumptions and beliefs), that may have been a trigger of my fearfulness of reality. Also, I do not fear losing interest in these things (this I will always have), but I may fear losing joy from doing and achieving milestones and mastery in those things.

@Preetom Fellow guitarist here

All I see is pure mastery. Or might be just fanboyism. I don't know what you see.

1. The fact that meditation both gives you peace of mind and brings your unconscious bad stuff to the surface. Should I meditate or not as a 19 year old even though I don't want to pursue enlightenment right now? I don't think I am ready yet for spiritual work but I don't know what to do (I still haven't started my career oficially, haven't nailed down my life purpose, need a lot more experience with relationships and building more succesful habits) Should I meditate daily even though I will pursue enlightenment only maybe 10 years from now? Won't all the things that come to the surface interfere with my work, habits and other stuff and make me go through intense emotional labour (or only self-inquiry will do that)? 2. Reconciling spirituality with the practical aspects of life. Should I give up researching on spirituality entirely for now until I figure all the other stuff out? The more I learn about spirituality, the more fearful I become of reality and all that is + I get into really weird emotional states. It may be a fear of uncertainty and shattered perspectives When I go out with friends now I keep asking myself continously „How am I actually them and how are they me?„ and need to enter the flow of the conversation before I can finally relax Before knowing anything about spirituality I was less fearful to meditate and treated meditative experiences with curiosity rather than a fear that what I'm doing might dissolve al that I am (the ego), which it does, and will proceed to do so when I figure all the other things in my life out having a Samadhi experience was the coolest thing for me even if I did not know what it was then Fearing shifts in awareness or progressing too quickly when I am not ready for it. Had a few experiences already that freaked me out temporarily

@kardo Neediness is a consequent feeling from not having abundance in your life. If you would have 5 girls to choose from, you would not act needy or be needy. Rather you would be in a position of power to choose. Same for money, love and everything else.

You will have phases like that until your psyche fully develops (until you are about 21). There are a lot of changes happening with your body and mind, hormonal and what not. The only thing you can do is watch the mood swings from a 3rd eye view and don't judge them and react to them. Become like a hyperconductor. Of course it's easy for me to say that, but what do you do in an actual panic attack? I don't think you would really mind the mood swings if they did not include negative emotions. If you start to panic, inhale to a count of 5, hold your breath to a count of 5 and exhale to a count of 5, and repeat that on and on with your hand on your heartbeat until it starts to really slows down (if it takes 10 minutes or more, so be it). Also, as much as meditation brings bad stuff to the surface, in the same way it starts to prolong your states of equanimity (a nonreactive state to your emotions) and that also usually comes with an underlying calmness. Do ”Take 10” from Headspace (you can find it on google) and see how it affects your mood. In 10 days you can come back here and give a report.

@pluto I need to proceed carefully. I had a mild psychosis earlier today as I forced too many spiritual teaching and insights (in a very short span of time) on an unprepared ego and it backlashed really hard. For a pretty psychologically healthy individual, I saw for the first time how much power the ego actually has over me and I began to respect it a lot. It really humbles me. If I did not know how to do Pranic Breathing and implement some of Matt Kahn's teachings (treating the ego with respect, love and appreciation on the process of trying to transcend it) I don't know what I would've done.

It's a good thing that you decided to change things around. Although, I don't think you should aim to become an asshole. You should rather aim to become confident and attractive. Fortunately or unfortunately, it will require a lot of work. There are no magic pills here. If you want to attract a high quality woman, you will need to become a high quality man. Get your looks in check, your hygiene, your life purpose etc. Also, your game needs to be on point. By game I mean the process of seduction. It won't matter if you have a bulging six pack or the prettiest model face; girls will flee in an instant if they see you crumbling on your words or project neediness. A first good step would be to read and learn about the principles of seduction and sexuality in general. After that, adopt a proven method of seduction and go out and practice. You should commit to at least a year of doing this consistently. I would suggest following this channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/thenaturaltv A good book to read is ”How to be a 3% Man” by Corey Taylor Also, here you have a 2 hour video on the ”Nice Guy Syndrome”

@sheenp24 Both burn the same amount of calories. With a treadmill you can keep the speed constant though and you can use it in the winter. Both are good. It's just a matter of preference.

@cetus56 Interesting. Can you expand on that?

@Dodoster @Prabhaker Found something interesting .

@Prabhaker I don't know too much about him. I remember him claiming that his life purpose was to bridge eastern spiritual teachings with the west. I really like the way he talks. I might look more into his teachings

@mikeyy Yes, I would argue that all the others are still important in a relative sense. Watch the video on ”Becoming a Zen Devil”. Your life will catch up to you if you focus only on enlightenment. Meditation may feel like it's all you need to be fulfilled, but not to survive. You still need to lean down if you are obese, earn money so you can not only dedicate more time to meditation later on but also start to automate things and be able to afford healthy food and so on (that with also help with your concentration and meditation practice). Also, by being ignorant of everything else, you won't be able to integrate properly the insights that you might have during meditation; you won't be able to fit it in some sort of big picture understanding.

@ajasatya Don't know about the others but this is the LIfe Purpose, Career and Entrepreneurship subforum and those 3 I think he nails.

@Dingus Kudos to that. It's good stuff. Although I was talking more about small things to implement, like maybe good habits like reading good books instead of watching tv or meditating. Or for example when looking to buy a car looking at the intrinsic value of items instead of the apparent value and so on. Like in the video about how to ace life and college.

@Damir Elezi My life purpose is music related. All I'm telling you comes from direct experience. Everything aside from work towards becoming a rapper is a distraction. Going to a private school for music producing is a waste of time, energy and money (no one is going to ask for your certificate, they will only be interested in how skilled you are; there are great music producing courses for a fraction of the price). Same for the foreign language thing (this will just make you miserable and won't give you a flexible enough route to work towards your life purpose). I suggest you do what I did (keep in mind that I was a finalist for a Scholarship to study at the best conservatory in the UK). Drop formal education and GET A GODDAMN MENTOR. Find someone that is where you want to be (who is 10-20 years) ahead of you and ask them to put you on a step by step process to get where you want to be (even if you have to pay them, it will be a ton less than formal education). Meanwhile, get a part time job or a full time job and make rapping a side hustle for a while. Work towards transitioning to being a full time rapper and you are set. If you want to chat in detail hit me a DM and I'll talk with you tomorrow.