Naviy

@Mert Here is answer to your question (12:36) https://youtu.be/cZ6cdIaUZCA?t=12m36s

I do concentration practice before each meditation session. I use metronome and I like the sound of Google metronome - https://www.google.co.id/webhp?hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJkP_gy5TUAhUBtY8KHbkKDagQPAgD&gws_rd=cr&ei=X88rWYaLE6GcvQSAl4yYAw#hl=en&q=metronome But I noticed that if I use one object for concentration all the time (metronome sound), I get too used to it, and my attention does not want to stick to an old object so much anymore. Therefore, I'm planning to change objects of concentration from time to time - metronome, visualization of a color, physical touch, breath, etc.

(sorry for being late) Happy Birthday

@Leo Gura Leo, do you want to make a thread like this about meditation techniques too?

I think one of the most effective ways to train conentration is to do this:

The whole "You" thing is Infinity's profile picture already lol

@Leo Gura , Do you mean here mindfulness meditation from your Mindfulness Meditation video - noticing and keeping attention on objects in awareness? Or no-manipulation kind of meditations?

He probably called that "Meditation for Beginners" to attract more new people to high quality meditation, and meditation is also necessary for people to understand actualized.org videos nowadays - remember, Leo knows marketing Also, read this, please. It's from Adyashanti:

Guys, do Leo's Exercise worksheets that he posts with his videos if you want to have better results in self actualization. I've always skipped them until the last video (Rant against culture), but from today I've started doing them. It is not always easy to do them, and it takes time, requires intellectual and emotional labor (if you take them seriously). But it's worth of it. Worksheets make videos 3 times more effective for you. Do not skip such a good boost to your work.

After watching the latest video, I want to get more knowledge about it. Do you know any high quality sources of information about intuition (videos, articles, books, exercises)?

In addition to these words. Just watch it:

Yes, I aggree with this. I believe that intellectual knowledge cannot help with practical use of intuition. But topic of intuition inspires me. So, I want to get more information for inspiration.

I have a narcisstic father. What really helps me: This channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NarcissimSurvivor This subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/raisedbynarcissists/

I do that while falling asleep at night sometimes. I believe, this may give some interesting results. When you do this, you have a chance to see how exactly "you" do not disappear even when the awake mind falls asleep, and your attention automatically starts to switch from normal stronger sense of self to the content of arising "hallucinations" (dreams). When you are falling asleep, you kind of lose control over your mind, but still you can sense some "presence". I believe it is useful to sense presence in very different states of mind.

Guys, I don't know what to say exactly. 2 years long distance relationship. I chose her to be my most trusted person, I consciously developed 100% openess with her. She was actually my first girlfriend. And it turned out she was cheating on me for more than 1 month and started another relationship without telling me (yesterday she told this herself). I've not slept for more than 24 hours, feeling devastated. This night was neverending hell. Not much emotions left. I thought I am so developed, mindful and conscious. But still suffering deeply because of break up. I also noticed that now I mostly try not to avoid suffering, as I would do several years ago, but to fully let myself feel it, be conscious of all the pain and let it be. This couple of days are probably worst in my life. Still, after more than 24 hours, the emotional pain is very sharp and strong. And because I cannot sleep or eat now, I also feel really bad physically. Can you suggest me anything in this situation?

This is because the law says that "DMT and it's derivatives are illegal" and it does not mention 5-MeO-DMT particularly. But I've looked through court trials practice and saw that courts treat 5-MeO the same as DMT, using same laws for both. You can just try to type "метокси-диметилтриптамин" in the search bar here, for example: https://rospravosudie.com As an example - quote from this court verdict - https://rospravosudie.com/court-leninskij-rajonnyj-sud-g-krasnoyarska-krasnoyarskij-kraj-s/act-509315826/ "...вещество, содержащее 5-MeO-DMT (5-метокси-диметилтриптамин), являющееся производным наркотического средства ДМТ (Диметилтриптамин)..." Which means that court thinks that 5-MeO is derivative of DMT.

As a lawyer, I warn you again - 5-MeO-DMT and DMT are both illegal in Russia. You can get up to 15 years in prison for it. I can show you the real court cases if you want.

Sorry, but both DMT and 5-MeO-DMT are illegal in Russia since 2011. For buying 0,5g of any of those substances you may get 3 years in prison, for 2,5g - 10 years. For higher amounts - 15 years. - ст. 228 УК РФ - Постановление Правительства РФ "Об утверждении перечня наркотических средств, психотропных веществ и их прекурсоров, подлежащих контролю в Российской Федерации" - Постановление Правительства РФ от 01.10.2012 N 1002 (ред. от 01.04.2016) "Об утверждении значительного, крупного и особо крупного размеров наркотических средств и психотропных веществ..."

Thank you, guys. Kind words and participation were a real help. Here's a little report after a week of break up. First 3-5 days were horrible. A lot of very sharp pain. But actually all this situation has led to some quite bold decisions, and now many things are positively changing in my life. - A couple of weeks ago I've met a girl online from Indonesia. She became my skype friend. Because of the break up, I was more ready to get out of my comfort zone and willing to change. So, next month I am going to Indonesia, and I will spend a week there with that new friend of mine. And even probably I'll try to find magic mushrooms on island Bali there. Anyway, I am sure, this trip is great importance for me, and it will be a serious step forward on my journey to authentic, free and healthy psychology. If not the break up, and if I would have been in a comfortable state, then I'd never make such a decision. - I have called an old friend of mine from the university whom I know for almost 9 years. We had no contact for 2 years, which I regret a lot, because I have always liked her very much. And she is the most intelligent, developed and successful person I know in real life. When I called her, she was so friendly and so positive. Now we decided to start our friendship again, and she even invited me to her apartment. Now, after 2 years, I am much more developed and now I can be more authintic with her and express my feelings. I have so much expectations from this restarted relationship. But I'd never call her, if not the break up. - I have decided to go to another city where my best friend lives (actually, she is like sister to me). I'll go there for a week on New Year, and we'll spend a lot of time together and have a lot of fun, like always. - I've called another friend of mine whom I know for 15 years, and we had no contact for 6 years. I'll meet her, and it will be very interesting for me to see her again. - Now I am more determined to follow things that I see important. In particular, despite my limiting beliefs, I've decided to start a realistic search on how to obtain the psychedelics I am interested in. I know, this is not an easy task, and it will take time, but from the concept of Mastery I know that this is normal. I even applied to Ayahuasca retreat to Peru, but they do not have tours for the nearest months yet. - Leo's videos and kind words of people on the internet helped too. And about that girl I broke up with. I knew that she wants to continue being friends. And I want it too. So I called her yesterday. We were nervious at first, but then I told her about all this stuff, and she felt a lot of relief and gratitude for my understanding, she said that she supports me 100% and that she loves me and that she is always happy to hear a call from me. Of course, we will never be able to communicate like before (and there is no need in it anymore), but I will accept this offer to be friends, because I believe, we can actually be great friends. __________________________________________ And that pain I have suffered. I kind of even feel good of this pain. For me it is the agony of ego, wrong expectations and delusions. This is the part of my low consciousness and parts of my ego that are burning alive in agony, and I want them to burn to death. So still, I experience sharp pain from time to time, but to me it is good pain, because it means that ugly parts of me dying. Where I want to focus now - is the high consciousness. And high consciousness tells me to do everything I can to drive through this situation the best way possible, to gather all the lessons, to use this situation as a chance to see my old delusions, to use it as a motivation for bold positive changes in life. I see all this situation as a signal, as a lesson that almost forces me to change. Lessons and changes are painful and difficult. And I am proud of myself doing all this instead of feeding the lower part of myself, which wants to be miserable. Now I actually feel like a noble warrior. Like a hero on Hero's Journey. You need to do hard stuff in order to follow your path to the worthy goal. My worthy goal is authentic, free and healthy psychology, clarity, wisdom, nobility, the will to give and not to attach to lower self, but to follow higher self, which I see as universal wisdom. You will get hit a lot on this path, but as a warrior, you do not hide frome obstacles. I still feel pain, but now I am ever more determined to be a wise warrior and to follow the noble path to a worthy goal.

@electroBeam Reminded me of the first half of that one trip report I've read (and video):

Briefly speaking. I am 26 years old male, currently working on my abusive father with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and I've never worked on any other real job. Recently, I have realized, how much pshychological damage has been dealt to me by his presence in my life, and that there is no way I can grow further with him staying in my life. So I decided to switch to another job, cut contacts with him and begin a more independent life. Right now I have some money and I am the owner of my flat, so I don't have to pay rent. I can live without any income for 6 months and will still have some savings left after that. I feel that I do not want to just jump from one job to another immediately. I want to use my savings for a good purpose. So, I think that I should make some meditation-consciousness-self inquiry retreat for myself. I kind of feel that this would be the most right thing I can do in current situation. Of course, it would be even better, if I went to live in woods for whole 6 months and only meditate and do self inquiry there, but I won't lie, I am totally not capable of doing it right now - too scary for me. So after I leave my current job, before looking for another job, I want to do the following. For 1-2 months I will spend 6-8 hours daily meditating (various techniques, all of those I know) and doing self inquiry. However, outside of meditation, in the morning and in the evening I will allow myself all distractions - Internet, games, music, walking, reading, cooking. So... If there is anybody who did something like this (I know there were such guys here on the forum), or just anybody, - will you suggest anything? Like, books I should read before doing this, videos I should watch, techniques I should use. Do you think it is acceptable to still have distractions like internet and games while doing this? Do you think that doing this for relatively short period of time of 1-2 months will worth of it? I think that from financial point of view, I will be able to do this for longer period of time, but I am afraid of the fear that will tell me that I must start looking for new job, or I will get in huge trouble, and that this fear will distract me too much. Thank you. Ah, and yes, I am also planning to buy Leo's Life Purpose course and start working with it right now and continue working with it after I leave my current job - together with this consciousness practice. Do you think it is ok to mix these two things?

@Wouter Thank you. I've been meditating daily for the last 3 years. The longest time I meditated in a day was 4 hours (4 one-hour sits with 10-15 minutes breaks between - SDS + Do Nothing). I also try to maintain the constant mindfulness practice during the day. Yes, I want to switch my profession, because I realized that my current profession (law) makes zero sense to me. Currently I need to do 2 things - a) leave my father and start an independent life; b) work on my Life Purpose and attune my career to it. On one hand, I believe, that leaving my father is an urgent need, because it is clear to me that I must stop being a victim of psychological violence and stop being depended from another person as soon as possible. But on another hand, with him I have money and time, which I can spend on the Life Purpose work, and only then, after I have insights from this Course, I can leave him and switch straight to another profession, more attuned to my Life Purpose (if I will have such results from the Course). And if I leave my father right now and go to another job as a lawyer, then I will resolve the problem "a)" quickly, but on another lawyer job I will probably lack time, money and energy to work on my Life Purpose, and it will be much more difficult to switch to another career, if I will need to. So yeah, strategically thinking, maybe it will be better, if now I will stay on my current job with my father (tolerating and enduring the psychological damage), while working on Life Purpose, and when I have insights and clear view from the Course, I will leave him, then spend a couple of months for a retreat (because I still want to do it), and then switch to a better profession. Probably, even, as a result of the Course, I will realize that I do not need to switch my profession at all. I don't know what will happen, but I feel that I need to make big changes in my life.

Yes, I know, it is very long, but it's worth of it. Just start watching it. For us it sounds like pretty much summary of the stuff that Leo says, but I watched it yesterday, and, yeah, it is always a good idea to remind the basic principles to yourself. Really, understanding and following the basic principles is 98% of effectiveness.

@popi @I_Am Thank you very much. @popi Yes, this is probably the highest quality decision. But it is a very bold and scary decision for me. I have never worked on any other job, never earned my own money, never tried to be hired by anone, etc. I got so comfortable sitting on my ass on current job and making easy money in safety and having a lot of free time. The scariest thing for me, is that I think, if I will leave my current job, then I will have to work 10 hours 5 days a week, and I will have no power or time left for any personal development and spiritual work. This is so scary for me. It's like: "If you will leave this job, then it is very probably you will lose all your mindfulness, you will lose any chances to see the truth and reality and enlightenment, you will die in misery and suffering and unconscious, just like an ordinary modern human, no truth, no purpse, no satisfaction, only worrying, obsession and fear. You will only have time to work and sleep, work and sleep, no interests or hobbies or time for meditation. You will always be tired and unsatisfied". This all is bullshit mostly, but still stops me. @I_Am Yes, I cannot aggree to this more: "You want to be at a place where you can say with absolute conviction "I am glad and grateful for the lack of love I have received growing up" because it has enabled you to seek and give love to yourself in abundance". I am grateful for the suffering and issues that I had in life, because this what led me to deeper understanding and development. Also, current suffering could be a good object for further improvement. I've been interested in psychedelics for 6 years now, but I have never tried any. I think I am ready to try them, but the only reason that stops me now is that all psychedelics are illegal in my country, and currently I don't have enough money and courage to go to other country to get them. If I had any accsess to clean quality mushrooms or LSD, I'd do it 100%. I am interested in DMT the most, but I am not sure I have enough courage to take it (I used to plan a trip to Peru though). Anyway, thank you very much for your words, they are real help.

Yeah, hehe, lol. But it's not that simple with this bastard. He bought me a flat, so my mother's mother (my grandma) could live in my own flat that I lived before (he bought my flat from me, added some money, and bought a bigger flat for me). So now each time when I do something he dislikes, he threatens me by telling that he will sell my old flat and my 76 years old grandma will have to look for other place to live.