Naviy

What I've noticed through my ovservations. We usually tend to think that "I have created this thought" or "I have guided the stream of thoughts in this or that direction", etc. We also tend to believe that there is some kind of will ("my will") that has limited capability to change, create and stop thoughts, and to control emotions and body. Sometimes this will succeeds to change thoughts and sometimes it does not. However, you sense both the thought and the will to stop the thought only after they both have appeared. You sense the will to move your finger only when it is already here. You cannot sense the will to do something before it has already appeared. Any kind of successfull or failed attempt of will to change a thought you see only after it has already happened. But from where the will to change a thought appears? Who makes it appear? We are used to identify with the sense of will. It is something that is absolutely "ours". But who controls will? Who triggers this or that kind of will to appear? When I was doing some self inquiry, I've noticed that will appears from nowhere, just like thoughts, and also, with this will also appears a very familiar sense of identification with it. Will and the sense of identification with it appear almost simultaniously. This is why we tend to believe that "I have some will that can try to control thoughts and body". But both will and sense of identification appear from nowhere, they just become. Then a stream of thoughts may appear also, which will say that "A will to move my finger appeared because I wanted to scratch my ear" and it can go further and further with explanations. But how did this stream of thoughts appear? From nowhere, with no reason too. We believe that sometimes thoughts appear without our will, and sometimes the will triggers a thought to appear or to change or to stop. But if you are observant enought, you will see that everything appear by itself - thoughts, will, emotions, intentions. Even the sense that: "This is my will, and it changes this thought right now, see? I move my will to lay on bed right now. I move my will to think about an elephant right now". This sense appears also by itself, from nowhere. I can't even say that it appears "from nowhere", it just becomes, it just is, and then there are other things and other things.

CPU's only goal is to work better. Your goal is to live an actualized life.

Actually, he does not at all. You just do not understand the paradoxes of self actualization work (to be honest, there is even no paradox here, but it is easier for the mind to accept these concepts, labeling some of them "paradoxes"). To understand them, you need to get more experience on this path. Just continue doing the work, continue reading and learning more about all this stuff. This video tells you how to live a more fulfilled and happy life. You need to slow down and do less for it. In order to be able to slow down and do less, you need to be more grounded in being already. You need to have much more stable and healthy psychology. You need to understand life much more. You need to understand what it is like to be a human much more. You need to understand what is important in life and what is not. You need to be much more free from social and psychological conditions. So, only neurotic (=normal) and unhappy person needs to live crazy fast life and do too much stuff. Because he always needs something more, something next, to be happier, to survive, to escape his torturing mind, to delude himself all the time, to escape and avoid life, to identify with the ego and fears, etc. Self actualized person is not needy and is not neurotic. He is happy with being the being. This is the only stable and true happiness. This is even more valuable than happiness actually. The video tells you how to achieve this fulfillment instead of constantly pursuing things in life because of your neurotic motivation ("the need"). The video tells you how to be free from delusions and torturing mind.

I do both: Flattering Illusion in journal and in mind. I'd like to do 100% of the exercise in journal, but I am too lazy and stupid to commit enough. I'd do that, if I had 24 hour access to computer, but I do not want to make journal entries on phone or in paper diary. So I do a little bit of journal on computer (way less that Leo said to do in his video) and more - in mind, when I remember to and when I have the energy and motivation to do it (there is almost always resistance to do it). I'd say, both methods work, but doing it in journal is more clarifying and also it helps you to read through your entries later and kind of analyze them a little bit and contemplate on them, seeing how you distort the life experience by thinking with pre-constructed thought beliefs. Doing it in journal also helps you to gain some more stable experience from the exercise, so your mental work will be used more effectively, I think.

Yes, you can totally get lost in thougths and stories. Also, if you practiced mindfulness, sometimes the mind will automatically "wake up" and become conscious. Let it happen too. Then the mind will get lost in stories and become totally uncoscious. Then become conscious again for a second. Let the mind do everything it does. Have this attitude - there is absolutely no way you can do "Do Nothing" wrong. And with this attitude and practice you will "get it". Just set the timer to 20-60 minutes and sit every day.

@ZenDog Can you please share that audio file?

From this video: So, is practicing B-Cognition = basically being very mindful all the time? After watching the video, I tried to look at everything with the "B-Cognition method" (when I remembered to). It feels very much like practicing mindfulness. However, also, you not only notice your D-Cognition reactions to everything, but make a conscious effort to stop them and look at a thing as it is (feels like some kind of blank looking). You can look at your D-Cognition reactions with the B-Cognition method too... So I come to a conclusion, that this B-Cognition looking is just intense mindful looking?

Not only "nest" or "car" are labels, but "built" is also a label. "No distinction" is a label. "Unnatural", "Natural", "Us", "Else", "Not", "To label", "Not to label", "Is", "Experience", "Reality", "Distorted", "Hearing", "Thought", etc. - all are labels. It seems, that the only way to see reality undistorted, is to look at all the experiences silently. And when automatic mind commentary happen, it is part of reality, look at it too. But this is the ultimate result. To actually practice this undistorted looking, I believe, we need to do the particular exercise Leo has mentioned in the video - look at the objects with conscious effort not to attach any, even the most subtle, mental commentaries to it.

Yeah, try to "stop understanding language" and try to lose your ability "to interact with anyone or anything", lol "I should not have concepts" is just another concept and thought. Look at it in the real time when it appears. See it as what it is in the real time.

@cetus56 You do not leave the mind. There is no mind outside of particular experiences that you call "mind". Mind is not some objective thing that exists when you do not look at it. Both being in the mind and being out of the mind are equal experiences. Both are images on the screen. Whether you see the mind activity or "another room", in both cases you look at the same screen, which shows different images, but you pay attention to the images on the screen, not to the screen itself. When you are totally lost in the mind or totally aware - both of these states are images on the screen. They consist of the screen, and the screen includes both of them. It does not matter what the screen shows (it shows experiences, what states you are in, how concentrated or lost in mind you are, etc.) - anything that can ever appear, appears on the screen and ultimately is the screen. Even the attention itself is the image on the screen. No matter what you are looking at - you are always looking at the screen, which shows different images, but you think that you see different separate independed images. Images do not exist by themselves, but the screen exists. Examples of images - "Mindful state", "A thought that mind exists", "Light", "Hearing", "Emotions", "Thinking process", "I am", "A cat", etc. (Screen - Consciousness, Self, Emptiness, Truth) You cannot experience a thing. Experience is the thing. And a thing is experience. And what does experience consist of? Where does experience happen? What is the essential particular difference between experience and no experience? Don't experience and no-experience have the same nature? Are they different, separate from each other? What makes the difference? ++ "looking", "you" - all are images on the screen too. The screen includes what you call "you" and the looking process (moving of attention, the change of experiences). So, ultimately, it's not like that there is You that is looking at the screen. The screen includes such thing as attention or looking. You are the screen (because "you" is an image showed on the screen). Absence of you is the screen also (blank space on the screen). There is only screen - emptiness, consciousness.

You are doing it right when you do it every day, never skipping. Also, might want to increase time to 30 minutes. You've just started doing this practice. I think right now you do not have the capability to evaluate the quality of your meditation. Do it for 6 months, not missing a single day, and then you will be able to kind of evaluate, if it was good or bad and if you like a technique or not. And I think that after like 2 years of daily meditation and using different techniques, you will notice that there are almost no bad meditation sessions, because you gain some required and unique discipline and experience from the "bad" meditations too. You need both "good" and "bad" meditations - they make you more consciouss and experienced in mindfulness and meditation. Bad meditations give you the kind of experience you'd never get in a total calm and full of awareness meditation. So, do all of them. Do meditation when you feel it is good. Do it when you feel it is bad. Do it when you are confused and lost and cannot evaluate your progress. Do it when you feel great progress and grateful for this practice. Do it when you do not want to do it. Do it when you like or do not like the chosen technique. For the best results you need to do meditation in all states and attitudes, even if a particular attitude lasts for weeks and maybe months, and it is not pleasant or confusing.

I find his videos very useful, deep and also simple. Watch this, for example:

The most important thing is not just to listen and "understand" or "agree" with what he says, but to actually do what he says, and confirm in your own real time personal experience if it is right or wrong. (this is the most important thing in all this spirituality-consciousness-enlightenment)

Just saw an interesting 5 minute video of Rupert Spira:

Yeah, that's a nasty problem. Leo recommends to meditate during your peak time of the day. Not when you are sleepy (early in the morning, for example) and not when you are tired (at night after work). But how can you follow this recommendation if you work 9 hours a day, and going to work and from work takes 4 more hours? You only have time to cook dinner and sleep at home. The only thing that helped me - start getting enough sleep. Go to bed earlier. Sleep more. Get up a couple hours before going to work, and meditate during this time. I am still sleepy sometimes though.

There is an "I" for your brain. And the brain actively uses this concept of "I" to form all the behavior habits, including bad ones. By using affirmations you re-program these habits. Here you just wrote "but there is no me at all". Actually, your brain does not give a shit about what you say here. Still it is very attached to the concept and feeling and image of "I" (epecially your subconscious, which is being reprogrammed by affirmations).

If you are doing SDS and/or Do Nothing, having the monkey mind is what makes the technique usefeul. Sit through all experiences - loud mind, quiet mind, all kind of feelings, thoughts, intentions, pains, pleasures. Literally yesterday, I have suddenly discovered some new attitude to my own thoughts and emotions. I have discovered that now I can consciously let the mind to it's own thing. I can let the mind be in any mood it wants, think any thoughts it wants, experience any emotions it wants. And I am cool with any activity of mind. I just let this body and mind live as they live. Instead, earlier I used to make a lot of effort to keep being concentrated and mindful during the day. And before that, before I have learnt about self actualization, I, like all the other normal people, used to struggle with thoughts and try to intellectually solve them. Now it feels like that: Struggling with thoughts is level 1; Making effort to be mindul is level 2; Letting the mind and body do it's thing is level 3; And I believe that this opportunity to consciously let the mind do it's own thing and be cool with it, is the result of SDS and Do Nothing technique. The wider the variety of emotions, states and thoughts you experience during SDS and Do Nothing, the better is the result. With these techiques you kind of learn to be cool with any activity of mind and circumstances of life, and not take it all too seriously (which is very liberating by itself and gives you room for the true search of Self).

It is so pity that such potentinally powerful and mind-opening teachers like psychedelics get into the hands of people who are 100% not ready for any lessons. These people, who experience "ego death" or hundreds of other important lessons under the influence of psychedelics, simply cannot process and handle them, because they have never done any meditation, or mindfulness work and they have never questioned their beliefs about reality.

I've been interested in DMT and Ayahuasca for like 5 years now. I am planning to visit Peru for a week of Ayahuasca rituals too. I believe that this could become the most (and probably the only) important thing that happened and will happen to me in this life. Do not have the money currently (it costs about $3000, which is like $6000 in my country right now because of the recent currency changes). Also, it is a very radical move, so I need to gather courage too

I've noticed that strong determination sitting made me much more tolerant to emotions (not so much to physical feelings maybe). For example, if I have an emotion that would tear me apart when I was 18-20, now I look at it and think: "Pff, that's nothing. I can live with that. I've seen much worse" (meaning the suffering during meditations). I can even play with strong emotions - dive in them or just let them happen, keep doing nothing, not resisting to them, letting this body to live in whatever emotions are present. Much more tolerant to emotions and independent from thought-emotion-tought-emotion cycles. Negative emotions are like spiders. You can be terrified by any tiny spider in your bathroom when you are a kid, but then you become a veterinarian who works with spiders, and your attitude and point of view on spiders radically change. You still acknowledge that they are supposed to be disgusting, but now you know them so well and have so much experience interracting with them, that you even enjoy being around disgusting spiders. It's almost like they are not even disgusting to you at all. You can also enjoy the absence of your dependence from the fear of spiders. So, emotions are like spiders and becoming a veterinarian is like becoming a meditator. If you meditate, your attitude to negative emotions change. You now have direct experience and true knowledge of your emotions (became a professional veterinarian), so you do not have to fear them anymore, and, therefore, you do not have to be depended on them. The more the pain in SDS, the more encounters with disgusting spiders happen, and the less depended from them you become.

Actually, one of the things that I am very grateful for is the Internet and the opportunity to use it freely. It is so accessible nowadays. Without the Internet, I'd never learn about all the self actualization stuff, never listened to the coaches, gurus and teachers, never found all the important books I've read and am going to read, never heard about the life changing pshychological and spiritual concepts, never been able to find higher quality communities of people and particular outstanding individuals, I'd also never find any friends, or all the music that I like, etc., etc. and etc. Also, for all of us, the reason why following the path of self actualization became even possible is the Internet. Holy shit, would you ever have a chance of becoming enlightened without the Internet? Chances of this would be even lower, because you'd never know about such a thing. Youtube, Amazon, Skype. Everything. Stunning source of information, never before seen. I believe that the era after Internet is the new era for humankind. Homo sapiens is archaic now. Homo Internetus Informatus or whatever is the new kind of human with new possibilities. EDIT: Yeah and funny videos with kittens, of course, love them <3

IMHO 10 minutes is not enough for any kind of meditation. At first I thought that 20 minutes is ok, but after I got some initial experience in meditation, I understood that 30 minutes a day is the minimum requirenment. However, I think that 10-20 minutes is ok for a beginner to build a habit of meditation and discipline.

@Wouter Well, try just noticing your breath throughout the day - as often as you can. Notice 2-3 breaths an then go on your day. Try to do this during any activities. Eckhart Tolle suggests it. When you notice your breath, you automatically become mindful. It is not so important for how long you can focus on your breath, it is more important - how often. With this exercise you will improve mindfulness significantly. After some time you will be able to directly become mindful, without focusing on breathing. This is what I do currently. I call this "constant mindfulness practice". By becoming mindful I mean looking at the whole real-time current spectre of thoughts, feelings and emotions. They are always moving, so it is like a stream or river. Just look at the stream of percieved objects (hearing, thougths, feelings, emotions, will, arising, going away, etc.) for several seconds. I do 2 types of this looking: 1) Looking at the whole spectrum of all currently percieved objects at once. Kind of zoom out and look at everything. 2) Conentrating on one particular object. For example, when I cut a tomato, I concentrate on the sound of the knife hitting the table. I have noticed that mindful looking you can significantly improve by doing formal Mindfulness meditation from this video: I think this is the second hardest meditation from all Leo's videos about meditation (after level 3 from "How do Meditate Deeper" video). But after doing it for a month or two, you will remember this feeling and action of looking at an object (emotion, thought, feeling, etc.) while being detached from it and keeping your concentration on this object for several seconds. You can use this learnt skill in your "constant mindfulness practice". Actually, you will naturally become more mindful after doing this meditation technique. I've done it for 1,5 month (31 minutes every day), then I switched to another meditation technique, and only now I start to notice how this meditation technique has improved my "constant mindfulness". I definetely need to do more of this technique (it is hard though).

@ZenDog First, forget about "feeling good". You do not have to feel good before, during or after meditation. Feeling good, feeling bad and feeling anything are all objects. Do not pursue any particular objects, but accept them all, or, at least, be conscious of them. How not to get stuck in your head? Learn more about Mindfulness. You can start by watching Leo's videos on this topic. Do "constant mindfulness practice" - become present each time you remember during the day. You will get lost and become present for hundreds of times during a day. But with time, things will start to change. Also, Eckhart Tolle, for example, suggests to become aware of your breathing as often as you can. This is Mindfulness practice too.

@Adrija One of the best principles that helps me the most: "Do things, that require discipline, for the discipline itself". Because each time you do something that requires discipline, you strengthen it. And also: "When you know that you need to do something, don't wait till it finally feels right doing so. Just do it".