UnbornTao

What are you up to? Promoting dogma isn't aligned with the spirit of the work we do here. Also, this shit (the video) looks AI-generated. A completely different approach is to destroy every fantasy and belief you hold, rather than piling up more. This greatly increases your openness and your ability to examine matters in a more grounded and powerful way. Why not give it a serious try? In the end, it's more real.

If my data isn't stolen, count me out.

Love it. Is that a yogurt factory?

I'm leaving it up for grabs. Did you read Ramana's story on the other thread? Insects bit at his legs, he lived in a cave, and all he did was sit. On what condition did his alleged happiness depend? The main disconnect here is that what you're calling happiness is simply getting what you want. When you don't get what you want, or fail to avoid something unwanted, you call that unhappiness - and this whole dynamic boils down to survival. Cnsider this: why aren't you happy all the time? By fantasy, I was referring to mahasamadhi. It's entirely hearsay. And yes, there are such things as wishful-thinking, beliefs and wholly biased, subjective fabrications.

Gorgeous landscape.

It may well already be the case - happiness being independent of all that. We simply tend to attribute our happiness to the circumstances that seem to elicit it. But again: are agreeable feelings that arise the same as happiness? And if not, what exactly are we talking about? Most likely anything consistent with one's self-agenda. Perhaps happiness is even independent of the self, in a strange way. Fantasy is overrated; changing one's mindset and disposition is underrated.

Where did that come from?

Isn't that the whole point - that happiness is independent of circumstances?

I know, I just made a distinction. Improving the way one breathes can be done regardless of diet. I simply suggested focusing on the former in this context, since breath plays a central role in breath-arianism. But isn't eating the antithesis of the practice? What do you mean by being more spiritual? Anyhow, I find the feasibility of such a lifestyle highly dubious. To me, it is nonsensical and fantasy-based. Occasional and controlled water fasting seems like a better option, in my view. Still, thanks for sharing it.

She totally went Ramana on you! --- Sorry, lame joke. Is that even how the expression is used?

We don't know, and any attempt by the mind to comprehend this matter will inevitably lead to misunderstanding. In your example, it would be an encounter with what is there for itself that's being perceived or distinguished as the wall. Perhaps there is no wall at all… Something is, though, or so it seems. At this point, you'd start contemplating: What is an object? You are, so attempt to grasp the very one that you currently are - get enlightened! Did it work? Being open and genuinely wanting to know are the main ingredients. We like to "wait around," thinking it requires a long time but it doesn't have to. Intend to get it now, and intend again, until you do. In any case, being happy is accesible now, even if one's true nature is unknown.

Shave your head? I don't know. Ohh that's awesome. That's more than a little change, though

Happy with our work, not if we work. It wasn't a conditional statement. As for making a dent in happiness, we'd really have to understand what it is. It might not be what we think. It seems that when you stop doing dysfunctional things with your mind, happiness comes more easily as a natural result or condition. I think that's the point being made in the video. Then again, happiness isn't our goal and never was; the promotion and survival of our selves is. We often unconsciously resist certain aspects of our experience. Embracing one's current experience, whatever it is, goes a long way toward being happy in life. It changes our relationship to it. Even when it is painful and unwanted, it is allowed to be what it is, which facilitates understanding. This can dissipate much of our resistance and suffering.