UnbornTao

Unlocked per user request. Different frame on the matter.

Solo retreat. 3 days of intense contemplation. Wonder about your nature. Intent to grasp who and what you are now. Want to know.

@StormLight fair enough. Let's see where the discussion leads to for some time.

Enlightenment work requires seriousness. I've been going through times of disinterest even though I kept going. At times, it may appear as though seriousness is lacking. Once again, I've began to cultivate this desire, which is there but had been ignored for a time. I suspect this may be an occasional trap. Find the seriousness in your experience. It's already there.

The video is nice, I like your idea of combining relaxing music with a Shrek theme. Unfortunately, self-promotion isn't allowed. What you can do is putting a link to your channel or website in your account's signature.

Do you guys have anything more of use to contribute? I feel like this thread can be locked.

haha

I'm not sure if you're being serious. But no thanks

@EugeneTheSage https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/why-processed-meat-is-bad https://www.healthline.com/health-news/red-meat-processed-meat-is-still-bad-for-your-health#Do-you-need-to-give-up-meat?

I think that the more acutely aware you become of the possibility of death, the more intense the intent to pursue truth becomes.

Ever heard of Zen masters slapping students with a stick? That's somewhat the online equivalent. Not justifying unconscious behavior though. The "slapping" could perhaps have been made more strategically and less insulting.

I think that didn't "cause" it. Also the it I'm not clear on, sounds like a shift in state to a more freeing one. It just happened to be what you did before it. Sounds like it produced beneficial effects, so enjoy those. Now let me ask you what did you became conscious of that you weren't of before? I remember having a no-self experience while walking my dog. I wouldn't say now that walking dogs is the path to enlightenment or something.

It's just called Guraism! In all seriousness now, do this: Rephrased: think for yourself and find teachers who you resonate with.

At times I idealized authenticity when in fact it's just like being a kid again. Less non-authenticity is more "you". Recall your experience as a kid when you were simply you. It's a freeing and joyful experience in itself. More present, much more real, more vital, more open and vulnerable, and yet that is a result of becoming less, of dropping pretense, of letting go of anything that isn't you. Over time, throughout your "growing up", you adopted a lot of pretense and nonsense, for whatever reason. Authenticity demands experiencing life as who and what you are. What stands in the way of that for you? Kind of like an incomplete expression but there you go.

A concept you have about it is not an experience of it!

Coffee (caffeine), apparently. Or it may just increase sperm production. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/testosterone-boosting-food Cold showers may help, too.

Not a vegetarian myself. What you say is of course possible. In my view, though, that's not a feature of veganism per se but relates to the individual choices made within that parameter. Your vegan diet could consist of French fries and coke. There're overall healthy vegans out there. When it comes to muscle mass, look up vegan bodybuilders.

Man in that case then I'm borderline autistic lol. I continuously look up their etymology.

Huh. Sometimes fear creeps in the background of my investigations whenever I get very open. Why is that? Is this a fear of groundlessness?

Who do you make responsible for your learning? Which institution, authority, individual and group do you place at the source of your learning? What are the consequences of not taking up full responsibility for one's own learning? When you experience yourself as the source of your learning, dwell in that. Observe that, whenever learning occurred for you, it happened in your experience and nowhere else. Grasp deeply that the one in the driver's seat is you.

In our society we're not valued by who we are as a being but by how we look, what we do and say, etc. In other words, by the impressions we make on others and by how they feel about them. What would it look like being valued as the being that you are? What about valuing the being of another? What about dropping "value" altogether? Can you perceive "another"?

Appearances can be deceiving. The most disgusting food in terms of taste can be the healthiest one, for example a cooked, unsalted, plain broccoli. As an analogy, if the criterion is taste and titillation, you might prefer sugary drinks over water because the latter is tasteless and might be considered "bland", depending on your taste buds/palate. But in this example water is, as you know, the healthy option. Vegetables aren't very filling, they're low in calories and provide various antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, etc. Whatever the latter means.

@Juan I'm sure they can be useful for certain people in specific use cases. Consider though that they were designed to be as addicting as possible in the first place. I just find them unnecessary most of the time. Their effects are probably negative overall, in my view. But hey, people do what they want. I hear tell that the founders of those networks don't let their kids use them. I wonder why.

She probably has interests, stuff she likes -- sports, fashion, philosophy, music. What does she want to create? Ask about that, perhaps.