UnbornTao

Concentration is awareness' ability to move and place its focus on a particular thing.

I didn't mention touch features. OK. A HP Pavilion was the last 2-in-1 that I owned, more than four years ago. It was a mediocre experience at best but to be fair the device was pretty cheap. You're confusing the latest ones with the awful butterfly keyboard from 3-4 years ago. Now MacBooks use the Magic Keyboard again – the original, better technology you're referring to. It's a portable device, after all. Portability is key. If given the choice, everyone would want a thin and light laptop that doesn't compromise on function nor durability. I disagree. With Mac, you get a better package. They last better for longer. Furthermore, their resell value is higher. They can be sold probably for about 1/3 of the original cost after years of use. People are always interested in buying old Macs while PCs drop in value just after being purchased. Not many people are willing to spend a lot of money in old laptops, unless it's a Mac. So, depending on your needs, M1 Macbooks are a much better deal in the long term. What do you mean by compatibility issues? Yeah, at least give us that option! I suspect the same, let's see what they end up doing. Porting macOS to iPad is a possibility, although a remote one imo. iPad Pro is already extremely powerful even though the OS is still quite immature, lacking a lot of basic desktop functionality. Unnecessary hyperbole. They aren't a dictatorship. To tell you the truth, they seem quite green to me. If Apple isn't one of the few big green tech companies along with Google and Microsoft perhaps, then there aren't any. Funnily, it was founded by a hippie who was into spirituality and meditation. Of course, they're solid orange, too. Haven't their mobile processors been top-class for a decade or more? So what? Every company plays its cards. Microsoft could do the same, but they don't. I'm sure that the processor helped a bit. And yet they were still massively popular and loved by many. Android manufacturers have to lure customers in with additional features and brute specs while Apple doesn't need to. Refining the basics like privacy, optimization, consistency, simplicity, and brand reputation is their focus. They can afford that luxury. A benefit can be considered a drawback from another viewpoint, and viceversa: Apple's OSes are locked down, offering less choice than a PC depending on your needs. On the other hand, that factor might in some ways contribute to better security, privacy, consistency, etc. Windows backwards compatibility is excellent. And that legacy code is precisely a key impediment for Windows' substantial improvement, UI consistency, etc. Apple: "No phone, fancy box. $99."

Communication helps your contemplation practice because it clarifies your thoughts and improves you ability to express yourself. Reading text on paper or onscreen makes you see it differently. It helps you remain grounded and honest, notice pitfalls in your logic, and forces you to be succinct.

What is manipulation? It is producing an effect on a particular condition. Anything that is done for one's self-agenda is of course manipulation, too. Stay with the question.

Emotionally-charged content is more effective in affecting others. It is thus more easily noticed. Its probabilities of being shared widely are higher compared to plain, honest communication. Entertainment is what most of us are looking for, especially on the internet. Hence, the most viral content is often the most entertaining, too. Generally, the more popular, the less conscious. For sure, massively popular content and authors should be treated with caution -- plenty of fantasy and deception may be involved there. Hype, superficiality, and emotionality are cornerstones of viral content. What people want to hear is rarely the truth.

The way you hold reality is a primary cause of your suffering. What worldviews, cosmologies, paradigms, and belief systems are you attached to? It's key to realize that none of those are true. Stop holding the worldview you have in order to drastically reduce your suffering. Furthermore, you can either adopt a positive cosmology or better yet, relate to reality as an open question. Even with belief systems, it is recommended that your relationship towards them change by recognizing that they're just that: thoughts you hold about how the world works and what reality is. They are not what's true no matter their content; rather, they're about something, not the something that's been referred to. Models aren't true. Thought can be seen as a model.

The domain of skill involves your body-mind, and it is grounded on experience, not intellect. When learning to play soccer, explanations and instruction given by the coach make little difference in your ability. You're only able to understand them intellectually. In your experience, however, it isn't necessarily easy to translate that intellectual understanding into actual skill -- into something you can perform well on the pitch. Skill obviously takes practice, which proves this point. No matter how much you think you understand in this domain: if you can't do it, you don't get it. Practice like crazy then, until mastery is achieved. When it comes to enlightenment, intellect and skill are irrelevant.

Making fine new distinctions within your experience is part of learning. Ask yourself: What distinctions can I create that are empowering, effective and healthy? How can I approach situations and life in general in such a way as to improve my life in some aspect? How can I perceive reality in a more accurate way? How does the way I perceive and hold reality creates -- or not -- growth and possibilities for myself?

Delving into one's own experience is essential in this work. How much do you actually do it?

In that case then, I think his booklist plus contemplation are enough, yes. Also include the Actualized video catalogue, if you want.

Ultimately, what's true isn't confined to any domain of human knowledge. Truth transcends categories, models, labels, and even language (symbolism). Putting labels onto experience and things decreases their realness. As J. Krishnamurti once said: "Truth is a pathless land."

What do you want it for? If you want to become a therapist, university is needed. If you want to learn about psychological topics, then read books and contemplate yourself things like emotions, mind, awareness, cognition, etc.

Do you need validation before taking action? Which actions, if any, do you put off until being externally validated? Shift to intrinsic motivation. Your motivation for doing something should come from within you.

Effectiveness: aligning yourself with what's actually happening.

What happens after death? The simple truth is that nobody knows. We can speculate, though. Death is not-self. It is the end of self.

The more my passion for the truth grows, the more I realize that this pursuit has to be done alone, fundamentally. Pursuing truth demands complete independence. Most people won't support you in that. In fact, they will try to distract you with their petty concerns. Truth is irrelevant to society at large. Seeking truth not as a fantasy but as a genuine interest for what is.

Have you ever seen how a cornered rat behaves? People don't like their fantasies being destroyed; they want them to be approved of, shared and widely-adopted. Some take it personally when their worldviews are questioned.

It is not the truth that hurts you but your relationship towards it -- your inability and unwillingness to acknowledge it.

What it means to you obscures the possibility of knowing what it really is as itself.

Wordpress, it seems, and Community Software by Invision Power for the forum. I think he designed the website himself and perhaps even coded it, too.

You're way over-intellectualizing it. Get clear on what you want, stop the mental masturbation, and go kick ass in music or whatever you like.

Being deliberately vague and abstract in order to fool others (and yourself, specially) into thinking you actually know what you're talking about.

Relationship is essential in the relative domain. What something is is determined by what it is not. X isn't Y. Y helps shape what X is. A difference (distinction) is established when two or more things come to exist. One thing isn't another. They are interlinked nonetheless. Oneness can't be divided and so no difference is to be found there, since there's nothing to compare it to. Nothing is known to be by comparing it with something. An apple is recognized as such because it isn't a banana. Form is inherently limited and only exists because of context. What is formlessness? "It is the emptiness within the cup that makes it useful." --- What am I attempting to communicate with this post? Some clarity and elaboration are required.

Pay attention to the "social bubbles" you're entrapped to. How people around you perceive reality influences your worldview, at times those perspectives being downright adopted by you without further thought.

How can we be certain that our so-called knowledge is true? What is knowledge? What does it mean to know something? Does it always involve sense perceptions, or is there something beyond that?