UnbornTao

Yeah, pretty much. We pursue what is assessed as lacking in the present. In the case of happiness, that might be a fool's errand.

I don't think there's an option to do that automatically - you might want to do some research first, though. You probably have to manually go through every note and export it in docx format and then convert it to markdown. Then, you just import those files into your Obsidian vault. Welcome to the forum, by the way.

Nice, thank you. You say it isn't found in the world of experience but then claim that happiness is contingent on positive circumstances. I suspect you're talking about two different kinds of happiness there.

You're probably going in your mind "yeah sure, shut up already." Thanks, I largely agree with you on that. Still, pursuing it sets us up for failure. It puts happiness out of reach and separates us from it. Rather, don't want it. By direct, it is meant: be (happy.) But again, this shift has to be real and not just pretended, so that is that. What you said somewhere about removing layers of the self helps in that. Less self, less suffering. It's like reminding ourselves not to wait for the lollipop (getting what we want) in order to be content now.

Have you ever been happy just because, maybe while meditating? No big stimulus is present, yet you are perfectly okay and content. There's nothing particularly exciting about the circumstances - you're just sitting, maybe focused on your breathing - and yet this joy arises unbidden. Usually, we'd ask where it comes from: What caused it? We tend to assume an agreeable experience must occur first before happiness can arise or be justified. Sure. I'd be wary of pursuing an ideal, though. If, in your mind, a neutral state is devoid of emotion and feeling, then it may not be worth aiming for. I don't think such a thing could realistically occur. Even equanimity is still a kind of feeling-disposition. Sounds good. Get enlightened and then you tell me.

No worries.

It's interesting - the word apparently means 'to breathe,' 'soul,' or 'courage', pointing to the non-physical nature of life. I like to think of spirituality as a principle or practice, whose main goal is directed at becoming conscious of every aspect of existence, including life itself.

💪

And yet, as you say, it's you. Not your self but real being. @Someone here That's a point to bear in mind too. What is a body, emotion, another, principles, and so on.

People over 140 have higher chances of being sterile.

@FourCrossedWands I was playing around with the title.

Just a silly joke

This is now our thread, comrade.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (for some)

Sounds good! It's the ultimate koan.

And the fact that you watched cooking shows haha. I bet it probably helped in certain ways too. A bit specific, but no, I don't think so, at least when it comes to relatively short fasts.

You're that masochistic The longest I've gone is 24hrs. Apart from the occasional horniness and irritability, I also get a sense of elation at times - maybe the nutritional equivalent of a runner's high.

Have you ever caught yourself dramatizing your pain, adding more to it? I imagine there have been times in your life when you experienced pain yet didn't suffer it - maybe when playing a sport, or with other physical activities. It's not at all about dissociating from or suppressing your experience but about recognizing that you're at the source of most of it. Is the stress actually caused by "life," as you seemed to suggest, or do you have an active role in it? How does a problem exist except in relationship to you? Fasting is a practice that some people take up. The fact that it is intentional tends to change their relationship to hunger. Maybe the physical sensations themselves don't have to be suffered. There's a guided meditation somewhere in there: be a rabbit. Have the experience of a rabbit. Once you can make that real in whatever way works for you, contrast it with your usual experience. What doesn't the rabbit do?

Yes. It depends. Are you holding happiness as an emotion? Do you see neutrality as a kind of equanimity? Are we ever in a truly neutral state? I'm not sure. Everything we encounter is automatically regarded as either positive or negative. What's neutral tends to recede from our awareness; it goes unnoticed. Yeah, that's fine. Stopping something doesn't mean that "the opposite" will be experienced, just that the former has ceased. To suffer requires that you create both a self and a situation in which it can suffer. Suffering arises after a long chain of associations, attachments, agendas, and assumptions have been activated, interconnected, and called "real," whereas happiness is your primordial condition. Consider that the beingness of something is inherently free from suffering. Becoming happy does not require you to create happiness. Rather it is a matter of letting go of everything that obsures the happiness that is inherently there. I was going to include more flowery language, but I think that illustrates the point well enough.

A vacation from food.

Leave God out of this bullshit

"Folks, my speech — and everybody’s saying this — was the greatest speech, maybe in history. People were crying, people were cheering, some even fainted. I looked at the teleprompter and thought, ‘Wow, this guy’s good!’ Then I realized, it was me. Nobody gives speeches like I do, believe me. The fake news? They didn’t like it. But that’s because they don’t understand words… or sentences… or winning.”

Let's, eat Grandma!

Soup! https://www.reddit.com/r/soup/