UnbornTao

Which video are you referring to?

What is envy? Why is it there? What is it doing? You've got to contemplate those in your experience. Rationally, you can tell how incredibly unnecessary and wasteful being envious is. So don't engage or focus on that. Throw yourself into what you're up to in your life.

Bodhidharma presumably handed this sutra to a disciple of his and told him: "everything you need to know is in this book." It has two basic themes: Everything is a projection of your mind Direct experience and personal realization are fundamental I'm currently revisiting the first chapters of Red Pine's translation. Fascinating book to study and contemplate.

Keep to the original thread, guys. To the original poster, be honest with yourself. Whatever happened is what happened, avoid making up stories. If you want to play the victim, enjoy it, otherwise don't act like one.

I recently quit coffee and have increased meat consumption quite a bit and as a result feel so much better, calmer, better able to focus. Prior to this change, I ate meat very sparingly, perhaps once a week. Skinny guys like me can probably benefit a lot from occasionally increasing high-quality meat consumption. As Michael says, this might not be a suitable strategy for the long-term, though. Eating meat five times a week for years and decades, likely not the best decision for your health.

Interesting, I may add it to my reading list. What about sleep and nutrition? Anything fascinating on those topics? As an aside, I think Michael Greger is also working on a book on longevity. Not to be released soon, though.

@Carl-Richard Wonders of religion!

Amen!

No, I was fucking around on the internet. Still, new age or not, it might as well be true that religion is faith-based, after all. Religion can provide value depending on how you approach it. A lot can be learned from that study. It's fascinating and entertaining, too. But that pursuit embraces beliefs and so is not the same as seeking out what's true. Without belief, religion is... Not religion: rituals, entertainment, wise advice, a set of practices, ideas, a cosmology. There might not be a requisite to consciousness except consciousness itself! What matters is you making a leap. What precedes that -- the process that is thought to accomplish the result -- isn't essential in the end. As in a dream, you wake up by waking up. There's no process even though your mind may make one up with what it thinks it did before the breakthrough. Within a dream you can drink coffee but the "cause" of your waking up is that you did it. Let there be light! That's the meaning of direct. Value is relative. If we postulate that Consciousness is absolute, then value doesn't play in the same domain, so to speak. The definition of spirituality that you gave is based on flawed presumptions. In my view, it's sloppy thinking. Although if it works for people in some way, great. Set aside what you've been told. Consider experientially: What's needed and true in this regard? What is belief and the act of believing? What's intellectual vs experiential investigation? What difference is there between concept and experience? What is religion up to?

Fair. The way I use my commonplace book on Obsidian is basically as a text editor on steroids, similar to OneNote, so it can definitely be bare-bones if you want it to be. It gives you the ability to enable the features you need and to make it as complex as you'd like.

We'd first have to get clear on what growth is.

Nice, good work. Now that I think about it, I've got to look into what context is and how to create it and change it.

@zurew Sounds good. What's enlightenment, though? It isn't about development. It's you deeply realizing the absolute nature of existence or you. Don't know whether what you said is true or not. You seem to be talking from or about an ideal of what it means to increase one's consciousness. You can become conscious at the beach or in the forest since contemplation isn't limited to any set of circumstances in particular. You could even have an enlightenment by falling in the bathtub. Have yet to hear something like that happening, though. A Zen monastery is likely the least BS, most straightforward environment you could be in. And yet that gets corrupted by dogma, too, even though direct consciousness is the spirit of Zen.

I doubt people would suddenly turn crazy or depressed without religion, or that they would experience not-knowing. They would likely have less stuff standing in the way. Wonder can emerge from that. You can see it as being freed from mostly unnecessary and at times harmful, presumptions. From that, a deeper questioning can take place. Again, if they provide value to you, they don't need to be discarded as long as they're recognized as what they are - belief, not an experience of what's true. We could start our own religion. Free bread and unconditional love for everyone!

I don't think that fundamentally there are steps to it as in a sequence. You do it. You become conscious. You make a breakthrough. Deeply wanting to know and wondering about stuff helps. Contemplate. Hold a question and intent to discover what's true. Exercises and practices may be invented to help the mind focus. Contemplation is what you do while becoming conscious. I'm a solitary type, I don't know about that. Fair enough.

The capacity to accomplish, create or actualize something.

Pay attention to the following dynamic: knowledge can create ignorance. Belief masquerades as understanding. Knowledge (belief) binds you to ignorance without you realizing it. Beliefs are often conflated with personal, direct experience. Our fundamental assumption is, of course, that our assumptions are true! Belief undermines the possibility of having genuine insights and of becoming aware. Like a closed circuit, assumptions undermine the possibility of truly knowing, and becoming aware of, what something is for itself. They restrict your perspective by keeping your mind stuck within them. In this way, the necessary openness that precedes any form of investigation and inquiry is severely diminished. This dilemma is solved by eliminating and transcending every disempowering belief that you hold. Start by acknowledging the fact that you don't know, and dwell on that. From that recognition, wonder emerges, and true discovery becomes a possibility.

Don't fill in the blanks with something I haven't said or turn it around to fit your argument. You're the one who is arguing for the need for religion. I don't care about that. You do whatever you want. Ultimately that's what each of us does. Make sure it is empowering for you and others. If consciousness is what you want, consciousness is what you need. That's what I'm saying. Beliefs seem to stand in the way of that. That said, beliefs that are valuable to you, others and your life don't necessarily need to be discarded. Just recognize them as what they are. Enlightenment work is a matter of personal responsibility. Standing behind circumstances won't cut it. As I was walking my dog one random night, I experienced "no-self", and prior to that I was anxious and overwhelmed, so what? External factors are what they are. Your consciousness isn't determined by those. Own your enlightenments, take care of yourself. The rest is not up to you and may be secondary. In the end, belief doesn't alter the fact that, in your experience, you still don't know pretty much anything. At best, you added intellectual understanding on top of your "knowledge" mountain. Ignorance (belief) can masquerade as actual understanding. How come contemplators are generally portrayed as solitary types? "What does religion contribute to my life? What have I come to understand by believing in hearsay? What have I become conscious of by following doctrines, performing rituals, interacting with other believers? What effect does belief have on experience?"

@Danioover9000 @Carl-Richard You're standing on a bunch of assumptions and intellect (abstractions). Where does the need for what you advocate exists in your experience? Grasp that the truth isn't in any teachings. Beliefs can be held either as mindlessly adopted ideas which you're unwilling to question or as tools that can empower you, others, and your relationship to life. But no belief is true. In the end, it doesn't matter what you believe but what you do and whether you know who you are.

I don't think they actually need to. What you mean is that they want to. Again, there might be benefits to religion, especially in the social domain. What do you get by believing? Even if you believed the earth was round, that still wouldn't be an experience of what's true! It's hearsay. Whether it comes from a trusted source or not is another distinction to make. When it comes to existential matters, the difference is more abysmal still. Believing is fine but at some point you've got to grow up: What are you? What is another? What is existence? What is life? What are emotions?

@Carl-Richard First grasp what belief is. Without direct experience, you may be stuck with belief and ideas. Notice the significance of this. Don't jump to conclusions, I'm not talking from a new age standpoint. That's irrelevant. To me, you sound like you want something to believe in, which is fine, by the way. Some beliefs can be beneficial. No culture is based on direct consciousness. They're all based on survival. Avoid fantasizing. Whatever's absolutely true must be true now, no matter the circumstances. A supportive environment is useful, but care should be taken not to play the victim, reacting against circumstances as if they were the determinant factor. You can contemplate in many states and environments -- while stressed, lonely, bored, blissful, hungry, etc.

Well, you do it. That's the gist of it. Pay attention to how you may be avoiding your experience. Without reacting or suppressing, allow yourself to feel and experience fully.

See what you're doing with your experience: accepting it as it is allows for deeper calm and relaxation. Practice this. Deeply accept your experience. This can help a lot. Breathe slowly and deeply, be in your body, and enjoy life!

Don't know about that. Religion can be beneficial for those things that you mentioned. Is your concern about consciousness or social survival? Circumstances are secondary or irrelevant to enlightenment work. Ramana sat endlessly in a cave while insects ate away his legs. Nissargadatta was illiterate and heavily addicted to smoking. Nothing fancy, yet they're deeply conscious. Becoming a contemplator, not a follower, is what I advocate. The act of following seems to imply belief and conformity. Ideas that come from skillful individuals could be held as possibilities rather than as hearsay that demands faith. That's the heart of the issue: religion is about the faith aspect, and stops there. It doesn't encourage deep questioning nor personal experience. That's not what it is up to, as opposed to openly seeking out what's true which doesn't require religious belief in the first place.