Voytek

@Frogfucius Epicurus would disagree because drug use makes one dependent on the drug itself, thus restricting liberation of the soul and inducing more suffering.

You maximize pleasure through progression. You don't progress your mind, body, and soul by indulging in drugs and sitting around all day using up your dopamine. Volition is an innate and insatiable thing within us. However we can fulfill our will by progressing and making leaps. The will is our spiritual drive to enhance ourselves for our betterment. Even after enlightenment the will is ever stronger and it extends itself into wanting to help others.

Now this is a cool topic. Gaming can offer great insights into ideas and who you are, and I don't think one game can cater to all with the same effect. Personally, games with the most impact on me have been half life series, battlefield series, halo 1 and 2, perfect dark, and super Mario. A lot of the times these games did well for my development by increasing my confidence upon completing them. Additionally Xbox live and team work games built up my social skills and my ability to communicate ideas during my shy-guy days. Lastly, games like half life have very special symbolism to be studied in which invokes deeper thinking into the nature of life and people. Maybe I'll check out journey in the future

Haha I've reread my answer and I realized that there was no point to write it. It's a fun thing to attempt to rationalize, but it is an ineffable thing to explain. You will not understand it by reading explanations, even from those who are truly awakened, and it's pointless to seek definitions to explain it because nothingness is a very abstract thing. It's like attempting to recreate the feeling one has in a new country they visited for another person. It simply won't work until they have been there and experienced it for themselves.

Enlightenment comes to oneself depending on the path one takes. I believe that faster one throws themselves into the emotional fray, the sooner it will arrive however it greatly jeopardizes their sanity and life and they may seek suicide as a solution for their suffering. A life of small baby steps of personal growth will make such process a lot longer and perhaps one will miss the boat before they pass. But the length of time it takes should not at all be a focus. In fact enlightenment shouldn't even be a focus whatsoever. It should remain a 'cool thing to accomplish' and that's it. Take the desire out of such journey. By doing that you're already on the right track. In all honesty, it comes the fastest when one applies self-analysis and notes their neurotic behavior.

Hey Mikey, Do not feel ashamed of such emotions because they are innate elements of our species. In fact, self-aggrandizement was a very important tool and still is an important tool for our survival in harsh environments. But if such perspective renders you paralyzed with negativity then it will hurt you and others in the long run. But my point is: Don't feel ashamed for having biological functions. When you see it like that you can begin to rationalize it more. However, it's important to start your journey in learning to understand why such responses enter and pervade your mind for unhealthily lengths of time. I say this often, but find the root of your negativity, dig into your past and connect those feelings with their origin, then you can begin to accept it and move on. Remember this too: True power is accepting powerlessness. You can't control every outcome and every person and prevent things from happening.

I believe you answered your own question. Since you intuitively feel that disconnection I think it's time to move on from their 'help' and either find another or wait awhile. I recommend you to read M Scott Pecks writing. He is a great psychiatrist and his books helped me a lot. He even states that most therapists are unqualified for it takes someone who truly understands the human mind and soul to really reach out.

Learning a trade is a great investment and awesome career path. I encourage you to try different trade jobs and or observe them so that you can find something you enjoy. If that isn't your thing, then you may need to go school to acquire the necessary accolades to pursue a career outside of trade skills. I also recommend to just sit in on a class, as weird as it may seem, to understand how being in that environment makes you feel now. If it feels bad, then it's not for the best to partake in it.

Understand why those responses from others bother you. Don't stop at, "they were mean!" Because that is the initial reason why it bothered you. Search de per within your memories in order to connect those responses to your first experiences with such negativity and or experiences in which induced sensitivity and bad feelings to the particular theme or manner of such responses. You have to get to the root of negativity in order to make peace with apparent hostilities inside and out.

It's quite interesting how you see sleep as a state of detachment, which in ways it is, but you're still subconsciously observing and assessing life even if you don't remember dreaming. Your true self is always there, but it's a matter of actually understanding it. Actually, that understanding will be closer in reach upon consciously observing your unconscious tendencies and subconscious dream assessment during REM. Web those states of awareness together by actively analyzing them and configuring habits and dream symbolism. Like I said, true self is always there, but it's a matter of getting it. You get it partly by harmozing all those parts of your mind. Paradoxically, true self is no self, and really all matter and energy and consciousness is an interconnected whole.

Mostly everyone on this planet is afflicted by something from childhood. It's perfectly normal, but you have to get to the root of what it is that periodically makes you feel bad. Sure, a mom, father, or sibling may make you feel bad, but why do they? Delve into your memories and dreams, as hard as it may be, to figure out the causes. In doing that it becomes easier to let go and forgive transgressions by seeing the process in how others caused you to feel hurt. Through truly forgiving you will let go. And by forgiving I don't mean accepting whatever you went through was okay, but rather you should accept that whatever happened to you wasn't your fault and that poorly raised people cause problems because they too are hurt.

Of course you should think about it and focus on what makes you 'you' but when you become tired or dreary then it's time to switch to something else, or a task that requires doing something without much thought like yard work or a stroll. And in those moments of 'chopping wood and carrying water' you will come to more conclusions for things you thought about before.

Not bad, but enlightenment includes personal development in its very process.

I will say that everyone but special cases like psychopaths and sociopaths is deeply sad or scared about something but do a good job at hiding it. Anyone who is remotely empathetic and sane will reach stronger moments of sadness and fear as life goes on because they see how fleeting life is in their mind. Ultimately, not every person in their life time can actualize nor really grasp this notion of self. Many will die before they reach this understanding, and that's because the steps needed to be taken were forgotten and or ignored. In my eyes it's not a bad thing because awareness and the lackthereof help show what needs to be focused on and fixed. And for the spiritually sensitive, it will galvanize them to live and think beyond superficiality.

Nothingness can be better described as formlessness. Reality is in essence a nothingness because it is an endless abstraction of transient forms descending from a common root of subatomic energy. Furthermore, nothingness is not aware in the sense of how we are aware during our daily lives or how a dog or cat is aware of their environment. Rather it's awareness is instantaneous and and integral in all matter. It's awareness is the way in which life progresses and balances harmoniously. I hope this helps.