ajasatya

@The Monk if you ask me to be completely sincere, i'd get the fuck out of the place you live. have you ever watched into the wild? i'd do the same thing except that i wouldn't go to alaska. in fact, that's what i did.

@How to be wise focus on your breath and notice your thoughts go away. at that moment, you're neither good nor evil; you have no past and no future; you have no personality, no friends and no enemies. at that moment, it doesn't matter what you are because in fact there's nothing to be. be eternally free. live in meditation and you'll know the benefits of enlightenment. you'll know because you'll experience it, not because some dude told you on the internetz.

if you guys want to make it happen, i recommend finding a good event like a mindfulness workshop. it'd make it easier for everyone. nobody would need to plan anything else.

@Max Hafner @Fredrik Andersson

why not? free yourself. you owe me nothing.

Truth speaks through me. it's impossible to be happy and stop happiness from reaching people around me. the other way around works the same way: it's impossible to stop suffering from reaching people around me if i'm suffering.

because nobody gives a shit about growth. it is too painful. we become serious about doing the work and enjoying it by "accident".

if your addictions aren't part of your core values, then yes. you have to replace your mental content. you need to give in to learning something new.

@PetarKa you tell us experience it for a couple of months and see if it works.

@The White Belt you gotta sit on the tip of the zafu with your sacrum. your hip should lean forward, making your spine line up more easily.

it's very important that you find your core values. it took me a while but i found a beautiful post written by @TJ Reeves

@Afonso hello there. unfortunately, there's no way to speed this process up. purifying oneself from the desire for social approval hurts for real. the best thing you can do is try to find that pain with consciousness and observe it. feel it. this way, the process will happen on its own speed. trying to avoid the pain will slow it down. patience, young man. purification is a high task. are you present now? how does your breath feel?

well, it's not like you must adore anybody. if they dedicate time to practice meditation in group, it's already worth it. to be honest, the only kinds of group that practice something that i completely agree with are zen sanghas and yoga shalas. everything else smells a bit strange to me.

@The White Belt there's one kadampa center here too but i've never been there. i guess you could go take a look and see if they practice silent meditation. have your own impressions.

yoga teaches us to use our sexual energy properly. there's too much energy stuck on the lower part of your body and it makes you feel anxious to release it. that's why porn and masturbation are so appealing. if your sexual energy is channeled properly, you'll be free from sexual restlessness. you'll be able to develop healthy relationships with women, including genuine friendships. your sexual energy will be used for healing, willpower, compassion, creativity/expression, intuition and transcendence. you won't lose the sexual drive during moments of intimacy. it's just that the sexual drive will come in the right moments, preventing your from being taken away by useless sexual fantasies when your focus should be somewhere else.

beautiful. this is wonderful. fly, golden bird! fly and purify yourself! to prevent backfiring, spend some time working on yourself, like 2~3 years. change radically. there's no need for fear. if you act from a place of compassion for existence and alignment with your heart, i doubt anything will ever go wrong.

@Sheeba very good. i remember sadhguru saying that his world of possibilities exploded when he noticed that he didn't know shit. it happened to me as well. and it still happens until this very day. what's wrong with "being a newbie"? humility is probably highest virtue. shunryo suzuki wrote a book called zen mind, beginner's mind, which is one of the best zen books out there. can you understand this? a zen master with decades of practice wrote a book about the practice of the humble mind. you know nothing? that's brilliant. get used to it.

@Fuse congratulations for your sincerity. it's quite rare for someone at your age. you have to replace that habit with another habit. from my personal experience, i was able to overcome porn by replacing it with assiduous practices and studies of yoga. i highly recommend yoga. it can change you in very deep ways. search for free yoga events in your town, yoga classes on youtube, yoga books (look for bks iyengar). it's a whole new universe for you to immerse and get out of porn. it takes a while, but if you practice assiduously, your sexual urges will become more and more sparse. for me, it took 6 months.

here comes the Hearth of God, looking for the Fire. where to start? you sit down and do nothing.

@Vercingetorix i haven't played it, but check undertale out.

@How to be wise do you call decades of intense suffering by "instantly"?

@kieranperez search for people who overcame ocd. i can't help you with this but one thing i know for sure: it won't be easy.

@sleeperstakes no it's not essential. i've always sucked at pickup and i'm living a wonderful intimate relationship.

drop it. you ain't going nowhere. you're not becoming more special. we're just random dudes. take this with you: enlightenment is a 24/7 mindfulness training. you're not becoming better than anyone else. you're simply becoming healthier than you've ever been. if you ask thich nhat hanh, he'll say that he's still training, even though he's like 90 years old and probably about to die. dogen zenji also said that practice and realization are the same. i recommend that you spend the next 6 months practicing with these teachings and see how it feels. if you want enlightenment, just practice day after day, minute after minute, instant after instant. it's a lifetime commitment to mindfulness practice.

no "enlightenment" will ever occur. train your mind to be present. join a zen sangha if you need help with practice consistency.