SchallUndRauch

What works well for me, is just watching videos on stuff I'm working on anyway. Then you can also spend some time contemplating, taking notes, evaluating, whatever, without it being a distraction. I also don't think you have to specify a time period you should do this. Just be engaged with the material. If a quote or the topic is intriguing to you, maybe pause the video and think about it. If there's some sentence in the video that catches your attention, do the same. If you find yourself heavily disagreeing with something, that's also a good spot to dive in.

The whole point of affirmations gets distorted, if you pick them up from others. Make one yourself. Really ponder about it. Then it will be truly powerful.

A miserable little pile of secrets.

@Revolutionary Think My impression so far how people have been using this tool isn't an empathetic one, but rather one of judgment, self evaluation and group cohesion. In short, religion. I don't think we need another dominance hierarchy. I think people are already very good at making stereotypes and effort is better spent on entangling them, rather than making new ones. I'm German and culturally very opposed to grouping people into higher and lower tiers, so I'm not going to pretend you could really say anything that would change my mind on that.

If you're an ant and you see a dinosaur approaching, would you want him to slow down?

Enlightenment and development are synergistic processes.

You could make a religion out of this.

So?

One of these days I'm gonna get enlightened, just because of the suffering I experience when Leo says Gödel and Schrödinger.

Funny enough, my religion teacher in elementary school actually did. We had to join hands and feel the energy passing through us, and the concepts about god she had were pretty close to nondualism. She was wildly unpopular. I can remember many such instances, for example I grew up reading Gödel, Escher, Bach several times because it was a book that belonged to my dad, I just didn't get it. My experience isn't, that there aren't any pointers, but I didn't see them. There's no point in pointers, if you're not seeking.

Are you afraid of putting things up your pooper?

Wow, I met with a friend and suddenly all my belly fat is gone, it's magic

I would suggest using a bit of time not to meditate, but really just to figure out how you're going to sit or it might bug you during meditation, even if you feel fine. Feeling comfortable for 5 minutes doesn't really mean you're going to be comfortable 20 minutes in, and feeling a bit uneasy at first doesn't mean you can't settle in and be fine later. Maybe you will feel that using a backrest is too easy on you, if you never tried sitting without and noticing it doesn't work. You can try seiza, if that's too hard on its own, put a pillow between your butt and your heels or sit on one of these fascia rolls, or do it on a yoga mat. Shavasana works very well for me, but many people have issues with getting drowsy, and it's a bit different to sitting in general.

If self-actualization really was the cause for all your suffering, how would this change things for you? If it was to be really painful at times in the future, would it be worth giving up your path?

Personal development is such a strange term for all of this.

Yup.

Any stereo device can do that, so yeah, an ipod should be able to. My personal advice: If you're just starting off, use brainaural.com. It's free and has a very good interface, with good presets, and randomizes the frequencies, so you don't ruin your ears, and there's a download option for something like an ipod. If you see good use, you can still invest money in more advanced stuff.

Smoothies are total bullshit.

I consider myself a dualist. Maybe that's gonna change at some point, but it is, what it is, right now. But I've contemplated this a lot, and I don't think dualism and non-dualism are necessarily that much different. What causes what shifts, and you're going to make a few different connections here and there, but in a bigger picture, even simple values come out way ahead in terms of understanding each other. I don't think there's a ladder like you describe, and if there is, my opinion is that it's a very very high one, which isn't really the topic of the discussion. The rigidity you describe isn't something that's exclusive to dualists. There are many people that believe in some kind of non-dualism, even if they don't know the word. If you talk to moderate Christians in western countries, their abstraction of god is pretty much what consciousness is to non-dualism, and for them to assume a dualistic point of view is just as alien as religion is to an atheist. That rigidity is something else, you will find it in almost all people. It's a way of thinking people are very used to. It's not just a lens, it's a beaten path in a huge jungle. You are frustrated by the way they don't consider how you think, just how they are frustrated by your suggestion to change perspectives, when they don't have an internal reason to do it, other than your word. And there are reasons why this dynamic developed. Trying to put yourself in another persons shoes is hard and often very much impossible. If the Dalai Lama came around the corner and I told you "just see the world like that dude does", you wouldn't be able to. And if every day is a challenge to your life, like it was for the most part of our evolution, you don't have time for it, so these patterns emerge. Think about how much time you really spent, until you got to the point, where you are right now, and if you can expect others to follow up on that. If I asked you to consider self development from an assembly language point of view, because god is obviously an AI, what would your reaction be?

The book isn't really a great read, though. The (very excellent) point she makes can be explained in a short time, the book just consists of a huge number of anecdotes. There are several good videos about it on youtube, I don't think the book adds that much. I also think you're jumping to conclusions. Grinding it out can be the choice of someone with a growth mindset, it's about the attitude that you tackle your issues with. Nobody said grinding is always the best option. You're categorizing these things like someone with a fixed mindset would. It simply depends on the context. Why are you grinding? Are you learning something in this grinding process? What's the actual situation like? Just how you define grinding is a huge part of what your mindset is, in that particular context. People with a growth mindset can take grinding right now, if it leads to better results in the future, because they don't see it that way, and might actually enjoy the work, even if it's tedious. Laziness and impatience aren't super evil villains, but they are often very insidious. Except for extreme cases, nobody actually thinks they are lazy. Question is, do you really need them? If you have effectivity in mind, and you're conscious about the impact your actions have, do you need to be neurotic to always look for better ways and not waste your time? Impatience and laziness will always impede long term development for quick results. I don't see the point, I think they are bad values from a theoretical standpoint.

It's almost like self development enables people to be creative.

Peer pressure is fun stuff. Trying to pull in others and making every debate a two sided contest everyone involved has to identify with is something very egoic. I'm right, you're wrong. So of course people get mad, if you don't participate in their stupid games. Standing above it isn't something negative to me. That's not to say you shouldn't let others challenge your opinions, but it should be stuff you're informed about and that actually involves you. It's a matter of picking your battles. If I get forced to take a position about stuff I don't have a sufficient picture of, I usually just turn the thing around. If being empathetic and understanding to everyone isn't enough, you have to split. Go third party. Tell all of them they are retarded for not being able to compromise and give em the ol' middle finger. No need to escalate, but just a polite "fuck off" is often very effective.

If you use it as a way to commit, it can be a good thing. It's not a tool, however. You should also be aware there are many people, who use tattoos as an ego boost, because tattoos make you feel special. It can be a trap.

None. It doesn't make any sense. There are plenty of ways your body disposes of harmful things and cancer does not fall in that category. Do your research about cancer and what it actually is.