WaterfallMachine

@Prabhaker Haha. Thanks Prabhaker . Best Osho Fanboy. Such a bro. I tried it immediately when I read it. And it's been a release. I tried a similar idea on moving quickly when I heard that there was a dance class nearby where I live with energetic music. I rarely ever dance but I was able to kept going long enough even when the other participants were looking exhausted. But to me, it wasn't fast enough. Since this meditation just allows me to move as I want, I can go as fast as I want. Its so simple. Why haven't I thought this before? I figured I needed more meditation that involves moving, and from a quick google search, Kundalini meditation in general have more energetic types. Maybe that's just what I need.

I was excited yesterday. For the whole day. No kidding. I woke up at 6am and didn't feel tired enough to fall asleep till 12am. And the effect didn't start on that day. It started the day before in my determination sitting, where I focused so deeply, I hallucinated. There seems to be an odd increase of being ridiculously happy recently and this was by far the longest one. For all those people who might be saying, "Oh my gosh. But why get rid of something so amazing?" It was nice in the beggining, but then it got tiring. I had so much energy I just wanted to do and do and do stuff. I was happy but I was also getting agitated on trying to find things to do I can use up my energy on. I'm not particularly sure, but I get the sense that I get more impulsive. Not impulsive in that I lose focus quickly. Oh no no, that day might have been the most focused I've ever been. But in that when I focus so deeply, I might not think so hard about what's a good idea to focus on because of my need to use up my energy. Add to that that intense happiness has this idea of everything is possible! And well, stuff happens. The ironic thing is that I woke up somewhat earlier than what usually is when I sleep this late. I'm still happy but not as intensely as last night where I literally felt like my body was exploding with joy that I literally went jumping and running around excited. Today is more. . . calm. How do I get something more calm? I'm calm enough right now that when I counted how many breaths I'm taking in a minute, it's only two times. I'm pretty hesitant to start my meditation today. That was pretty exhausting. Maybe I'll wait a bit. I'm getting excited again that I'm taking breaths every 2 seconds and really, I'm getting tired. Help?

I agree with Leo that for enlightenment, you have to let go of how you define yourself. But that does not mean that using Mbti as a humble guide rather than an all knowing crystal ball still allows for some growth. It wouldn't be as a powerful piece of growth than enlightenment is, but part of the path of enlightenment is greater awareness of yourself which Mbti gives. I'm getting some pretty advanced meditative experiences (Haha. Not enlightenment though.) and the longer time passes, the more I think I got there partly because in my study of Mbti and enneagram. Because of that, I had an obsession of studying my thoughts, feelings, intentions and behaviors constantly. That greater awareness in my daily life allowed greater awareness with meditation. It's only a stepping stone to deep awareness and you'll have to go beyond that. And yes, from what I've seen, everyone has to go through hardcore self inquiry type of stuff. The deeper you go, the more you find that concentration/hardwork/self inquiry is what allows for the greatest emotional healing. Check out the blog Personality Hacker that has lots of podcasts and articles on different types for personal growth. If you're up to it, you can buy their INFx Unveiled Program for mental health practices for these types. Though, I haven't tried it myself because I'm not an INFx. The blog Personality Junkie has some personal growth articles. I've read some on INTx spiritual articles because I am one. Maybe there are ones for INFxs.

Name: Bianca Age: 16 Gender: Female Location: Philippines Occupation : Student in a high school that specializes in science and mathematics. Marital Status: Not interested. Kids: No Hobbies : I like to try new hobbies and I change hobbies regularly, but lasting ones are reading books from every genre (Especially personal development, thrillers and science), programming and meditation. Some of my recent hobbies are, Yoga, poetry, making theories on cartoon shows and puzzles. Also researching the physics of comic book characters. Also, cute cat pictures. Oh boy. I began personal development when I had depression and anxiety as an 11 year old. The earliest of what could be depression I remember is when I learned how to empathize. I was the kid who kept making inappropiate pranks, jokes and was often pretty rude and blunt. I don't think I ever actually had any deep connection with anyone back then, even my family. When I first felt major pangs of guilt, I was far from welcoming it. I tried to pounce on every thought that wanted me to change and suppressed every feeling I had so much that I was literally distressed every moment of everyday. I was a wide reader as a kid. And one of those things I read was personal development. I never actually took action to them, but damn, I wanted to get out of there and I wanted to figure out how. As I realized this, my anxiety would spiral into more and more fears. I started thinking every body sensation like itching, tingling or pressure was a sign I would die. I started to worry about my grades more. I had this fear that everyone hated me and if they don't, if they knew the real me, they would. I would have hidden rages at people for the little things they've done. I wish I could have traveled back in time and guided my younger self, but for the next few years I would continue researching and acting on the pursuit of happiness, with barely any asking for help at all. Why did I live? I thought sometimes. Because I did not finish every interesting book and article in the world. I was that kid who kept asking questions, questioned ideas and was easily amazed. Of all the horrifying things I've gone through, losing my curiosity was for me the greatest loss I ever had. And I would do anything. Anything. To get it back. Gratitude, love, humor, excitement or any other kind of happiness was hard. But curiosity? There was still some left and I made sure that shit grew. On the last year, I felt I exhausted every option. The last thing I could think of was actually asking for help. I practiced first anonymously online on a site with volunteer listeners. And I followed through even if as I did it I distrusted them so much I often cried for hours after it from embarrassment. But I was so touched by their acceptance and kindness that I started giving more merit what I thought of "The absolute irrationality of love". So I practiced what I could of loving kindness meditation even if it took months for me to past barely feeling anything. On about every step on the way when I didn't feel like going on, I asked myself, "Wouldn't it be interesting to see what happened next?" I had learned the most important lesson in my life : That curiosity has to be always stronger than fear. Later on I'd tell one of the listeners on the site something and it went like this. "Things have gone meaningless. You know, I want to use my curiosity and pursuit of truth for something more than myself. I don't know what. I don't know how. But I know why." "I'm so glad you're starting to see that love, relationships and kindness is more important." "Love and kindness as most important? Hell no. Wisdom, curiosity and truth will always be more important. But . . . that doesn't mean I could do both. Maybe." "I'm so happy!" "Oh shut up. Well, I mean. . . thank you." Somewhere along those days, my results started accelerating. I just seemed to have more motivation. More control. More satisfaction. More awareness. More confidence. More everything. It's a long story, but I've never felt so damn happy in my entire life. How I changed for the better : Gained numerous Jhana experiences. Studied various facets of happiness psychology, CBT, mindfulness, Stoicism, existentialism, Shadow Work, a bit of NLP and other tools for my pursuit of happiness. Feel elated for much of the day. Wakes up excited and sleep excited. Ridiculous amounts of drive. Studied the science and art of learning. The art of problem solving and creative thinking. Mastered many techniques. Had an account on Quora (A Q&A) for life advice (especially on learning techniques and mental health) and gained from the start to now, a total of 100,000+ views. One article got on the Quora digest. Worked on having more genuine and authentic relationships. Gained more trust and openness with others. Became a lot more likeable and willing to like others. Lost some weight. Ate healthy more. Exercises more. Mastered the psychology of typology for personal development. Because of that, I gained a ridiculous awareness of my strengths, weaknesses, problems, opportunities, feelings, thoughts, behavior and values for my growth that is increasing as I change everyday in life. Gained an ability to be so curious that I can be interested in about everything. Can stare at a wall for one hour and think it's interesting. What I'm working on now : Trying more advanced physical exercises. Researching on diet. Haha. I'm good at the exercise part but kind of bad in the diet part. Getting through stages 6-8 of the 10 Meditation Stages mentioned in the book The Mind Illuminated. Trying to learn how to program Python for my life purpose. Trying to better my logical reasoning skills for life purpose. Trying to get my ass to donate more. (Main problem to this : "But think of all the interesting books and courses I could get with that money!!) Challenging materialist paradigm. Reading Leo's recommended books and trying out more "new agey" techniques to try myself. Especially past life regression. Is it me or nearly all visions of my past lives included insanely curious people?

I find short affirmations powerful for beginners. But as someone grows to be more susceptible to changing their thoughts, their feelings, their motivations, their actions and more with better confidence and awareness, more affirmations can be used. But even with that, there's always a limit.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to find a way to accept whatever it is, because no one knows whether an afterlife exists. Acceptance comes from better awareness. Of your feelings. Your thoughts. Your intentions. Your actions. And how they all connect. Suffering comes from resisisting these and awareness allows you to approach these more gently. Fuller awareness is painful in the short term but in the long run, it allows for a deeper contentment with life. Though, the only thing I could think of as the closest thing to finding out if there is an afterlife or not is to try past life regression and astral projection yourself. Some things can only be answered by attempting to experience things rather than just reading about them.

Notes are beneficial. 1. Better understanding. It's only possible to summarize things in your own words when you understand them well so this is a good idea. 2. Better remembering. With better understanding comes better remembering. You can remember the last sentence well because you derive meaning from it but if I just said wjfndiw ieihfn djiehf fncmcu slqmlp, you won't remember it. 3. You can take time to be aware of how it factors in your life specifically. You can understand things in theory but to take time to be aware of how it applies in your long term and daily life too? That's harder. 4. You can organize how you can apply each idea.

Here's an entire course on it free online. https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn Here are also some keywords to search in how to study well. General Image Streaming. Below is a question asking how quick learners learn with 100+ answers. https://www.quora.com/What-learning-strategies-do-quick-learners-follow Quora is also a good site to search this question in general. Very in depth answers. For Understanding Feynman technique. ADEPT technique by Kalid Azad. (You'll see that Kalid uses it for math, but I find it wonderfully applies to to variety of subjects. Mind maps. For Memorizing Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer The Art of Memory wiki online, site (for exercises) and forum. Mmemonics. Anki (site) — spaced learning software. Working Memory (Short term memory) HighIQPro — Brain training software. (Brain training is often seen as unreliable but the reviewers of this software are the only ones that consistently say it works.) The Working Memory Advantage by Tracy Alloway. Notetaking Mind maps. Cornell Notes. Visual Notetaking or sketch noting. The Doodle Revolution by Sunni Brown. (Doodles that are made about the subject of what's learned are actually powerful ways to remember something more, problem solve and understand things when used well.) Focus and Discipline Meditation. The blog of James Clear. Habitica — an app where you get points and level up on accomplishing your goals and even team up with other users.

It's possible to learn a lot from experience and discover things on the way like @TJ Reeves mentions, but I bet theory has more place than you think. Imagine personal development where you just learn from experience. Really think about it. No Leo from Actualized.org. No Tony Robbin types. No theory from the ideas of your parents. Your friends. Your culture. Your community. From internet blogs. From books. Your ideas on happiness. On wisdom. On love. On humor. On humility. On strength. Everything. Of course you didn't experience these ideas at all so even those are theories. How do you define what happiness is? How do you define how successful someone is? How do you define what is love? Even with small things like how you define how well made a movie is or what you think is the appropriate outfit. We all live our lives with theories. You can't not remove theories unless you have some kind of brain damage. Because to experience something we want, we have to have an idea of it in our minds. Of course, just doing theory is a bad idea. But doing just experience is another extreme. You can learn from your experiences, but without the theories, you'll just be repeating other's mistakes and taking much longer to find insights you can find with other's ideas. There are of course geniuses in society that manage to make great discoveries without education. Like Michael Faraday who due to his poverty lacked education but had great contributions to our understanding of electricity. But gee, not everyone one of us has the inner privilege to be such a genius without such help. Sometimes the problem with people is that that when they have too much of something, they aim to find too much of the opposite when actually they need balance. We have many examples of people from history that had to learn from their teachers for it to be even possible for them to be revolutionaries in their fields. The Buddha had to learn meditation from his teachers first. Einstein had to learn how to count as a child and do basic physics from his school. Shakespeare had to learn his alphabet and English somewhere. To revolutionize with the unconventional, often someone has to first acquire conventional ideas.

Most people think of discipline as just "Something you do". But there are all kinds of different techniques to make things faster. Here are several articles on that are easy to understand with scientific backing and some that are also even emotionally compelling enough to inspire you to action. A link on habits. http://jamesclear.com/habits A link on motivation. http://jamesclear.com/motivation Procrastination http://jamesclear.com/procrastination Behavioral Science http://jamesclear.com/behavioral-psychology The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is also a wonderfully informative book to buy for this.

During my determination sitting, I was staring at the center of a red snowflake design on a pillow. Then I saw things warp. And not just that. I started seeing the pillows subtly moving left and right. I saw purple colors. I saw the colors fade. It looked like as if the pillow was breathing. Little green circles darker than the green of the pillow seemed to subtly move around. There was also some clearing up in my vision like TVs that lost signal. Or as if I saw a 1040 HD video turn into a 360 video. Shining white colors. I saw things move up and down. Forward and backward. Holy shit. I just kept going. When I felt too tired of staying still for too long and gave up to get a nice long awaited stretch, it all stopped. What is this? What do I do with it? What does this mean for my practice?

When I searched about it, I found this link. https://www.quora.com/What-is-Kundalini-awakening-What-are-your-Kundalini-awakening-experiences-What-are-the-dangers-involved-in-Kundalini-awakening/answer/Achintya-Idam http://kundalini-brahmajnani.blogspot.com/2016/05/dangers-in-meditation-meditation-or.html It was mentioned when someone experienced pain in their head during a tatrak meditation. He said it was dangerous when done in a stiff position. Oh man, is that true? Scary. I'm really skeptical but if it's potentially this dangerous, I better at least try to ask about it. I have felt a pain in my head. But I'm not sure if it has something to do with reading really complicated philosophical books for half of the day or this. I hope it's not the latter. But then it just slowly disappears after some time. Eh. Maybe I'm just overthinking it. Anyone know anything about this? Maybe I'll even ask @Leo Gura pretty please.

The ideas you mentioned were interesting. Where did you hear that? I'd like to learn more about it. On your questions, I read somewhere that you can ask specific questions to explore in a past life regression and it might be helpful to ask your questions during your next practice. I read on the Holographic Universe that people actually have one where they plan what their next life is to be and you might want to try to remember that to have a taste of the nature of reality. Alternate possibilities to try is that on some lives is that you might have met someone who had some answers or be someone who had some answers. I definitely noticed similar personality traits in my experimentation with past life regression. There are of course differences in personality.But I noticed a theme of pursuit of wisdom, curiosity and wonder. If not that, at least some kind of intellectualism. I remember being in what seems to be a well built body of a serious African man and asking wisdom from the village elder. I remember being an American mother cradling my child in World War II and thinking of my mission to teach my child wisdom — so one day this wisdom can spread so the world can be at peace. I remember being some arrogant, loud and dark skinned man teaching a few people while thinking of how much more I know than them. I remember what looks like the body of a Spanish or Portuguese explorer during the age of discovery and wondering what lands I have yet to see. And even more than that. And you guessed it — I still love this stuff. Haha.

I go to http://m.wikihow.com/Remember-Your-Past-Lives for a short and simple past life regression technique. But I use it mostly because I find it easy to enter a state of relaxation quickly. For more longer ones, you can simply enter Past Life Regressions Hypnosis on YouTube and there are many to choose from. I haven't explored this topic for very long so I don't think I can give you the really juicy links. But it's a start. There seems to be less people to talk about this topic well here as compared to other spirituality forums I've seen. So you might want to ask from other forums. I went to spiritualforums before. Maybe check it out? Haha. Well, it's good that you're open minded. Not many people can say the same thing. .

I felt a peace. Not just any ordinary peace. It was the most profound peace I ever felt. A feeling of deep satisfaction with my life and the world. A feeling that all this peace would remain stagnant even in times of trouble. It seems weird to explain it this way. If there is a state without any words, then what is being in trouble? It was triggered when I read More Than Allegory. According to the author, you don't actually see the past or the future. You're seeing your memories of the past and the ideas of the future. You're experiencing those memories and ideas in the present, not actually experiencing it. You can't write notes in the idea of a book. Pretty hard to sit down in the concept of a chair. And challenging to use your toothbrush with the image of your teeth. This does not mean that these images are false, but they're still images. And that the idea that there was a separate world out there is something to be skeptical about. After all, you perceive this world only through the senses you're given. Like Leo said once, you happen to have sight but a bat can't see. So what's the difference between existence and non-existence if they're both coming from your mind? It's more in depth in the book but as I thought of the regrets of the past and the hopeless of the future left me. Because it did not exist. I put these ideas in deepening my practice and I saw. It's strange. But a wordless experience feels like the ideas that brought me down — feelings of worthlessness, of not knowing enough, of not being perfect enough and the rest was lost during this state. It's like thinking you're in a locked room and thinking you'll be stuck in there forever. But the door is actually language, a human constraint made by your own mind, and when you realize you can just open and close this door as you wish ; those ideas don't lock you in anymore. You can see them. Believe in them. Desire them. But you can walk out if you want to and see them from the outside. I don't think my pursuit of enlightenment has ended of course. This stuff could go on for years considering the glimpses of all the different schools of thought I could see. The more I know, the more questions I have. I'm feeling pretty calm right now as I type this but I bet it won't last all the time. Shortly I tried Kundalini Yoga and next after a short mantra meditation, It unlocked another insight. I compared myself with people who were better. But I realized I was everything. I was the wise and the naive. I was the young and the old. I was the poor and the rich. I was the failure and the success. I was the leader and the follower. How could I ever feel superior or inferior in a state like that? It was a feeling of overflowing acceptance and love. In the book, it said time does not exist. You can't pinpoint it exactly. Can't see it, touch it, hear it, taste it or smell it. I was always worrying about time. Time. Time. Time. Not enough time to reach my successes. Not enough time for my own hobbies. Not enough time to work on my health. And so on. But when I stayed there just in the present, time did not exist. Because if there is no past and future, then all there is the present. In the book, the author said this is your Big Bang. Everything beginning all over again. Each moment a new universe. A new world. And when I understood this in practice, I felt it was all enough. It felt like I was a damn volcano. Erupting with joy. Lava spewing forth. Dust released into the sky. But after that initial excitement, I calmed down and felt a profound stillness. I always felt my time was limited, but I understood limited was another story I told myself. A person with so much time usually would see a constraint on their day as limited. While a person who usually has a busy workday from financial problems would see the little freetime they have as rewarding. More and less is subjective. It was a creation of our minds and if reality was our minds ; could I actually change it? And without words, the door that locked me in momentarily disappeared and I walked out of the room. And it was deeply. . . deeply beautiful.

When they say you've been never born, it has a different meaning to what you think it means. Enlightenment is like a carpet. Different abstract patterns can appear and can seem distinct from another ; but all these patterns are just one carpet. So you've never been born because you're not actually separated from the rest of the universe. And the soul is more like a particular part of that carpet. This seems pretty crazy. But I thought the same. Check out The Holographic Universe or Materialism is Baloney to find the logical arguments and evidence you're looking for. Leo's book list reviews have more books like these if you want. I recommend people like this to go read books like that first as I don't think much of anything else can get you to open up to it. Leo has some epistemological videos with logical arguements on these if you check his enlightenment videos. Another thing to try is to try to google how to have a past life regression. I tried the one on wikihow. When I first tried it, I didn't actually believe it would work so it wasn't a placebo. And if it was just the result of my imagination, why didn't it work outside the technique? During the technique, the images flowed vividly, effortlessly, until one sudden stop somewhere along the way. Outside it I was straining my mind to think of ideas for a story like that and to imagine pictures as vividly ; but it was hard. When I tried to test if it was the relaxation (Studies say relaxation increases creativity), it didn't work either. I thought I was crazy, until I googled one of the words in a foreign language and it actually translated to actual words online. And in my shock, I realized there really must be something to all this. I can't of course prove that to you. Only you can explore that yourself. In Actualized.org, remember we're not just trying to change what you believe. We're asking you to challenge your criteria for what makes something worth believing?. And to explore the truth of what makes something true is to consider all sides. It's like trying to understand a country just by talking to people who live on the north. How can you have a complete understanding if you don't understand people from the south? Good luck.

Yes, fiction stories aren't true, but they do change us emotionally in a way we need. What would motivate you more? A scientific study talking about learned helplessness — the belief that things are impossible because of past experiences that won't always apply to the future? Or a story talking about that? Harry Potter shows fantastical stories of flying brooms, ghosts and teleporting. But their themes of friendship is true. Their themes of longing for hope and bravery even admidst a world threatened by Voldemort. The threat of a skull shooting up in the sky. Imagine the threat of being killed and still haging the willingness to travel across the magical world in hiding, sneak in back to the Hogwarts took over by the enemy and in one high pace sweeping battle of danger on a broom actually defeat him? Fuck. Stories like this make me want to change my life. And others and you too. Their stories of lack of self esteem, fear, sadness, being left out by society, oppression and others are themes we can find in this world. In hearing the minds of characters, we can better understand the types of problems in society and develop empathy. That's why many speakers talk in stories. Information is of course, valued and needed, but stories is what lights the fire in us. What dazzles us. What ignites our fury to change things. What allows for hope. What changes us and so potentially the world around us. Keep reading, bud. Just don't let it become an unnecessary escape and you'll be fine.

Ever since I was a kid, I've been the type to fidget all the time. Leg jumping. Tapping a pen. Rocking back and forth. Hell, even having the random urge to go jump around. You name it. So you can imagine how hard it is to do a meditation that's dedicated to not moving. I tried bringing more awareness on the specifics of the sensation of the urge to move. I also tried acting like I've felt all this for the first time — trying not to see the sensations as good or bad. Both seem to help — but eh, I still move too frequently during the practice. Any more ideas?

@Leo Gura I remember you said not to try to convince people. To leave that to you. And that makes me wonder. How the hell do you manage to convince people to radically change their beliefs? To not give a damn about any of the disbelief and still manage to continue? Be able to be this well known with it and also manage to keep growing with this? Any books or links to recommend? I'm not particularly set out for certain for it but when pondering my life purpose, I feel a certain magnetic pull to speaking or pursuing about controversial issues like this. And tend to notice that when seeing in my life and social issues that have to do with truth, the ability to look for it well and speak for it well, tend to produce stronger emotions in me — positive and negative. I keep daydreaming and thinking about doing something like you as I go through the day. But in another field yet with similar values. Where can I start?

Hi. Watching Leo's videos on epistemology and paradigms, I figured he did have a point there. So I thought I'd experiment with seeing this stuff for myself. Thing is is that I'm a minor and I'm not sure if I can convince my parents to let me go to some "crazy place claiming unscientific alternative methods." Though maybe I can get some money that can be used on the internet though from my monthly allowance. So I want something I can do ideally without money, at my home/anywhere else or on the internet. I tried remembering past lives. Skeptics claimed it was due to a wild imagination but when I tried to imagine such a visually vivid experience as quickly, I couldn't do it unless the specific technique for it was done. It was not relaxation as some studies say relaxation increases creativity because even relaxing in normal meditation wouldn't allow my imagination to flow stories so fast. I also tried chakras which actually did have a calming effect. I didn't believe it would work at first so I don't think it was a placebo effect. Tried auras and saw mine ; it was not my imagination because I often saw something unexpected to what I had in mind and when I examined myself more closely, I discovered sides of myself I didn't know. Then tried communicating with a spirit guide and noticed the voice stayed clearly giving advice even when my mind was tired and I couldn't think well at all — which is . . . mind blowing. The sensation of communicating was strange ; the voice felt involuntary, not subject to my control. Surprising and contradictory to my own beliefs at times. And very very very warm. Holy shit. A part of me thinks I'm crazy and another part of me thinks I'm actually on to something here. That latter part seems to be grow deeper as I go. Anything else I could try? I wish I had a whole list of this stuff. If you can, please recommend some online sources or books I can buy online. You can also provide me with even better resources for what I tried above since I just went with the first pages that appeared when I googled how to do all these.

@S33K3R Interesting idea! Maybe I'll try to compile some of what I've gone through in my experiences though it wouldn't be as good as basing it from many people's experiences. Though, these stages remind me of Riso and Russ Hudson's mental health stages for different types of people, where people have 3 main manifestations in how they deal with fear, shame and anger. In their book Personaliy Types. Really changed how I think about growth for myself. Here's some of my own experiences and how I dealt with each stage based on the 10 stages of meditation above. Note that my experiences can be different from others. You guys might wanna see this. @Nahm @Shan @Max_V@AleksM@Dodo@jon hinkle Stage one : I often questioned how useful meditation was. Really? Sitting doing nothing? How could that help? I was a pretty easily distracted person and at this time, meditation was painfully boring. How to solve it : Start small. Because if you start with something too long — you'll probably be demotivated soon. Think 5-10 minutes. Then 15. Then 20. Or more if you like, steadily increasing it when you're ready for the next.. It's best to do this at the same time and place each day as habits formed in the brain tend to be more easily imprinted this way. You can read the benefits of meditation and visualize how it would affect each area of your life in detail. Or even learn about a meditation master's life to be inspired — feelings are more easily made if you can imagine a concrete example of what the benefits are rather than abstract descriptions. See the blog James Clear for more motivation, habits and procrastination tips. Best blog I found for the area of discipline. Stage two : I remember meditating in a car getting distracted by all kinds of thoughts. I could daydream endlessly throughout the meditation and I could even spent the entire session distracted I was so pissed — how can I do this? How to solve it : People are better off using a guided meditation as without one, they're likely to get too distracted. Try to be gentle when you notice your thoughts drifting off — like placing a feather on your thoughts and placing your attention back to the breath. Its best to left the thoughts drift away like watching clouds than forcing it. Forcing it just makes more thoughts about how annoyed you are. Don't overcomplicate going back to the breath — that just creates more thoughts. Just do it. Stage 3 : I often had trouble getting sleepy with meditation here. I always did it in the morning and add to that my lack of sleep the day before — I was tired. I'd tell myself to open my eyes during the meditation but I was often tempted to drift off to sleep. Later I'd tell myself to meditate in the afternoon instead but I was impatient enough to not do it often. How to solve it: Sit up straight while allowing your shoulders to relax. Sit with "dignity". If you're still falling asleep, you can have the option of opening your eyes or having meditation on a time of the day when you're less tired. Ground yourself in the surface under your butt and your feet. Stage 4 : I remember being focused on my breath but like a daze. That I had to make lots of effort to keep it that way and it felt like I could get distracted any moment. It felt like trying to hold an umbrella still in a really windy day. How to solve it : Focus on the sensation of dullness. See how it changes with each moment. How it rises and falls. How it moves around. And focus on the breath with more specifics — how fast it moves with each changing moment. Its intensity. Where it is in your body — it can be from your nose, your chest or your belly. And even subdividing your focus in even smaller areas of that area. It's also helpful to remember your motivation before or as you mediate to avoid distraction. Not only motivations for yourself but how your meditation practice can change you in a way that benefits others. Greater awareness brings better control. Greater motivation allows more sharpness in focus. I also found it helpful to deal with strong emotions here in a certain way. Often by asking what the texture, the color, the shape, the movement or any other sensory description to your emotions. No need to overthink it. Just say the first thing in your head. This counterintuitive technique allows a deepening of awareness in emotions. Stage 5 : This is where I felt a greater peacefulness as I meditate. This is likely the time where I really enjoyed getting back to meditation. In my practice as I looked closer, I noticed the breath. But I didn't really focus with sharpness. Think of it like the difference good enough definition of a movie and a high definition of a movie. How to solve it : I was lacking knowledge so I googled it. I find this article especially helpful. http://dharmatreasure.org/on-mindful-awareness-vs-dullness/. What I remember the most is practicing meditating in louder environments. Stage 6 : A greater sense of peacefulness enters my daily life. It feels like I'm meditating even as the day passes. A regular bliss begins to form and it's more happiness than I ever thought possible. I focus with ease but still can get a bit distracted by things. Birds chirping. People talking outside. Sounds of airplanes passing through the sky. I was the type of person who was sensitive to noise and crowds — but as my focus deepened, I found I'd stopped even noticing the existence of busy environments around me. How to solve it : Now that I think about it, this stage was triggered by my attempts to focus longer in my everyday life. I've been steadily focusing on more in depth content but at a time, I thought I'd really try this. I read books more. I stopped watching 10 minute videos or similar and watched a tv series or documentaries longer than an hour instead. I stopped going to short content sites like Reddit and found longer articles in Quora. Finding videos in playlists more and trying to learn from more in depth online content like courses from universities like the sites Edx, khanacademy or Coursera. I even moved my meditation time from 40 minutes to an hour because I liked it so much. Everything I did — I made sure I didn't just glaze over it — but concentrate deeply in my understanding of it. This was also strongly triggered when I tried Self-inquiry for some time. Especially with Peter Ralston's book, The Book Of Not Knowing. As well as deepening my thinking about thinking. I make sure I'm aware of what exactly I'm focusing on — rather than just focusing without awareness. As I said earlier, it's the difference between focusing on the road and wheel in front of you and also knowing what and why you're heading somewhere. Stage 7 : I feel an even deeper peacefulness in this stage but it still hasn't pearmeated throughout my whole life. In daily life, there's often stresses yet the thing people know less about is the subtle stresses. Small amounts of impatience, slight sadness or more. And in this stage, I find a deeper awareness of every feeling that passes through me — down to the tiniest details. And those feelings are often different types of bliss. I find that I learn more quickly things I never dreamed of understanding. Time goes so fast 10 minutes can feel like 20 years has passed. But the problem is that my mind feels like it has to force this experience out. Like having to carry heavy bags as you walk up a mountain with a majestic natural view. You're still someone pretty strong — but after some time, it gets burdening. Then I'd drop to lower stages. It feels wonderful, but it's also straining. How to solve it : Continue practicing concentration. It's a good idea to focus on continuous focus and trying to lengthen it over time. When it's time to lessen the effort of focus, think of it like this. Remember someone you admire. Notice that you're not forcing the thought to come out. You're simply recalling it and it even has a certain ease to it. You can practice moving with this ease of focus in a meditation as you move your awareness from the top of your body to the bottom as many times as you like. Allowing all that focus with the softness of placing a feather on your focus object. It's also helpful to practice being aware of how much force or ease you're supposed to do to concentrate on the moment. Stage 8 : The few times I've been here I felt a peace. Time didn't just go faster, the concept of time disappears entirely. Bliss seems unnoticeable, because it has become a natural part of functioning. During these times, self control becomes outstanding. I don't have the same urges to procrastinate or eat junk food. Deep focus and discipline feels as light as carrying around a coin. But during this, I can feel some bizzare sensations. Like a hyperawareness of itchy feelings and even an erupting joy cascading through my body. Recently today I focused so well it seemed that the visible environment was subtly warping around me — as if the furniture around me was breathing. With all these extraordinary sensations, I couldn't help but focus on them and get momentarily distracted. How to solve this : I don't know for sure as I haven't passed this stage. But if I had to make an educated guess, the answer might lie in determination sitting. It's a meditation where you don't move so makes the meditator have to learn how to deal with this uncomfortable body sensations. Any critique of this? Or any additional information to place? Maybe I'll have to edit this later on. Edit : Upon reflection, I learned that I had a few experiences of stage 8 to add. I remember a technique from the Headspace app that taught me about effortless focus.

I'm growing more able to focus at depth at a long length of time. But the more I focus this well — the more I find that I focus so much that I find it hard to switch my attention from one thing to another. For example, I'd be absolutely fascinated in learning a new hobby but get so absorbed I can't switch to focusing on my scheduled workout. Today I got so absorbed in reading a book I was almost late in getting somewhere. And the more I focus well — the more I lose track of time. A day can feel like a month and that feels awesome but it screws my time management skills. It has to do with how blissful I feel when I'm focusing at something, especially something intellectually difficult at depth. I guess all the meditation made my focus better — but how can I turn it off sometimes?

An ego trap is something that doesn't benefit you in the long term. Trying to get rich for the sake of being rich is shallow because with that motivation, they always want more. Putting too much emphasis on beauty to judge themselves and others is shallow because eventually when they get old, their appearance will get less pleasing to the eye. The tool isn't the ego trap here. It's not for any tool. Whether it is an ego trap or not depends on your motivations here.

I agree with @Joseph Maynor on meditation. But an hour a day is too hard for a beginner. It's better to start with something small with something like 10 minutes or even 5 minutes because starting too big tends to demotivate people. Then adding steadily more time when you're comfortable and stopping to the time you'd like to stay in. Meditation is a wonderful practice for deep concentration. And from studies, you'd find better concentration can come sooner than you think.

You can learn from an anime called One Punch Man that shows what a life of being the best without effort would be like. One Punch Man is a superhero named Saitama strong enough to defeat any villain in one punch. His physical powers over other superheroes is Godlike. You can imagine him as some kind of success story inspiring other superheroes to fight evil the best they can and is inspired everyday to become better. But that's not what it is. He punches villains taller than cities down in one blow. He punches so hard he can make the rain momentarily stop. He punched one guy from the moon speeding up in one sold punch that made every cloud in the Earth to part. But instead it seems boring. Meaningless. He doesn't have the same drive to become stronger like he used to. Fearlessness for others might be a dream. But his lack of fear is what made things seem empty for him. Imagine being at the end of every external goal you have in life — as some perfect being. That's awesome — but after a while you might ask, "Is that it?" Instead of achieving satisfaction in results, achieve satisfaction in the pursuit of things. Whether your motivation is with curiosity, with a sense of pride in achievement, an internal drive from compassion or something else. Find something that you want to do not for a goal but for the sake of it.