Slade

Does enlightenment come full circle? Can we have an infinite amount of enlightenments?

@Max_V I have the same thing happen with working out and meditation. I think being aware of it helps. I’ve always just told myself that I’ll feel better once I exercise and stuff and after I push through that barrier my ego sort of gives in an accepts it.

@Shroomdoctor doing anything right takes time, but doing it any other way takes even longer.

@Jedd Focus on the plan not the problem.

If you’re almost passing out from holding your breath that long then you’re spending too much time labeling your thoughts. Haha it should be quick. Labeling takes one second, then return to the breath. You could also be holding your breath because you have a holding pattern with it. Like you habitually hold your breath when you’re thinking. In that case you might have to do some other work to get rid of the holding pattern. We all have holding patterns, David Deida talks about them. A lot of people tighten their genital region or hold in their gut, clinch their jaw, have an in relaxed tongue. I do all of those sometimes and when I notice I just go back to relaxing them.

In Leo’s newest video he briefly talks about how the contrast between cultures can be shocking and help to wake you up. I’ve never been out of the country and I’m really feeling a need to experience some culture shock. Haha What places have you guys been to that contrast with American culture the most?

Maybe but don’t get caught up in concepts. Haha It’s “the self” that has the idea to do metta meditation in the first place. “The self” naturally wants more love so that’s why we might choose to do metta. Haha

Tibetan Buddhism says yes to that. In fact they said that at our very essence, humans are altruistic.

Have you read the book, The Six Pillars of Self Esteem by Nathaniel Branden? That book might just answer all the questions you have. Pretty sure it’s on Leo’s recommended books list too.

I’ve had similar things happen. When you bring all your focus to the breath it’s hard not to control it, you just have to remind yourself to let go of controlling it and just observe it. It’s not a big deal, it’s all about practice. Just notice that you were holding your breath, and return back to relaxing and observing. Simple.

Metta isn’t just about self love. It’s more so about altruistic love, sacrificing yourself for the love of others. When I say metta I mean loving kindness, compassion, altruistic love, etc... Mainstream society tends to turn metta into a self love practice but that’s not really how it’s supposed to be. Watch some YouTube videos with the Dalai Lama. His main focus is warm heartedness, compassion. As well at Matthieu Ricard. He’s written multiple books on cultivating loving kindness, compassion, alruism, etc... To put it simply, compassion meditation is all about the cultivation of love for all beings. You can easily setup a daily practice of compassion meditation to work on bringing more feelings of love into your life.

Look into metta meditation. That’s what I’m mastering it’s basically just altruistic love and compassion. Tibetan Buddhism talks a lot about it.

@MisterMan I chose loving kindness meditation as my domain of mastery so I hope it’s not a distraction ? from what I studied, cultivating warm heartedness is the key to deep happiness.

@-Rowan Have you read Mastery by George Leonard?

@Uncover It sounds like you have some serious problems dude. I mean there’s kids starving to death in Africa, I thought that was bad. But you’re addicted to league of legends!? Wow, you have my condolences for sure bro. ? I watched a video the other day about how the cartel in Mexico has destroyed towns, killing and raping women and children. That shit blew my mind, but you’re too scared to practice approaching girls? I thought life was hard in Mexico but it sounds like you really have it bad man. ? Of course I’m teasing but I hope you see the irony in this. Get off your ass and start reading books! Take control of your life! You can do anything. I don’t even know you but I do know that you’re capable of so much more than you believe.

You can cultivate Happiness. That’s what Tibetan Buddhism focuses on. There’s a great book called Happiness written by “The Happiest Man in The World” a Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard. Chickety check it out yo.

This seems like something that you should feel intuitively. You need to be direction oriented and hustle your ass off to develop yourself and your life, but you also need to appreciate this moment and where you’re at on your journey right now. Im sure you’ve heard the famous quote, “Life’s about the journey not the destination.” Focus on your destination and know that’s where you’re going, but be here now for the journey as well. I hope this helps.

I’ve delt with being shy my entire life. Anytime attention was on me in the classroom I’d turn bright red and my nervous system would go into panic mode. Social pressure seems to peirce right through me and reminds me of the feeling I felt as a child, ashamed and embarrassed. I’ve looked into this, I know where it comes from. I realize that I have a limiting belief but I’m not sure how to fix it once and for all. There seem to be surface layer solutions like nofap, practicing socializing, and meditation. These solutions seem to put the problem temporarily at bay but not completely. I feel like the best one was to practice socializing, which may be the answer that I’m looking for. But I’m still curious, how do I actually dissolve this once and for all? Have any of you overcome your social anxiety 100% to where you feel comfortable saying it’s gone out of your life forever? I’d like to only hear from people who have permanently dealt with this problem and please keep the zen riddles to a minimum. ?

See it’s interesting because I feel like I’m supposed to be extrovert. Like I really enjoy being extroverted and I’ve chosen very extroverted careers. I just feel like this problem is bogging me down from really shining ya feel?

@Torkys ultimately, whatever value you pursue you’re pursuing it because you think it’ll bring you some sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, would you agree? Reality is interdependent, so ultimately any suffering you inflict on others is inflicting suffering on yourself. Most people are confused about this and so they don’t realize that when they are harming others, they are harming themselves. And it doesn’t make sense to harm yourself does it? Since you want to be satisfied and fulfilled? We pursue higher consciousness values because they’re inherently helpful and beneficial to others, as well as ourselves.

This is actually really helpful. So when I fee that hot glow, do I ask myself why I feel it while I’m feeling it or anything like that? Or just focus on experiencing that feeling completely?

@OnceMore are you familiar with the work of Dr joe dispenza? He designed meditations for reprogramming your subconscious mind with new beliefs and pruning away at the old beliefs you don’t want to hold anymore. Check out his book “Breaking the habit of being yourself”

@ajasatya that’s dope so is that your life purpose?

Can you guys explain how your domain of mastery is related to your life purpose? Like, explain how your domain of mastery will help you have the impact on the world that you want and also how it fits into your zone of genius.

@saint_charming7 “The need to be liked by others will make you invisible.” -Jim Carrey