Serge

Contemplation ≠ mental masturbation. Only mental masturbation = mental masturbation . You make the mistake of believing that time and reality are not within yourself and, therefore, cannot be investigated. Also, I don't recommend doing stuff just because you "need to do this". You will abandon the habit and become frustrated. Have reasons for "why you're doing what you're doing". Don't go unconscious.

Oh, that's a simple one! Love them.

Nope, just let the thought be. Control you do not have over it, padawan... Just stay aware and be patient. All those judgements that pop up, serve you right now a purpose. Interpret those thoughts as signs and try to ask yourself: "Why do I have those thoughts?". What needs to happen to you, is the realization that judgements make you suffer in the end. If you don't realize it, you will continue doing it and feel helpless about it. And how do you come to the realization? Patience and awareness. Also, I'd recommend watching Leo's video: Awareness Alone Is Curative.

Because it makes me feel like a Jedi. (not kidding )

I read yesterday something from OSHO, and he was talking about concentration vs meditation. When you're looking for a "thing" you're by definition concentrating. You're in the mind. You don't have to look anywhere, that's the point. Just completely relax and concentrate on nothing (don't concentrate). Just let everything pass in. Become open to everything.

@egoless What Leo's trying to say is that all beliefs are false. They live in the mind. And anything that lives in the mind is not real. You can imagine an unicorn in your mind, as well as an atom. Materialism is just a model. The fact that you can hit your head over the wall and injure yourself doesn't prove materialism. The only thing it proves is - the fact that you hit your head over the wall and injured yourself. The experience = the experience, everything that is - just is. No more layers needed. Your focus shouldn't be on the attempt of explanation of reality, but on reality itself. The explanation is just a pointer. Focus on what it points to. And what it points to doesn't live in the mind. It's an experience.

@Socrates @Leo Gura Guys it's just freaking crazy... My mind is literally fucked up now! I've been in the rationalist paradigm for most of my 22 years, but especially in the last 2 years. I was a hardcore fundamentalist. Harris, Hitchens, Dawkins, Dillahunty, Tyson, Krauss - those were my idols. I used to watch thousands of their debates thinking "those are the good guys spreading the Truth". I felt like I know what reality is for 100%, and it's all clear. Then, thanks to the fact that I accidentally stumbled upon Actualized.org, I got to a point that I wanted to kill myself, and a bud got me, for split-sec out of my paradigm. That was enough. Now I'm trying to always admit that I'm constantly in a paradigm and trying to be conscious of it as much as possible. But I haven't watched any of those videos again since my depression. Now @Socrates shared the link of the Harris vid and my jaw dropped. Fuck me. I literally see the bubble Harris is in. I see how he plays his game with himself, working to fulfill his own prophecy, UNCONSCIOUSLY. It's horrible... and sad... Harris, my ass... The guy I once thought has got it all. @Leo Gura, just thank you, man. For everything. You're LITERALLY the person that made more for me in my entire life than ANYTHING else. And it's not just an emotional splash, I truly mean it. P.S. Science is just a human-created appearance. The true source of wisdom lives within you. All the answers are there. All the knowledge and discoveries humans made throughout history were extracted from there.Scientists apply their method, thanks to which they accidentaly tap into infinite wisdom inside of each of us, but they're unaware of it! They think it's science that led them to understanding! Science is just an illusion. Unfortunately, no word can make you understand it, you have to experience it for yourself. P.S.S. I'm not in anyway mocking science. I'm just expressing my amazement about the course my life has taken ! Peace!

So here I am watching Leo's last video "Why Brains Do Not Exist" and the idea strikes me "what does is it mean for something to be material/physical?". So I look up into the good ol' dictionary the word "matter" (because material = made of matter). And, it says: "matter - the substance or substances of which any physical object consists". After reading that I immediately felt the exact thing that I experienced whtn Leo was talking about "before Big Bang, before God, where does the brain exist?". Because what is matter made of ? And, as you probably expect, what is the thing out of which matter is made of made of ? We can go on forever. There's the assumption in the scientific world that "the matter just exists" out of which the scientific paradigm is created. It's just one way out of the many more (probably infinite) ways to look at the world. So the short version of my insight would be "If reality is made of matter, what is matter made of?". That was one of my takeaways of the today's video, so I thought it might be interesting for someone.

@Edvard Stop the black and white thinking. We were talking about the candy situation, and you brought up the heroin addiction. Heroin is far much damaging than candies, and a person with heroin addiction's mind is far more unhealthy than yours. As for nicotin, depending on how much the person is smoking, I would advise the same thing as I did to you. But you don't understand me. All you hear is: "So you tell me I drop all my discipline and eat all the candy I want and my problem will go away by itself!". That's not what I'm telling you. What I'm telling you is that your current strategy won't work because you're not treating the cause of the disease, but it's symptoms. Your trying to apply discipline. And what you call discipline is a collection of artificial neurotic SHOULDS in your life. Have you asked yourself why the cravings keep appearing? Why you can't help stopping eating candies? Have you really really contemplated, like spent about 100 hours on contemplating about this only question? But you won't because you find it nonsense. You're looking for a quick fix, a shortcut, something PRACTICAL. Don't get surprised then if you get stuck in the same behaviour. Are you aplying discipline, restraining yourself, looking for motivational words, fight cravings to help you not to kill people? Again, stop your black and white thinking.

@Edvard You don't understand. The fact that you have the craving already means that the unconscious you has no problem eating candies. The reason you're currently giving yourself for not eating candies is ungrounded. With your current strategy, they're never going to vanish. And the idea that you hold that they actually will disappear is an illusion. The process you're calling "negotiate with yourself" is never useful, because it implies willpower. Willpower will never totally solve your problems. And the motivational words you're looking for are just neurotic fuel that won't work long term. Your problems lie far beyond your candy problem. It's a web of limiting beliefs you have to work on. If you do the work consistently, you will be amazed how all of your "bad habits" will go away by themselves. Devote yourself to the self-actualization process if you want long term life fulfillment.

Try to make them think and contemplate. Instead of spoiling the answers to them and giving the 1-2-3-4 step techniques - ask them questions. When you ask a person a question, you make his mind work. When you tell a person the answer - you make him remember the sound of the words. It's like instead of teaching the child to solve math problems, you give them the number of the page at which he can find the answers. So your dialogue might look like: FRIEND: Can you help me leave smoking? YOU: Why do you think you want to leave smoking? FRIEND: Because it's unhealthy. YOU: And you smoke anyways. Why you've come to me if you already have a reason to quit smoking ? FRIEND: I don't know. It just doesn't work (shows desperation). And THIS is the moment when he is much more open to listening than before. You have to learn to feel when your words are going to penetrate his mind and when they're not. There are certain states of mind when we're truly listening and embodying information, not just hearing words and trying to integrate them into our current paradigm. If you want to help someone, you have to make them want to change their paradigm. Because you see, you tell him a technique and how he should do it, but he doesn't have the DEEP understanding of that technique. He's just going to follow your advice as a matter of how he has adapted it into his paradigm. And it will never work! Because the paradigm remained the same!

That's the problem when you change. See, before your change began, you constructed your relationship according to your preferences and now, suddenly, all those people begin to be too different from you. It's normal. Personally, when I was depressed, I was very lucky to have a friend who was into spirituality/self-actualization to get me out of it. So I think that you would benefit from relationships with high-consciousness people and, believe me or not, you will develop those relationships. Your mind will do it for you . (but don't take it as a belief). Leo's forum is amazing, but I would recommend you to go to a spiritual retreat/satsang/seminar. Those events are filled with lots of people you might find interesting. You'd spend some money, but the gain you'll get will be much bigger. Also, I would recommend you to watch Leo's video about loneliness. It'll give you some really useful theory to keep in mind.

My advice would be to go eat that candy. And anytime you want to eat a candy - eat it. And after you eat it, don't shame yourself, because your shame is artificial and ego-created and also a sign of unacceptance of reality. By using merely your willpower you're never going to fix your issues definitely. After a certain amount of time you're going to backslide. It's all because you're trying to fix a behaviour without fixing the cause of the behaviour. And, in your case, the cause is unconscious belief that there's no problem eating candy, there's no reason why you wouldn't do it. You can tell yourself any amount of times you REALLY want to get rid of this habit, but your behaviour will always spoil your deepest desire. So how would you fix your problem? Contemplation and awareness. Contemplate on "Why do I not want to eat candy?", "What made me decide that I want to drop candies from my diet?". And question every answer that comes up. Get to the bottom of the things.

@vizual Yeah, taking this idea as an intelectual paradigm would be just the same as taking materialism as one. I think that one purpose of this realization would be to tell you : "Be conscious that there's an infinite amount of paradigms out there, and the one you're locked in isn't the only one.".

@vizual I get you, but the point is that you can ask the question "What is X made of?" forever. Even if the scientists discover that "core", nothing stops you from asking "what is that core made of?". Eventually, you'll have to stumble to the idea that everything that exists - just exists.

@Hard_Agent I've experienced almost EXACTLY what you did. From God to Devil. And when it happened the first time I was feeling too that everything collapses and I was trying hard to keep the shit together. The worst thing possible. Dont try hard to do anything to it. Let it be. In fact, the more you're trying to "get back in that state" - the worse you're doing. As Leo said, it will most probably happen again and again. You're just scared now, because it's your first time. For me, it works in the following way: 1. I get depressed and that "God state" fades away. 2. I become unconscious about it and try hard to return. 3. I wake up and realize that my depression = unconsciousness. 4. I let stuff be. 5. My consciousness raises back step by step and before I know it I'm back in the "God state" (usually every time it's crazier and crazier). 6. Some stuff that the "old me" has experienced happens (i.e. I meet an old friend or re-experience something I did in the past [before self-actualization]) and I unconsciously start getting in my old patterns and gradually become depressed. 7. = 1. And so it goes ! As my first "awakening" happened about 50 days ago, as I recall, this cycle repeats itself, in average, every week. I don't know how long it's going to last in the future, but everytime I get depressed I learn something new and I can feel my consciousness expanding. So don't worry, it's PERFECTLY NORMAL. You just have to teach yourself to let your depression be and realize that it's just you being on autopilot, unconsciously running on your old patterns. Don't become scared of suicidal thoughts. I think of them as my friends now! Although they used to scare the shit out of me. Also, it's not "pseudo-nirvana". It is, as Leo would phrase it, a 0.000001% taste of what's possible .

In the last days I'm experiencing some crazy states of consciousness. I feel like I'm getting more and more detached. Everything feels like people describe it. Phrases like "I'm approaching oneness" and "everything is a symbol" (I guess it's comfortable for my ego to name God/Awareness - symbol) come to mind. Sometimes I think that I'm going crazy, but it lasts just for a couple of seconds, then I'm diving right back. But I'm really afraid (and a part of me realizes that it's the ego being afraid) of where it's all going. I've never experienced that. Where does this road lead? What's going to happen? How will my life be different ? Will I, after experiencing the Absolute, do nothing in my life ? Guys, I'm conscious that it's ego playing games, but not conscious enough (because I'm writing this on the forum ), so I could use some words of encouragement! Please

Thanks guys! "If you can name everything as a "thing", then everything is the same thing." Just came up with this.

I am the total opposite of this Sometimes I might spend 5 minutes on a sentence and before I know it I become so creative that I find myself writing insights after insights. Learning = Observation vibes. On the other hand, when I think about watching videos on 2x speed I get the "multitasking" feeling. As though it takes away the "beginner's mind".

Contemplate the word "translate". The appearance of the word doesn't matter. It's just a symbol. A pointer. They are just bridges from the duality realm to non-duality. What matters is your understanding of the word. That "cling" you feel after asking yourself "What does X mean?".* When you're asking "Does Shiva has direct translation in English?", you're unconsciously implying that for some word to mean something, it needs a certain group of people to write it in a dictionary. Words don't have inherent meanings. It's us who create meanings and assign them to words, as a matter of convenience and ease, to facilitate communication. Don't use your conceptual mind to understand words, use your intuition! * If you don't feel the "cling" it basically means that you don't know what you're talking about.

@Soulbass OMG that avatar though :DDDDDDDDDDDDD I am sorry for offtopic, but I just couldn't help myself!

I totally agree with Leo here! That's you speaking from your fear now, and that's the worst motivation possible. I suggest you do research about writing. Find out what it takes to become a great writer, what makes a great writer. What are the ways the writers make money for living? Try to connect writing to your other values and, therefore, create something unique and special. As for books being a dying art - I disagree. Artistic books is one of the most "hardcore" ways to develop your imagination. And it can be fun! I find artistic books a pretty high-consciousness product. (it all depends on the way you use it!) Also, personally I prefer physical books. I feel that when I'm reading from my PC/phone I feel a lot less focused, because, probably, at my current state of consciousness my PC and my phone are associated with lots of other activities and my subconscious mind goes all around, leaving much less focus for capturing the information. But with physical books there's much less activities associated with them. It's like when I hold a book I feel much more "into it". Additionaly, I feel like every book has it's own "feel", especially after you've read a couple of pages. In the case of digital books your mind has to conceptualize much more to create this feeling.

As I'm writing this post, I'm contemplating about truth. What is it? A part of me tells me that it is just a human made concept and yet, when I'm thinking about the statement "The truth doesn't exist", it implies the fact that this statement is either true or not. Quite and interesting paradox/mindfuck :D. Or is the issue with the word/concept "exists" ? What do we mean by this word? If we mean "occurs in our consciousness" or "we experience it", then the truth definitely exists. We definitely experience truth, don't we ? If I look at my cat and say "It's true that I see my cat" - I experience something. It "feels" true to me that I see my cat. But is it real ? Is me seeing my cat - reality ? But what is reality then ? Isn't reality - everything that I experience? So then does everyone has his/her own reality? Is truth relative? Or is there something independent of the experiencing agent? Maybe there is something "absolute" that everyone can access? But what would make it absolute? The fact that everyone could access it? How would we know that that is THE TRUTH ? How would we distinguish TRUTH from truth ? Or is it just the borderline of our minds ? Do we reach the limit of our thinking at this point ? We are not our minds/thoughts. So there might be something else beyond thinking that I can't access at the moment. There's got to be, right ?

@Leo Gura Thank you! I think it's time to watch your "Advanced Tips For Self-Inquiry" video @Serotoninluv Haha At least you're at peace now with this :DDD @BjarkeT :DDDDD That was funny! @Nahm Yeah, I've arrived! :DD But hell, I like it!

I would also add the words "Yes" and "No" to the list.