Emerald

Life purpose is much more extensive than a single goal. It has a lot more to do with what you have to give throughout your entire life, than establishing a particular lifestyle or meeting a particular goal. This is too narrow a scope. Your life purpose is only completed upon your death, unlike a single goal which is more like a single component of your life. Your main idea should be "What impact do I want to have on the world which fits with my values?"

I am a very competitive person. (There can only be one highlander!!!!) I normally don't consciously feel this in relation to enlightenment and seeking, as I'm the only person in my life who is interested in these pursuits. But seeing so many people thinking in the same direction, ignites my competitive spirit and feels somewhat disempowering like a weird aftertaste to an otherwise delicious food. Anyone else having these little flashes of egoic bitterness? If so, it's probably normal, so don't get discouraged. Press on.

This definitely falls in the Philosophy section. But I would imagine that, as our society evolves, systems that are out of alignment will naturally crumble as they will no longer be creating benefit to humanity or universal expansion. At one point in time, Capitalism was an evolution on what was before, and at some point in time we will likely move past it. But society doesn't seem ripe for it quite yet. But this is speculation, and doesn't really relate to consciousness work as much as it does theory and social change.

I don't have much experience with this. But from what I understand, if a person has sex or masturbates without climaxing, this can build sexual energy which will then take shape and manifest from the higher chakras relating to expression, intuition, and spirituality as opposed to the lower chakras which relate to reproduction, connection, and self. So, the idea is to build sexual energy but not to release, so that it can be transmuted to the children of your mind instead of the children of your loins. This practice has been used a ritual in Tantra as well as Alchemy. There is a group of guys who are involved in a thing called NOFAP where they abstain from masturbation. But I'm not sure if this is geared toward this sort of transmutation of energy or if it's more about breaking an addiction.

Thank you for this.

I had two "enlightenment experiences" when I was 20. Prior to that, my main objective in life was to grow myself in order to both self-actualize and pursue my career. I wanted to add value to my identity, which I thought would bring me fulfillment. When the second experience happened, I realized that this adornment of self and trying to add value to myself was what was keeping me from the profound sanity and happiness that was inherent to these experiences. The thing that I was doing to fulfill myself was sending me in the opposite direction of fulfillment. Prior to those experiences, life was simple. Anything that added value to my self-concept and brought me closer to success, was good and worth pursuing. Anything that took away value from my self concepts and kept me from success, was bad and not worth pursuing. After that experience, I felt conflicted no matter which direction that I went in. I either felt bad that I was pursuing success or bad that I wasn't pursuing success. Then sometimes, I'd feel proud of myself or good about an accomplishment, only to quickly remind myself that this was the reason why I'm suffering which made me feel bad. So, I spend years stagnating, pulling my punches, not growing myself, and trying to be a non-person. It was hell. But this came from lack of understanding and lack of awareness. My experiences were catalyzed artificially through use of an entheogen. So, it temporarily enabled me to extend my awareness into things that I would normally resist and make myself unconscious to. So, the insight that my identity and goals were keeping me from happiness, became abstract once I was back to my normal awareness level. I wasn't wise enough to understand it yet. So, my recommendation is to continue growing yourself without any resistance. Let the ego do what it does. If you're able to allow anything that comes up and shine your awareness on it, your internal wisdom will let you know what is worth pursuing and what is not. I have come to the conclusion that some of my goals that I had were inauthentic but other goals that I have are authentic. It's just radical open-ness and awareness that allows you to see what's right to pursue. Never force yourself to quit pursuing anything that you're passionate about... but be mindful and aware of your internal state and motivations as you pursue it.

My recommendation is to try out the pickup. I think your avoidance of pick-up (as well as putting yourself in a position where sleeping with a woman won't happen) is the result of fear of rejection and likely has a lot to do with unconscious attitudes of feeling like women hold all the cards in sex. You may fear being rejected by women because you think it means something intrinsically about your worth, when it doesn't. Women can have any number of reasons to say yes or no, most of which have nothing to do with the asker's worth or her opinion of the asker. The media often portrays women as being the gatekeepers of sex and holding all the power in the attraction dynamic, but this isn't true. When a woman is interested in you, she likely has a ton of self-doubt as well unless she's fairly promiscuous and is a kind of pick up artist herself. As a woman, if I were single and I were socially expected to be the approacher, I would have a ton of trouble doing it even with the knowledge that guys would be more likely to say yes. So, I would learn a few techniques, go out to the club once or twice a week and try it out. Don't let it consume your life, or anything. Once you get past your fear of rejection and see that women are not all-powerful in the field of relationships and sexuality, your problems in this area will be part of the past. You just have to tear it off all in one go like a band-aid. Once you do, reality will replace illusion and the fear of rejection and sexual incompetence will go away naturally. But you have to make the jump. You'll be glad that you did. But don't worry about being rejected at the club, read up on signs of attraction in women. Approach a woman (by herself and NOT in a group) in a more platonic way at first. Ask for a dance if you're at the club or if she'd like a drink or something like that. She'll get that you're interested in her because of the nature of the club. She'll know what you want because that's what clubs are for, for the most part. So, if she says yes, then dance with her or buy her a drink. If she says no, find someone else. You'll eventually get a taker. As you're dancing, touch her in a platonic place (shoulders, hands, brush her hair from her face). If she seems okay with it and moves closer, move your hands to her hips or waist. With every step you make, read her reaction. If she meets your advance then raise her one. Eventually, ask her if she wants to go some place quieter where you can talk. If she says yes, she undoubtedly already knows what you want and chances are she'll get physical with you to some degree if not go all the way. If she says no, ask her for a rain check and her phone number. So, basically you want to put yourself in a situation where you never have to be rejected in a painful way by easing your way into your advance. It isn't a binary thing where you walk up to a woman and her friends the loudly shout "WILL YOU HAVE SEX WITH ME!" then she shouts back "NEVER! YOU CREEP!" Then her and all of her girlfriends make fun of you and throw rotten tomatoes at you. It's more like you reading her reactions to see what she wants or doesn't want you to do. It's not about her wanting you or not wanting you, it's about her wanting you to do something or not wanting you to do something. So, instead of having to think 'She doesn't want me' it becomes 'I don't think she wanted her hips touched, that's okay.' or 'She didn't want a drink, that's okay.' So, doing it this way takes the pressure off. But even if she says no to you, also know that women are often quite flattered by being approached (appropriately/not cat-calling) by a man. This method will work in a more platonic environment too... but you have to start out much more platonic and the arc of your 'game' will take a bit longer because it will have more steps to it. At a club, you can cut to the chase a bit quicker.

My husband is from Hungary... Szekesfehervar to be specific. What is the name of your village?

I have a very colorful friend who is a flight attendant in Dubai.

Enlightenment is the opposite of a conditioned state of mind. It is sought through removing assumptions that stem from our conditioning. So, it is an unconditioned state of being... the only unconditioned state of being.

Hello. I know that Leo has a video called "How to Deal with Strong Negative Emotions" that I think would be very helpful for you. So, definitely check that out. I just made a video about how to heal from trauma, where I talk about how emotional symptoms come up for the purpose of helping heal and reintegrate. All we have to do is accept the emotions and focus our awareness on them. So, I'll go ahead and post it here in case it's helpful.

I think that there's a deeper question to ask. The question is "What would be so bad if I weren't normal?" Now, on one hand, mental health is very important. So, if you have a particular reason to ask this other than just a hypothetical fear, then definitely address it. But on the other hand, when I've had this line of thinking in the past, I was worried about being perceived as abnormal. I was worried that others would see me as crazy and weird, and that I'd be some sort of social pariah. So, it was primarily a fear of not being able to fit in or be seen in the light that I'd like to be seen in. Also, fear of missing out on many social benefits because of my abnormality. It has been the source of much social anxiety for me. I think it stemmed from having a mentally challenged sister, and wondering at a young age if she realized... and if she didn't realize, then I could be disillusioned too. So, I always had this background fear.

Most definitely! I'm reading up on personas right now. Great stuff!

Thank you!

Thank you! It's a great point that the ego is a very naturally occurring collective illusion. So, it's difficult to see through it because everyone is so used to believing it and all of our habits and understandings are ingrained in that illusion.

From what I understand of enlightenment and the experiences that I've had, enlightenment has a lot to do with surrender, receptivity, being, wisdom, and allowing. These are all Yin qualities that are linked closely with the feminine principle. The opposite, Yang/masculine principle value are conquering, communication, doing, knowledge, and manipulation of the environment respectively. So, I would imagine that the techniques are similar for people of both sexes. But people who have a generally more feminine or Yin-based M.O. would probably have an easier time reaching enlightenment. But these are qualities that can be developed in every individual. Meditation and consciousness work in a nutshell is about cultivating Yin, in contrast to our general cultural conditioning of Yang which is dominant in our societies at this point in human development.

I have a Youtube channel that I would like to promote better to get more traffic to my channel. I've read a lot of internet sources and found a couple effective methods (ranking high in search through keyword and tags and promoting on Youtube and other place my target audience gathers). Any other advice that you could offer? Thanks.

I have experienced this too. It can be a rough transition because it's sort of like learning that Santa Claus doesn't exist to the power of ten. But it's good, because it will yield you more sobriety and happiness in life to live in a state of open-ness. Best of luck on your journey!

A good litmus test for enlightenment is to explore your feelings relative to dying and being forgotten. If you fully accept with full appreciation and love (and I mean fully, even if it were to happen at this very moment) that you will die and be forgotten (even if you were forgotten by your loved ones). This is the level of detachment I had during my experiences.. temporary though they were.

Unfortunately, I don't. My mom would, but I haven't studied hypnotherapy or self-hypnosis personally.

Seeing the parliament building from across the water at night was one of the most beautiful cityscapes I've ever seen. We didn't get a chance to go to any of the bath houses, when we went a few years ago but it's on the to-do list for the future. The bath houses actually come from the Turkish influence in Hungary since Turkey occupied Hungary for a reasonable chunk of time... if memory serves. The Buda castle is really pretty too.

Have you been to Budapest? My husband is originally from Szekesfehervar which is about an hour away from Budapest. It's a beautiful city.

@Huz88 I woke up last night at 4:30 to do an hour long sit. I got interrupted 34 minutes into it because my son woke up, so I didn't make it to the end. I didn't notice too much of a difference. Maybe I was a little sleepier and had the lurch that Shinzen Young was talking about a few times. But I usually sit at around 9:30 pm for an hour, so I tend to get sleepy during my sits because I try to go to bed by 11:00. I think I was a bit too close to being fully awake because I happened to accidentally fall asleep at the same time as the kids (9:00). So, I had already had 7.5 hours of sleep by the time I got up. So, I'll try again tonight at an earlier time like 3:00, so it's more in the middle of sleep.

Thank you!

I've been making baby steps and modest gains toward all of my goals, but it's slow going in some areas. I have to focus more on creating a better quality product for my business. I'm a YouTuber and I have about 25 channel improvements that I still need to implement. I think my content is informative and helpful but I need better delivery, habits, production quality, scheduling, channel bumper, etc. to make it more professional looking and engaging. But my numbers are doing pretty good relative to where I was two months ago. I get 5 to 10 new subscribers every day in contrast to the 1 or 2 that I used to get. My diet, I switched to a plant-based diet. Now I want to focus on eating a lot more raw and creating interesting and healthy meals for my family and I. I have a morning routine that includes a Yoga practice and a night routine that incorporates an hour of meditation. So, I have a lot of puzzle pieces... I just have to bring them all together in a more cohesive way.