Viking

what are your opinions about listening to music during a trip? I know Leo said in a video it's better without music for personal development, Terrence mckenna says the same. But a lot of people actually cant trip without music, or it adds a lot to the experience. Of course I will experiment on my own but what do you think?

@nightrider1435 I actually do all that and I still got a lot of energy, I dont think running the whole day will do the trick lol. Do you know if it will pass? what can I use this energy for except for exercise?

because all of these explanations explain the same equations at the end, and they have not further implications. What I mean by that is take for example general relativity, there were a ton of theories which just explained certain observations, but general relativity predicted results of experiments that have not been yet done. For example general relativity predicted gravitational waves, which no one had any idea before general relativity could exist. Not only did it predict gravitational waves and many other things, people actually proved that these phenomena existed, which makes this theory so strong compared to others.

why do you want to be authentic?

Correct me if im wrong, i may not understand it correctly, but the use of it is like the more complicated law of attraction?

@Joseph Maynor to never be passive in my life, in other words to actively fully engage in every activity, in case I notice I dont do that (i've made this a commitment to myself), to push through resistances to studying and not to halfass anything. the price I will pay is emotional labor required to not be passive. to create free time for myself where I will watch the LP course videos and contemplate them if I feel like there is something to integrate. in most of my left free time instead of entertaining myself with TV or youtube, to read a book about life purpose. the price I will pay is not watching tv shows or youtube entertainment. To meditate every single day 30 minutes and 30 minutes self inquiry (self inquiry starting tomorrow), to try to always be aware of the breath and to go to a sangha. the price I will pay is the emotional labor required to do this every single day in the morning. @Nahm so basically to see life through abundance? is that achieved by being mindful of the mind when it thinks about shortage and being greatful? like journal what happened today that im greatful for? i feel really not honest when I do that (being greatful) those contractions are never more than 2-3 seconds, or maybe i misunderstand what contraction means.

can one backslide if hes meditating daily? what should one do in order not to backslide? i see leo has a vid on this but its fairly old, will watch it though.

@Joseph Maynor succeed in my studies find a life purpose by finishing the LP course and reading books increasing my consciousness and suffer less by meditating everyday and trying to be more mindful to develop self discipline by being mindful of when I have a resistance to do something and doing it. (included in the first 3) these are the only things I work for currently in my life. so basically 3 goals. The first goal is the one that takes the most amount of time, when I have free time I squeeze in the second one, while on weekends I have a lot more time, and the third one I do daily and going to a sangha once a week. @Nahm For example when my meditation and everyday life becomes more filled with unconsciousness than before, when more spontaneous anxiety without any reason arises while previously I was able to see through the anxiety, accept it and it would dissipate. wow, im so sloppy lately, I actually did (kind of) backslide, but the question was more about how to prevent it. im sorry if I dont make sense, my mind is overloaded with stuff and I have to organize things and didnt think yet when to clear things up. Edit- forgot another goal of mine is to keep a healthy body, which I accomplish by gradually improving my diet and exercising a few times a week.

Leo always talks about higher consciousness, especially in the last video (mindblowing video as usual). What is meant by this? higher consciousness eating, higher consciousness relationships, higher consciousness living, etc. What is the difference between that and wisdom? or just "being better"? We talk about consciousness all the time but it's such a loose term I feel like.

@Faceless I didnt understand what you were trying to say, sorry.

@Joseph Maynor *prevent* I didnt yet

can you give some examples?

am i doing it right if the tensions dissolve after 2-3 seconds after I summon/sense them?

changing people is one of the hardest things to do in life. changing your father is almost impossible but changing your sister has some chance. Definitely a useful thing to do is to use the pygmalion effect, give her a sense that she can do everything and expect her to. changing people takes long term effort, to be honest I have no idea how to do it even to 13 year olds, I struggle with my brother myself. all change in action comes from wisdom, if a person has wisdom as to why to do something they will do it. try giving her some knowledge gradually, so she will understand what to do alone. Young people are lazy these days and it will take growing up to really change, ultimately its all them that will do the work.

in the past month I think i've been feeling the best in my life. When I compare how I feel right now compared to my school days all the way from elementary to high school (im 19) I feel so free right now, even though the stress of my studies should be tearing me apart. I feel like whatever will happen i'll be able to embrace it. However, at the same time I feel like that "okness" with life reduced my highs. I think I made a pretty good job describing it in the following graphs: As you can see, the average is better, but the highs are not nearly there. (the vertical axis is not definitely "joy" didnt know how to name it) without these highs, there comes a subtle feeling of lack, and even though I dont really suffer heavily from it, I have the desire to not have that feeling. Sure I may sound contradictory, on the one hand I can embrace stuff and on the other hand I have a desire to change stuff. It's probably because I dont embrace fully enough or dont surrender fully enough to the present moment. I feel like surrendering to the present moment in the short term (for example strong bad emotions for a few seconds) is more or less easy, but keeping that surrender for the long term (like being ok with constant lack) is extremely hard. what do you think about the long vs short term surrender and what do you think I should do (or not do) about the lack feeling (a kind of numbness)?

Leo's latest insight vlog blew my mind a little and gave me a broader understanding of wtf is life, though I try not to believe it to not get sucked too much into that perspective what other teachers do you think look through a ton of different perspectives? I think osho is one because his view on the world is so fucking wise, though im not too familiar with his teaching so I dont know. Do you think some philosophers of ancient greece used this paradigm?

the need for passion is selfish. true passion comes after years of hard, deliberate work. forget about your passion and see what is the most meaningful contribution you can imagine you can contribute to the world. you clearly have to read books, dont expect people on this forum to give you answers that you will understand. when you read a book, you understand a concept much deeper. If you expect the answers on this forum or one line conclusions from a book to solve your problems you are wrong. this all is just directions for your own contemplation. thats why reading a book instead of reading the conclusion of it is much more effective (because you contemplate along with reading the book). you dont know how to create a vision? read a book. by Leo's own words the best book you can ever read is mastery by george leonard. if you ever get stuck in life read a book. another great book is "so good they cant ignore you" by cal newport. I didnt read mastery yet but I did "so good they cant ignore you" and it will shatter you paradigm about passions and your take on life purpose and will definitely clear things up for you regards to your vision I dont have a vision yet, im in the middle of the life purpose course so take my words with a grain of salt and see for yourself, but I think a good, compelling vision is the hardest thing to get. your knowledge should be extremely broad, you have to get great big picture understanding and your vision hones with time, so now you just have to do hard deliberate work(so good they cant ignore you will definitely set you up for that, it will give you a great source as to how to get internal motivation) and go on with life building your vision slowly. by slowly I mean contemplate what you think you want for the world and over time refine refine refine.

lol I think actually it's just the calm before the storm these few months. wow that's actually an extremely great insight, I should try looking at that void that's there, I didnt think about it

@Shin @Leo Gura @AleksM @Shiva great answers so far, and they clearly helped to clear things out But now I think that the lack doesnt really come out of absence of positive feelings, but something I cant seem to explain. I had an insight from a trip a few months ago that no matter how good a certain feeling is, it wont fill that lack/hole whatever, the feeling of that theres something thats missing doesnt get filled by positive emotions. that subject gets touched a lot in the area of life purpose - "fulfillment", and that is a long term thing. I think that even life purpose cant fill that lack. I think the answer to that is to realize that the present moment is all there is, but how does one realize that? I dont think its enlightenment, its slightly different and could be grasped intellectually, I might be wrong though.

@AleksM I exercise regularly, but the happiness pales in comparison to my early days of playing good video games for example.

I recently watched Leo's latest vid on things going full circle and the part about hedonism vs asceticism just blew my mind. I realize I sometimes allow myself to be a little hedonistic and I usually feel bad after it, but I mask it as something good because of the label I put on it. So my question is how far should one go about being ascetic in order to have the best results, after all, not everything is practical, im not gonna go live in a cave right now. so for example I allow myself to watch random youtube videos for enjoyment purely, to eat rarely sugary foods, to procrastinate and so on. I realize that stuff doesnt benefit me much but the positive label on them is very strong. when I think about eating a doughnut for example my mind is just rushed with dopamine and tells me its good, though after the doughnut I feel a bit uncomfortable in the stomach. should I just cold turkey cut out all of that stuff? due to my personality if I really decide to do something its pretty easy to keep up with it so I wont suffer much dropping everything at once. I notice that I allow myself all of that stuff because I have a belief that comes from my parents that at least a little bit of comfort is necessary, without it people just suffer, thats my belief. To what extent is that belief true? is it true at all? to what areas of life is it proper to apply asceticism and to what areas is it not? for example doing stuff you really enjoy like life purpose I guess you shouldnt deny the pleasure from.

I recommend reading the introduction to "so good they cant ignore you" book. Even though it's a career advice book, if you really consider doing it you have to read the intro.

im posting this in this forum 10000 times already because it's so damn important SOO FUCKING IMPORTANT can it be that you get serious results from self inquiry you radiate love? dunno, just a thought. Also consider what's better, a bunch of meditations or a concentrated long one. A zen master told me that doing a bunch of meditations basically is like trying to learn piano guitar and drums by playing 10 minutes piano, 10 minutes guitar and 10 minutes drums and like that for a few hours (im paraphrasing). you wont learn anything. I see youre also kinda deciding your meditations like this: mindfulness to be mindful, love meditation to be more loving, self inquiry to get enlightened and so on. while it might work with life purpose stuff, with spirituality it might not. remember that the point of meditation is to bring it to your daily life! thinking that meditation will bring you to some place is a delusion! you should meditate for the sake of meditating and not for the sake of being mindful, being more loving, etc. you wont get far in my opinion with that kind of mindset (in case that's your mindset). see for yourself and dont believe me. im not even sure if what im saying is bullshit or not im not that advanced myself. contemplate why you really meditate and see if your answer is "to achieve X". I would recommend going on a retreat and seeing for yourself what it really feels like to meditate without the intention to achieve X.

@Alien I went on a single day meditation retreat and that problem of "mechanism" was completely gone. this process is not supposed to be done intellectually, but intuitively! that's why in zen they give koans to participants to tire the intellectual mind and use the intuitive mind. long sessions of meditation help immensely with this. you become so intuitive and answers just flow to you.

@blazed thanks, im considering to buy it anyway