Viking

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?

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

Im reading right now "so good they cant ignore you" and the first rule there is "dont follow your passion". Basically the concept is that what we're passionate about doesnt necessarily will get us the most fulfilling work. on the other hand there's Joseph Campbell that says to follow your bliss into the hero's journey. I never really understood the follow your bliss part and how do you know what your bliss is, but on the surface it seems like it contradicts the "dont follow your passion" rule. is there a difference between passion and bliss? It happens quite often that different sources of information give out opposite answers and you never know what to believe. ("believe" because a lot of this is counter-intuitive and cannot be really contemplated alone without falling into some traps I think)

@blazed did he review them in the booklist ?

who told you that you will go into infinity when you die? wtf is infinity anyway? And I didnt understand what you're asking. did you ask if enlightenment is an ego distraction? what isnt in your life an ego distraction?

@blazed lol sure, this idea just helps to know what to do. you will never be free of suffering except if you have no desires though habits help

such as eating unhealthy food, watching tv series, youtube, etc. what will one gain from abstaining completely from that if he will at all gain something? or do you think one should allow oneself enjoy that stuff in limited amounts? or should one work on his understanding that there are better things to do with that time gradually?

@blazed I came to the conclusion that when you have a decision to make if to indulge or not you should center yourself (like being mindful of your breath) and see what you think is the best thing long term to do that will bring the most happiness. you might find that you dont have enough wisdom to not abstain from a pleasure, therefore by all means indulge in the pleasure. a rule of thumb is do the thing that makes you feel good about doing it. for example I want to eat pizza, but I know I will feel weak afterwards, so I will feel good about the decision not to eat it, so I dont. However if I dont associate pizza with weakness afterwards and I didnt think deeply how eating pizza might affect my health, if I was just told not to eat pizza "because it's bad" I would feel bad or disappointed about not eating the pizza. it's all about wisdom and consciousness.

@egoless follow your bliss. what feels like the best thing to do? also what do you mean by "hardcore spirituality" and how do you quantify spiritual advancement? and obviously personal development includes spirituality (why would you do it then if it wouldnt develop you). what do you define as "personal development"? life purpose? if so, if there is a conflict between your life purpose and your spirituality, probably one of them is inauthentic, I think you got a bunch of limiting beliefs there that you are not conscious of. in conclusion, i think that you bullshit yourself somewhere and you gotta unravel that net of bullshit. (I might be wrong though, you decide) you could always try some psychedelics to get that bullshit to the surface.

@Ether you got it backwards, by being happy and living in the present moment there is a realization.

@Ether exactly! enlightenment doesnt change shit!

To answer the question, I would guess doing the same as without "achieving" it, living my life purpose. though probably my need for contribution would increase dramatically. a great video about the achievement of enlightenment:

@Ether lol why emotions is a requirement for enjoying the moment, they are rather a distraction.

My only interaction with people is during weekends a little bit with my family and during the week a tiny bit mostly through the phone for university homework assignments and so on. absolutely most of the time I dont interact with people. I feel great about it, I got used to it and I never feel lonely. Most of my time goes to studying and self development. is that ok? my social skills are not great but not too bad. I cant imagine doing anything more worth the time than self development work like studying, contemplating, reading etc. Im aware that social interaction is included in self development but I feel like the things I do are more important. Maybe I lack the wisdom to understand otherwise, please enlighten me if so.

@Privet lol the first good answer i've seen, thanks man! im 1.5 weeks in btw (im a good boy)

actually a lot of people do know about general concepts like "we dont know who we are" or "other people dont exist", it's just that their understanding is too shallow therefore they arent interested in that. for example I talked about meditation with my friends and they have a bunch of concepts about it and most of them said it's bullshit, until I explained what it actually is and then they were like "holy shit it's actually pretty legit". it's not that they dont know, they dont know enough. they categorize all this as "philosophy" which is linked with "boring and useless" so here you go..

@Privet but I cant control fantasizing and my staring, though I try to be mindful of that. so are we talking about addiction or abstaining from ejaculation? why do all this? im so confused. Its so hard to tell if its a placebo or not. is the end result self control?