Viking

and how much time the whole process? how much time could you concentrate before the retreat? I have been doing it for about a month and im still at 2 min

i mean.... how can someone not idolize a person like that the question was serious tho

I discovered that some meditation postures could count as yoga, and yoga is very physical. so i wonder if certain meditation positions would produce more gains, are good for strong determination sittings or are more comfortable. and what good postures are there that in your experience were good? could you please share some sites or online courses/videos that introduce to yoga or meditation postures? thanks

@zunnyman very insightful, thanks

@zunnyman is there a vid about the story ?

Taking psychedelics is like throwing a bird off a cliff. If it already knows how to fly, it will immediately start flying and see the view, it will be amazing. If it's a young bird who didnt yet learn to fly, it will either learn to fly midfall with a huge struggle or plummet to its death, either way, the opposite of amazing. I practice (meditation) only 2 months, so i didnt manage to learn how to fly before falling off the cliff. I barely managed to learn how to fly midfall, and that's only because I have some theory. you got lucky your cliff is 1 meter tall. oh and btw- even though i learned how to fly I already forgot. I wont touch psychedelics for at least another year of practice and study.

I heared that highly enlightened people have to keep some desire in order to not physically die, how true is that? how highly enlightened should a person get to be in that state? can you expand on that? why arent people like sadhguru for example dead?

check that out, that's what i meant more or less

I realized how powerful the ego can be, so im wondering if I should do first some shadow work/meditation/focus on creating a life purpose before doing more self inquiry, like gearing up before a boss fight. just how different is liberation with "shadow work/meditation/focus on creating a life" compared to enlightenment? I feel like im in that spot where im ignorant but not ignorant enough to slide into enlightenment more or less without a lot of suffering. can that be the case? or is achieving liberation requires suffering for most people?

I know meditation is the answer but will it actually give full control over the thoughts? to be able to stop them, to make creativity flow in the wanted direction, to get out of a negative loop, is this all really possible? if so, what meditation practices are best for that?

and very important: dont use enlightenment as a means to escape the world you live in and dont rush, take everything with ease. dont underestimate enlightenment, I realized how scary and absurd it can be just recently. this road you chose is not easy at all. you can go literally insane if you dont be careful. dont rush, get some people in real life to support you, meditation retreats and the like (there are free ones). it is very important to not be alone, that's coming from personal experience of a 24/7 loner. Im kind of getting through it, but you might not, take my words seriously please. it is healthy to not be in "spirituality mode" all of the time. at the start at least, to get to know the basics first. im probably exaggerating a bit here, it doesnt have to be scary, my main point is take it slow and be sure to digest all of the stuff really good in the trifinity courses and take it all with fun, as something that at the end will give you 100% well being. have that belief if you can. it is true that life is beautiful, but you gotta realize it for yourself.

@Afonso cool, then I think you will experience immense growth just if you will be able to meditate normally with it. strong determination sitting could be challenging as fuck with that. if you succeed, great spiritual gains i guess.

@Wes Thoughts any meditation works really. im doing that. If you feel like you're skipping then do enlightenment, just to get rid of that feeling. I also kinda feel that enlightenment is really the first thing to do because after realizing yourself all of your ideas about life will change and also goals will, so stuff like life purpose, for me, doesnt resonate at the moment. people misunderstand what is meant by free will. i find it easy to think that way: there is no "you" that can choose stuff, because you are consciousness, therefore no REAL free will. however, your brain acts based on information, and if it sees that it has no free will, it will absorb that information and do something with it. your brain is the thing that does the decisions. because we're identified with it, in other words with beliefs, emotions and thoughts, we think "we" do the choices. but the choices simply happen based on information. it's ok if you dont understand, YOU DONT HAVE TO AT THIS POINT. drop all that free will and all advanced stuff bullshit and just meditate and study. there's stuff u simply cant understand right now and it's ok. the enlightenment course doesnt bring you concepts you dont understand until later on, only then you will understand them, so just do that for now and later you will look back and maybe get it then.

what do you mean by energy? wouldnt energy distract you when you meditate, being restless?

you dont have a memory of it, all there is is only the present moment, all else is thoughts, memory is thought, past and future are thoughts. your consciousness is always the same but mind stuff is clouding it. by mind stuff i mean everything that's in your head, in other words your whole life, thoughts, feelings, senses, everything is in your brain and it's clouding consciousness. when you take substances they affect the brain, making it less cloudy. again, doesnt affect consciousness, affects the brain and what "you" perceive. the "you", as you probably know is also mind stuff. it's what consciousness perceives. on other note, how could matter create consciousness? think about it, if there's an objective world with only matter in it, how could there possibly be consciousness? it's kind of a mental jump to assume that. think about it in terms of instead objective world and in it consciousness, first comes consciousness and creates your world, everything will make much more sense then. if you will see from that point of view much more stuff will make sense, and that will make you more convinced than you are right now. https://www.trinfinityacademy.com/ i suggest look at the courses in this site. they're free and will clear a lot of stuff for you.

of course it's not special, it's all there is, but WHY is it more exciting than family, love, cookies, fun video games, sex, etc.? I get that all of those things are a part of being when it's their "turn", but lets say im doing nothing right now, why is that more fulfilling than all of those emotions that are pleasant to me when i get the things i love? i kinda understand that i have to experience it to know it really, but i think an explanation might progress me there.

@MiracleMan I think you lack structure, https://www.trinfinityacademy.com/ is a a bunch of structured courses that bring you to what you want. if there comes a time when you feel fear the "trick" you were looking for is like you said- surrender, means that you just accept whatever happens and not try to deny that there's fear or try to correct it. but I think it's pretty hard to surrender right into enlightenment on the spot, requires practice.

@Wormon Blatburm thank you very much, you broadened my view.

A common misconception is that good feelings give happiness. When the ego realizes that good feelings are finite, after some time he thinks "oh, that's it?", which then creates a depressive mood. imagine your best possible feeling, that is finite and if repeated will get boring with time, so you will want more. what the ego really wants is constant satisfaction. So my questions are: can an ego achieve constant satisfaction? or at least almost constant satisfaction? Does infinity(or enlightenment, whatever) give us that satisfaction we seek, since all finite things are not enough? Do we by becoming desireless, fulfill the absolute desire? (because there are no desires to fulfill, all of them are fulfilled - 0 desires) I think the "motivation" for getting enlightened, is that theres nothing else to do, because everything is finite, so not worth pursuing. basically EVERY desire is finite and therefore not worth pursuing, so what is there else to do in life but "just to live". you "just live" by removing the source of the desires, and by removing the source of the desires you remove the desire to remove the source of the desires. what are your thoughts about this? note- the post might look a bit messy because in the middle of writing it i realized desire is a thing of the ego.

@Kazman I didnt read all of it, just the day 3 part and I think i experienced the same, on psychedelics though, exactly as you describe it, but a little less intense than you described it, just peaceful. just pure acceptance of what is, surrender and the obviousness, after extreme fear. you managed to describe it much better than I did. https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/13882-what-did-i-experience/

is it an exponential growth of effectiveness with time from your own experience? is there a sweet spot?

@Joseph Maynor did you have any no self experiences? do you experience joy or bliss on a daily basis and do negative emotions affect you at all?

@Empty well why bother self actualizing at all if you can say that all of it is a projection of your mind. this question was more to get a better theoretical grip of presence in order to know how to experience it more clearly.

I see this statement everywhere, and i dont know if to agree because its just a belief, what are your thoughts about it?

@Wormon Blatburm right, that's exactly what I think, it's just that in some teachings they say that the one wants to express himself, maybe thats just a way to visualize and understand conceptually whats happening as to give a temporary purpose to those who are on the path.