Ethan_05

Sounds kind of life self-inquiry, is that what type of questioning it was with a partner. From what I know, I'm not exactly sure, but I think that the peter ralston one isn't as simple as this. I think Peter Ralston gives a lecture kind of thing and then people contemplate different topics(the nature of self, reality, and understanding the mechanisms of the conceptual self) but with rigorous structure as well.

What's the standard? I think they do multiple hours of contemplation into the nwture of being, in both individual and group sessions with Peter leading and speaking.

I just listened to Sam Harris today and his recent interview with Russell Brand. I had to stop listening to it because Harris kept on interrupting Brand non-stop in order to insert his ideologies into what valuable information Russell Brand had to say. His ego was getting really fired up and he was disagreeing with basically everything Brand said. The only thing I fear, well not really but what I think might be happening, is that quite a few people take Leo's information as an ideology because they've never experienced it themselves. I haven't experienced my true nature yet, and I'm just beginning to delve into the workings of the conceptual self with Peter Ralston's contemplation habit, but I'm trying my hardest to develop strong epistemic guiding principles such as always having a healthy dose of skepticism when I hear something for the first time.

@electroBeam I semi-agree, hear me out. How you stated that being dogmatic(or charismatic with one's opinions) doesn't imply a cult, that seems to be a logical conclusion. I especially like how you added in about how many people these days choose laziness and don't want to do the work for themselves. That's probably quite a bit of Leo's following just because this work is so hard to do. On the other hand, I don't think the fear is what's keeping one from self realization. This could my ego talking, but I want to make sure something's safe before I try it. On one side I've heard of some information published about how oxygen deprivation could have an effect on the brain in which a limited number of brain cells are killed, but I also recognize that doing this kind of inner work may have potential benefits such as relieving anxiety, depression, and psychological struggles that are deeply rooted within ourselves. I guess the real question is, do the positives outweigh the negatives. Do I want to take this small risk of oxygen deprivation in order to reap the benefits of turning inward in a direct and powerful way. That's up to you.

Any ideas of quality books or courses on epistemology, Leo? I have the book list but it seems that most of the books are related to epistemology with regards to science(the philosophy of science).

I don't know if Leo is ever going to read this or reply in any way. It would be awesome if he does comment on this conversation, but I think that there are many other like-minded people that could also had valuable information into this discussion. After I started writing this I realized that it starts out in a way that seems to be in the life purpose topic, but I thought it would fit better in this section because I want to have a conversation about epistemology and knowledge on a deep yet practical level. It's quite long, but I think we can start a deep conversation, so here we go: I'm just a high school student with a common dilemma, what should I do with my life. I guess I see myself as different from my peers in a few ways. Everyone appears, or at least puts on the facade that they have their life purpose figured out. They know what field they want to go into and they're applying to colleges right now in order to further they're career in those fields. I on the other hand, have on fucking clue what I want to do with my life. Not because I have no passions, but because I'm very cautious and don't want to throw myself whole-heartedly into a career that doesn't suit me only to realize that I made the wrong decision later in life. I've known exactly what I want to do with my life many times before only to come to the realizations that this is not what I want to do, I'm passionate about something else. I wanted to be a pro-golfer when I was younger, then I said I needed to be more practical and become a computer programmer, than a blogger, etc. etc. etc. Now for quite some time i've been pursuing inner work and have even started a blog and youtube channel promoting people to take action in meditation, and existential inquiry. This is something that I enjoy doing, just reading books, learning about new things, and becoming excited about the possibilities of discovering aspects of myself that go undiscovered in most. My true nature. Wow that's exhilarating - until you sit on the meditation cushion and your ego say "I don't like this very much" and comes up with a tricky and elaborate subconscious plan to stop you from doing this important work. (Even this post right now in this forum is a way that I'm avoiding doing Contemplation as taught by Peter Ralston.) Thus with my career dilemma and interest in doing deep existential contemplation I'm starting to think that a deep understanding of epistemology is a great start on the path of spirituality work. Not in believing an ideology, but in taking action and having direct experience in an effective way. The reason I'm writing in this forum is because I don't know where to start in learning about epistemology. I read Peter Ralston's The Book of Not Knowing and I understand that he teaches many deep epistemological lessons in relation to doing contemplation but I want to gain an understanding outside of one or two source(Leo Gura and Peter Ralston). I've looked up epistemology in the past and all i've found is books by Immanuel Kant and stuff like that. These are probably great reads, but I need something more practical and applicable in my daily life. Might it be best to start with the philosophy of science or how might I approach learning about epistemology on a fundamental and practical level in which I can start applying this philosophy in my life. Tell me if you can relate to this. I'm deeply interested in Leo's content and he releases great content and very long speeches. I can never find time to listen to them because if I don't give them all my attention it seems that I miss a lot and just don't have multiple hours to sit in front of a screen and give leo's words all my attention. Thus a problem arises. I can spend my free time watching and listening to leo's worldview and experiences with consciousness work without myself having ever experienced anything this deep or I can pursue something else. I recently had like 5 of leo's most recent videos cued up on my browser. I want to learn about Godel's Incompleteness theorem, quantum mechanics, the collective ego, etc. but that's like 10+ hours of videos to watch. Now here's the problem, with my busy life if I try to keep up with watching leo's content then I don't have much time left over to read other teachings and get a balanced and big-picture understanding of these topics. That's why I'm interested in epistemology. I want to be able to watch and read content without taking it as true or probably true. I want to have skepticism and understand a solid epistemological grounding from which to further research and pursue learning. Thanks in advance for any responses. Ethan.

I recently started delving into the Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks. I know they always say "don't just a book by its cover", but there's still those thoughts in your mind about how's its gonna be. With all my interest in deep consciousness-based work I had the thoughts that this is just gonna be some surface level western self-help stuff. I'm only about half-way through the book at the moment, but i'm starting to see some correlations with some other books that I read, specifically "The Book of Not Knowing". I know that Peter Ralston goes much deeper and gets much more at the root of the problem, but I'm starting to have the feeling that Gay Hendricks was on the brink of inner contemplation into the nature of the self. For example, in the big leap he states the following with regards to worry being a cause of our upper-limit in which we sabotage our happiness with discontent "All other worry is just Upper Limit noise, designed by our unconscious to keep us safely within our Zone of Excellence or Zone of Competence... When things are going well for us, our Upper Limit mechanism kicks in and we suddenly start worrying about things going wrong in some way." when he talks about unconscious and upper-limit mechanisms I can intuit that he's talking about the ego/conceptual self, but just using different connotations of the concept. Thoughts? For these reasons I'm starting to think that this book is a great book to ease yourself into inner work because I recently read "The Book of Not Knowing" and I'm really struggling with starting a contemplation practice. My ego-self just can't get on board with contemplation because it recognizes that it's a direct threat to it's existence. Thus, I'm starting to have the thoughts that "The Big Leap" is a great way to get the ego on board with deep inner work before you dive head first into inner contemplation because when I did that I got some hefty ego backlash almost immediately thereafter. Or, it's just another tricky way that the conceptually-grounded-self is deluding me into not turning inwards, either one!

Don't copy word for word, unless you want to remember a quote that is profound or something. Instead, write down parts that you resonate with or that contribute to the overall unity of the book or essay. Although they say that writing notes down by hand increases your memory of the notes, I still use a computer to take notes because it's much faster and more efficient.

It all depends, today, tomorrow, 25 years, who knows. It all depends on finding a nondual technique that works for you and then pursuing it with rigor and intensity so that it leads you to enlightenment.

I currently own a blog called mindful young man(www.mindfulyoungman.com), but I've grown out of that name as I see it as pretty egotistical, saying that I AM THE MINDFUL YOUNG MAN. It's sort've saying I am the center of attention and I live a really mindful life, look at me! Because of that, I'm changing the name of my website and need to change the domain also. I need some help coming up with a business name. I already write about meditation, mindfulness, happiness, etc. I'm also looking to write about enlightenment and especially every topic relating to self actualization. I want to find a name that encompasses all of self actualization without creating a name similar to leo's website. Any ideas? I thinking about using words/phrases such as actualization illusion of self psychology consciousness sage reality truth awakening happiness insights insightful enlightened enlightening enlightenment turning inward fulfillment lifestyle awaken(ing) Thanks in advance.

Meditation teaches you about all you need to know about emotional mastery. I feel that if you're able to witness the present moment as it is without any thoughts about it than you will be able to control your emotions. I would recommend setting up a daily meditation habit and also focus on building your mindfulness skills. These are skills that help in all areas of life, but they especially build equanimity which is exactly what you asked about. Emotional Mastery. Ethan, http://www.mindfulyoungman.com/