Dogsbestfriend

@Outer I'm curious, do you believe in any sort of energy/spirit etc?

@pluto Let me guess there's no way of accurately measuring someone's frequency?

Thought the name was familiar, wasn't this the brother of Swami Chidvilasananda? When he got kicked out of the Siddha Yoga group they were co-leading it was also due to some scandal. Guy obviously has some issues. Found the following interesting piece: https://www.salon.com/2010/08/14/eat_pray_love_guru_sex_scandals/ Twist: I actually visited the US ashram when I was a an early teen. Weird.

@Nahm that's rough man sorry you had to go through that. This topic is coming up so much, suicide is not the answer - and I believe you will just get dumped into another miserable existence when you do until you learn your lesson and achieve enlightenment, however many lives that takes.

Use your struggle as the path towards enlightenment and you will no longer struggle/ be depressed.

Dunno who's actually claimed to become enlightened using drugs exactly? Seems to be glimpses more than anything, not actually obtaining the the state?

I don't feel the need to be joyful all the time. I don't have that need nor would I want it. And striving for that will just be another obstacle as it's a desire clouding your mind.

There is such a thing as being joyful in the wrong circumstances. An extreme one would be right after someone is hit by a car.

Well let's be honest though, appearance helps - it's just not as important most people think.

Can't believe this one didn't come up yet - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1276104/ Looper the movie

You're trying to fill some void by buying unnecessary stuff - something I've been guilty of myself. First step is to realize no purchase is going to complete you, it might give you an initial euphoria/fullfilment which will fade and off to the next buy. Take a day off of work to work on techniques? Just do a couple hours of inquiry into the issue, break down why you feel empty. And shortcut in meantime is replace the urge with something else you can obsess about - like working out, or whatever.

Stage Coral is just the beginning, there's an even higher Stage Platinum! following by a whole batch of Neon colors! Really, does nobody see the trap of these stages and classifications...

So I got the Muse headset, figured I'd share my experience with it so far. While it's an nicely made gadget (basically a consumer eeg reader), I personally didn't find it really helped me much in any way other than to confirm couple of things I was pretty much already aware of. I can see it being helpful to beginners, it helps you set goals and the instant feedback system (storms when active, birds when calm) could be helpful to some (I found it distracting). Now that I'm already able to meditate easily for hours at a time (if I feel like it) the timer just becomes something to be aware of. And the fact it had stats on being calmer or more active creates desire - which when you get experienced enough is something you are trying to dissolve entirely, not create more of. After some initially novelty of the trying to achieve longest calm periods as possible (which I was already doing without it anyways) feel like I'll probably not be using it much at all. I do think it's curious to see what the eeg readings might be when I enter certain states, though in the end what will that really tell you anyways. Call it an impulse buy, might give it to my gf as she's been thinking about getting into meditation and this might suit her. Prize tag is like 270 euros fyi.

Focusing on breath is a tool you eventually don't need, any form of focusing is also a movement in the mind. I'd be weary what methods you attribute your progression to. If you use 8 different tools, how can you know which is actually helping you. Most of it window dressing to methods and processes you can break down to very basic techniques. It's about putting the time in. Ofcourse you can't dismiss the power of placebos.

Found this one quite interesting:

Funny thing is, as much as perpetual bliss might sound great - it's not really.. not sure how to explain this exactly, but if the potential for sadness is gone.. 'bliss' also ceases to exist.. can't have one without the other, it's contrast that gives these things meanings - yea you can have more of one than the other, but the potential must remain

Really eye opening, didn't know there was so much about sleep to know

@Nahm But are you saying this in the same sense as 'there is nobody else, just you'? Like 'there is no car' but I still sure as hell try not to get hit by them still. Or are you literally saying there are no entities at all?

Agree with @Outer - self-inquiry is very helpful to the other methods of meditation. But understanding yourself and your thoughts - breaking them down, it becomes much easier to experience stillness.

@Outer Quite interesting.. but sadly nothing I wasn't already familiar with.. simply covers activity levels of certain networks and in relation to self inquiry and mediation.. I just wish there was more substantial focus and funded studies in this area (which granted has grown a lot last couple of years) but nothing I've read in a while has given me any sort of real aha moments

@Outer Please do link any interesting sources if you have. From what I've read so far our understanding of the brain and the tools we have to measure it are still very limited - which in turn affects the validity of any conclusions drawn.

Curious how you could assign a color to proposal, are you trying to determine from what color the people that proposed this were coming from - obviously it's going to be a mix, and how would it help in any way? We don't need a color system to understand this is plainly a bad idea.

Try to write less convoluted or the message will get lost. Dunno maybe others get what you're trying to convey.

@Outer Doesn't seem to be a whole lot of evidence on this path.

Doesn't seem like that much of a strange loop - why what exactly?