Carl-Richard

which is why I called it "the ultimate nihilism of reality".

If you're spending so much time worrying about the ultimate nihilism of reality, you're not immersing your enough in real-life human things, and that is something you can change. So in a very real sense, you are choosing to be a nihilist. And if human things don't make you feel anything, then accept the nihilism and become enlightened. And if you can't do any of those things, then find out why and work on fixing it (trauma, health problems, lack of structure, etc.). There are ways out of these patterns, and it starts with you making a change.

Practice. When your skills go up, anxiety goes down.

It's both. It's a process in the sense that it probably correlates with certain behaviors, but it's also not a process in the sense that you can't pinpoint the exact point where enlightenment occurs.

The spiritual process is a process of unwinding your attachments to your human self, and it's not easy to map out in any reductionistic fashion, but it probably correlates with certain behaviors. You can meditate with the intention of reducing stress and nothing else, and you'll probably be very unlikely to become enlightened. You can take psychedelics with the intention of having fun with friends, and you'll probably be very unlikely to become enlightened. So things like intention, mindset, knowledge and drive probably matter. You can also meditate or take psychedelics and feel like it's not working and that it's outside of your control. So things like genes, personality and trauma probably also matter. Why some people have a harder time becoming enlightened than others is a good research question.

Neither psychedelics, nor meditation, produce enlightenment. The spiritual process does. The dissolving of attachments does.

@Sincerity Haha I was about to ask: aren't there a million threads about that already? ?

8.

There have been times due to some rare fluke that I wake up rested after 6 hours of sleep.

Well, when you said "why not like a dog?", that implies that it most probably came from a similar solar system to ours, as an organism is a reflection of its environment. So if it's "like a dog", it's probably as intelligent as a dog. The fact that we're the only bipedal species and also the only metacognitive species on Earth is not an accident. But sure, if we're talking about a very different solar system, then you could probably have a very different type of organism which is also very intelligent, but again, it's probably not like a dog.

When you free up the hands, you free the mind.

ChatGPT is like a 10th grader trying to copy a wikipedia page from memory and gets it somewhat right 90% of the time and dead wrong 10% of the time. I don't see why you would ever use ChatGPT to learn anything of value. It's like you're sitting in a 5-star restaurant and you're choosing to order Foodora from McDonalds, which gives you a lukewarm cheeseburger from a snotty teenager on a bike, is guaranteed to get your order wrong at some point, or never arrives.

The dude says he remembers his past lives and has met ethereal aliens up in the Himalayas.

If the pizza has a lot of dough in it, it makes me feel weird. It also generally doesn't hit my criteria of a proper meal. I'll really only have a pizza if I'm at a proper italian restaurant, which is maybe twice a year.

You could call my eating 100% clean in the sense that I only eat proper meals and only drink water. A proper meal is a really wide category, but for me, it needs to have a proper ratio of proteins/fat/carbs, the right amount of fibre, and some micronutrient awareness (and you start eating when you're truly hungry and stop eating when you're truly full). What that usually looks like is some meat, some starchy food (rice, potato, pasta) and some vegetables, leafy greens or other plant-based foods (and some sauce or other things for taste, preferably not too fatty), i.e. very standard stuff. Naturally, there will be some oils, diary, salt, pepper and other spices in there too. I checked my average diet in Cronometer, and the only thing I need to supplement with is vitamin D (which I already am) and maybe some calcium. The only exception to the proper meal routine is I'll have one sweet fruit (most often an orange) at the tail-end of my workouts. While I don't want to eat too little fibre, I also don't want too much fibre, or too much of certain plant-based foods like nuts, seeds or legumes, for the sake of my stomach. As for avoiding certain foods: foods with too much flour in it and processed meats (if what you're buying is 100% raw, it's generally ok).

I stumbled across an English video that goes over the same concepts, albeit in a bit drier but still highly informative format:

The video is so well-made that I had to share it, but it's in French, so you have to put on translation in the subtitles (it's still worth it). It's of course extra cool if you already know Meshuggah and are intuitively familiar with the concepts presented.

Yup. And I can see where you're coming from as well. The five senses seem instinctive and uncontrollable (e.g. pain feels like it happens to you), and are therefore in one sense more "direct" than say solving a math problem or thinking about philosophy. But the five senses are also extremely limited (e.g. you can only see so many things at one time), and prone to manipulation, deception and illusion (from both "external" sources, like somebody performing a trick, and internal sources, like the act of labeling). So in another sense, they're also not direct. The most direct thing there is, is just isness itself. That is what I think should be referred to as direct experience. What spiritual teachers want you to do with direct experience is something like this: Teacher: So focus on your direct experience. What are aware of? Student: Sensations of sitting, thoughts about tomorrow, aching in my foot, slight hunger, etc. Teacher: Ok, but those are perceptions with labels attached to them. Try to become aware of the fact that you are aware. What do you feel? Student: A stillness, emptiness, nothing, *keeps listing labels* Teacher: Ok, but we're not interested in these labels. Keep returning to that thing. *repeat ad nauseum* The teacher tries to guide you away from compulsive labeling of reality and towards the experience of reality as it is in itself; the direct experience of it. They want you to experience the world directly without superimposing various mental frames onto it.

Causality is indeed an abstract concept. I'm saying "the five senses" is also an abstract concept. Causality looks like how the world seems consistent to you and not like an incoherent mess. That too, according to you, is direct. Doesn't the world seem pretty consistent to you right now? Rocks fall downwards, not upwards. Boiling water feels warm, not cold, etc.

When you say there are five senses, you're creating a conceptual distinction within what you call direct experience (just like time, space and causality are conceptual distinctions). Why are the five senses real, but not time, space and causality?

You might've noticed, but AIs are able to make cover songs by altering the vocal track. It's pretty neat. Post your best finds here! James Hetfield is a good one.

How do you distinguish the five senses?

So you're not granting time, space and causality then. These things are intrinsically tied to what most scientists and philosophers call perception. If you want to talk about "direct experience", you can do that, but it's not what they are talking about.

If you grant the fact that your perception seems to be limited by your biology, then will it not be reasonable to assume that there exists things that you're not currently able to perceive? You can't see the entire electromagnetic spectrum, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, right? You can't see what is behind the wall, but that doesn't mean there is nothing behind the wall, right?

You can't corrupt something that is already corrupted. Jking. Sorry, I have like 10 offensive jokes floating around in my mind.