lmfao

"I want you to slap my ass or fondle my tits if you see me out in public." -Leo Gura 2018

@StardewValley nooooo I wrote an amazing answer to you wondering about Hitler but my unstable train WiFi means its lost FUCK. Imma copy and paste some shit I wrote ages ago for part of my answer to save time. ------------------------------------------------------ Jordan Peterson has this amazing lecture on conscientiousness as a personality trait in the Big Five Model. Conscientiousness is a great predictor of political orientation. Conservatives tend to be high in conscientiousness and be low in opness whilst liberals tend to have the converse traits (low conscientiousness and high openess). Conscientiousness is composed of two things: orderliness and industriousnes. High orderliness in particular seems to be partly explanatory of prejudice (often in regards to the racial, sexual and ideological charecteristics of other people) and ethnocentrism that you see in stage blue conservatives. Orderliness gone mad wants to draw boxes and boundaries around everything. In Jordans conscientiousness lecture he talks about how conscientiousness predicts political orientation and life success, and how racial prejudice and avoidance of your "out group" may in part be an evolutionary adaptation (of course he isn't morally justifying this). This is because unfamiliar groups of people can carry pathogens which can kill you. For example, when Europeans came over to meet the Native Americans it is estimated that 90% of Native Americans were killed from pathogens that Europeans were carrying. He speculates that racial prejudice can be the result of "orderliness" going out of control in order to avoid infection. He talks about Hitler in general as well as example of orderliness taken to extremes, and he talks about how Hitler in his speeches and writings would describe Jews using words related to medical disease. The psychological pathology behind Hitler ideas seems to be of very similar origin to that of stage blue conservatism (not saying that all conservatives are Hitler obviously). The fact that prejudice and discrimination may be an evolutionary trait expressed through orderliness is interesting. Studies have shown that the prevalence of contagious disease in a population is a very strong predictor of authoritarian attitudes in that population. I can't remember the exact numbers, I believe the correlation is very strong. Everything I've talked about is from the lecture I linked.

@Viking That's deep my brother. Sounds like depression. And the sad truth is, nothing I say will inherently help you and you are mostly alone in solving your suffering (although it is possible for other people to help you some what). If you can get yourselves to do those things, then do them. After doing it enough times the pain and suffering will change you. I personally believe that suffering alone will increase a persons consciousness provided they don't use drugs as a form of escapism. For example, Meditation can be thought as a method for you to face you suferring and not turn to drugs as a distraction. It's not easy. It's not fair. But it's probably your only way out.

@Serotoninluv Very true. Yeah Harris is interesting although I find him boring now. @Leo Gura From wikipedia "Atheism is, in the broadest sense, the absence of belief in the existence of deities". Do you believe this definition to be false and/or a cover for what is really at the heart/core at the ideology that is atheism? When looking at a particular ideology or point of view, it is important to look at the motive and heart behind it. Language and formal definitions can just be "deceptive" tools to propogate a mode of being. I wonder if this is where you are coming from. I also wonder if the definition you stated for atheism is based upon the idea that it is the people themselves who profess to have a certain (ideology) /(point of view) who define that (ideology) /(point of view). Because many atheists are dogmatic. I think that the idea I stated earlier in the first sentence of this paragraph is a useful perspective but it's flawed on its own. Such a perspective creates innacurate generalisations. For example, you yourself Leo like Islam but you acknowledge that the vast majority of people who profess themselves to be followers of Islam are dogmatic and are not reoresentive of the (Islam) /(aspect of Islam) that you like. I feel like this discussion is obfuscated by the word "God" that we use. When I think about enlightenment experiences I've had, If God is pointing towards something foundational in reality then "God" is beyond talking about. When I think about the "God" I come across in meditation then a "rejection of God" (because you can never reject "God") would be synonymous with low consciousness. I don't really know what I'm talking about right now because this is too complicated. Interesting thought. From my perspective the probability that you're right for a percentage close to 99% of cases in the western world is quite high.

@Emerald @Emeraldstay strong

@Gligorije Your question has no meaning my friend.

@universe Cowboy Bebop. The show is filled with charecters trying to let go of their past. Even in the face of death, as is the case in the video, one should be able to accept reality as it is.

Objection.

@caelanb finally an Alan Watts appreciation thread. Yeah the dude is my favourite Non-duality teacher. He's extremely good at explaining the essence of a teaching. There are millions of things I've heard from him that are just amazing. My signature on this forum is based upon Alan Watts quoting something he read

This women in the workplace thing is interesting to read what you people are saying. There are few topics more confusing than sexuality to navigate. The whole topic is surrounded by absurdly large amounts of shame and prejudice. Most people in the world have been raised in stage blue households and in fundamentalist religion and it's no secret that sexuality is not learnt how to be healthily expressed from those environments. I come from a Muslim family, and 90% of Muslims in their upbringing have probably had the specific Quran verse asking men to "lower their gaze" (when seeing a woman they are not married to) quoted and drilled into them. I know I did and so did other Muslims I know. I was discouraged from even having female friends. You've been taught to objectify women and see them as sex objects. For most Christians this issue isn't as bad but it's still there. I never learnt to socialise with the opposite gender and so I'm fucked. I can socialise it's just that it feels even more unnatural and clunky than usual. The best tactic I have when talking to a girl is to just pretend that I'm talking to a guy and it works.

@ZZZZ I see you're a man of culture who watches Joe Rogan and Allan Watts as well. There are audiobooks of Ramana Maharshi's books on YouTube. I haven't listened to much but the guy seems sage/zen as fuck my dude. What videos you can find of Shinzen Young are also good. Some Teal Swan videos can be good.

@Rilles he's asking for it how can we not.

@AlwaysBeNice Sweet video. Jordan Peterson has an awesome perspective on many things. LOL. God damn it Leo it just looks like you're asking for it. @Serotoninluv do you not like the video that the OP posted in this thread? A video doesn't have to be non-dual for there to be something valuable to take away. What he was essentially pointing towards was karma, what goes around comes around. If you treat people shit something will most likely come back to haunt you. It's like a pretty healthy stage blue value. @Emeraldgood post.

I think this will at least be a year away.

@Shan I get L-Theanine all day every day by drinking decaffeinated green tea. Decaffeinated green tea still contains L-Theanine, incase you were wondering. I honestly have no idea if it helps anxiety. But I can say that it definitely improves my focus for doing studying/reading/homework.

@non_nothing everyone on this forum needs to make their own thread to answer any question lmao.

@Shan I haven't reduced my very high anxiety to anything close to the ideal level but I feel it improving now. In the past I've had panic attacks where I hyperventilate for 30 mins straight and have had a few times where I frantically search the Internet on methods for suicide. The best thing I think you can do is mindful suffering. Suffering which is done mindfully is best done when you're meditating or something. Being mindful of suffering in your day to day life is hard unless you're consciousness is already high enough to try to be. Yesterday I was meditating for 1hr for example, and I was trying to maintain most of my posture. In my mine came up these thoughts "I want to escape I want to escape I want to escape I want to escape.... It hurts It hurts It hurts.." but through meditation you force both your conscious and subconscious mind to react differently to pain. There were times yesterday when my conscious mind was trying to be okay and accepting the pain, realising that a sensation in your consciousness is neither inherently good or bad. But despite this my subconscious mind was in overdrive, providing so much resistance. But throughout the session my resistance was dissolving as mindfulness increased. Meditation when done right is good for general happiness and anxiety. You're confronting your bodies fight or flight response "I want to escape I want to escape I want to escape" and are dissolving it. Your anxiety will also start to fade as you pay attention deeply to what this "I" that wants to escape is. The way I see it, you can conceptualise anxiety as an over the top reaction to some "negative" circumstance. And you want to rewire those reactions.

@DnoReally I mean it depends what you mean by "atheism" right? If atheism is the lack of belief in a god, isn't an enlightened person an atheist because they don't believe in the concept labelled "God"?

@kieranperez this reminds of people who say "you don't need to do any consciousness work just become enlightened right now, you already are it". And whilst it might be technically true, untill a solid commitment is made to raising your consciousness you're gonna stay being miserable. At least that's my experience. Buddha and prophets in the bible/quran had the commitment to go off in solitude to meditate for long periods of time.

@Andreas I'm inclined to think it is bullshit. I think they could exist but I see no reason nor had any experience to think they exist. I know Leo and others on this forum are inclined to think that paranormal/supernatural phenomenon are real, but I've never seen any proof/evidence of it. Why wouldn't people with these powers show (scientists) /(the world)? They would get money for it and even enlightened people do things for money.A supernatural phenomena such as levitation would have most likely been public knowledge by now. This is also true for other supernatural phenomena which impact the external world in an easily observable way. Is the evidence for supernatural phenomenon so subtle that it evades acknowledgement of scientists? Or are scientists denying objective evidence? Do these "supernatural" phenomenon not have an impact on the physical world ( and are only detected subjectively in one person's consciousness) and hence do not have any observational give aways to other people? If the answer to the last question is yes, then what's the point in discussing these phenomena? Does it not just fall into the category of mystical experiences/feelings then?

"And so you have to realise to what an enormous extent we are all utterly bewitched by words and are trying all our lives long to solve problems which only words create because the human being has gotten himself into a very funny bind."

This is gonna be a long thread. I'm going to copy and paste some text for the "Context to my question" and for "my social experiences in school". I hope that these sections help you build a picture of me. Context to my question I understand very little about why my experiences happened the way they did, and I can't figure out what I was chasing after back then and what I'm chasing after now. Whilst the details of my memories aren't incredibly sharp in terms of precise mundane details, I have a very detailed and rich memory of important phases of my life during high school and the underlying emotions I felt at the time. Although I say that I understand very little about my past it's probably the case that I understand a lot about my experiences, it's just that I don't want to accept and confront the fact that I've always felt like an alien/outsider in my interactions with people. The feeling of being misunderstood and lonely, subtly yet strongly, permeates all of my experiences from when I was 4 years old to now when I am 18. It might be worth noting that I'm an INTP who suffers from anxiety/depression, and I've got a parent mother who was/is abusive to me (to only describe the relationship with the word "abusive" wouldn't accurately convey the nuanced situation however). My mum can very paranoid and holds delusional suspicions (which are not targeted at me), and I have a strong family history of psychosis and other mental illnesses from my mother's side of the family. My dad has depression. My parents have always been arguing. I likely have some autistic traits which I have inhereted from my mum, but I would probably be what you call "high functioning". My social experiences in school I'll talk a bit about my experiences, by first starting with primary school [ which I was in when aged 4-11 years old]. For reasons unbeknownst to me, I was a very shy kid by the time I was 4. Apparently I was very late to speak as a baby, which is maybe a consequence of autism. From the very start of primary school, I was mildly bullied and was socially excluded. Although I can't pinpoint a reason for this, I think this happened because of the fact I behaved strangely as a child. Although I behaved strangely, it was far from being malicious or violent. There was also a racial component to this, as I have a distinct memory of older kids calling me "chocolate bar" but I'd respond with "milky way" (a white chocolate brand). My name is Mujtaba so they got the idea of chocolate bar from adding an "r" to the "ba" component of my name, very funny and peculiar actually. By the age of 6-7, the bullying stopped and as I mildly gained the respect of people around me. Around the age of 7 I naturally developed a very strong interest in maths, and this has stuck with me for life. It was something I was constantly praised for by adults. Thankfully I wasn't bullied for this at all in primary school. Even after I stopped being bullied, I was at the bottom of the "social hierarchy". I was often peoples last choice for playing games with, and it felt as though I had to always make an effort to fit in and get people to play with me. I finished high school at age 11. I didn't stay in touch with anyone from primary school. At age 11 I then entered a private high school. When my first year started, I found that I was being popular for reasons I didn't understand. It might be because I was blunt and would tell offensive but funny jokes, and represented a paradox of maturity and immaturity. I was really good at tackling people in rugby even though I was short, and so the sporty kids loved me for that. I was friends with the "jocks" and "the nerds" at the same time. I was tired of being a nerd during earlier points in my life, so I tried to fit in with the cool kids. However, they weren't really on my wavelength at all. Some relationships aren't meant to be. I found them to be superficial and shallow beyond belief. They shared different hobbies from me for the most part. They were allowed to have girlfriends whilst I have had the opposite sex demonised to me because of my upbringing. The "cool kids" detected that I wasn't on their wavelength as well, but I maintained a casual relationship with them for two years. Although I interacted with the cool kids, it was the "nerds" who were my real homies. I just went to the "cool kids" temporarily if they were doing some fun activity like playing football or rugby. Something at the centre of my being rejected everything about the way the "jocks" acted. They were arrogant, genuinely malicious at times, and wanted to put whoever they could down around them. During my second year of high school I developed a major crush for someone, but I couldn't pursue anything because of my religion. She was really good looking and gave me signals (e.g. She was touching my leg repeatedly with her foot under the table) , but I never did anything. This led to me having great frustration. I ended up question religion as a whole during my adolescence, and I became an atheist at age 13/14. And for the first two years of high school, I had two close friends. These two guys happened to be the two highest academic achievers in all subjects, whilst I only "shined" in maths and science. Despite this, we had many similar interests and fun playing games with each other. They were on my wavelength. After two years, I had drifted away from the cool kids. After two years my loneliness started to grow. When interacting with the vast vast majority of people I felt like an outsider. During my third year of high school, I fell down the dominance hierarchy, quickly spiralling down towards the bottom. During my third year of school, people were put into different classes of "ability". I was separated from my friends for science classes because I never bothered to study. One of the two close friends I had started drifting away to hang out with the girls, and I didn't follow him. I was too awkward and my religion hindered me. Plus the girls he choose to hang out with were unpleasant, gossipy people. I had just one friend left, and I didn't end up seeing him too often. This friend that I had left was Asian and Muslim like me, (unsurprisingly?). My interests were in discussing philisophy, religion, science, psychology, politics and etc but nobody elses were. Whether it was sitting in classes, eating lunch, and walking to classes, I was lonely. Rooms would be full with multiple cliques (nerds, normals, jocks, etc) of people talking loudly, I would be awkwardly at the side. I watched from the sidelines everyone enjoy their life. Hung out with nerds, but didn't really feel connected to them. As high school went on, my loneliness grew and grew. During my 6-7th years of high school my classes became small and I was mostly interacting with nerds all the time. I took only science subjects and maths, and I had my friends in these classes. My curiosity for maths and science really bloomed during these times, and people were shocked at how "intelligent" I was because my grades aren't usually good. I went to a private school filled with people who were very competitive and hardworking academically. I have a circle of 10 "friends" and some of them were envious of me and put me down for my interest in maths. Most of the teachers were unable to answer the questions I asked them, and whenever I tried discussing something I find really interesting in maths/physics with my friends I would get cut off, because they perceived my interest and enthusiasm for the abstract as a form of showing off. If I ever go full loose in showing my train of thought to people, they are sometimes spiteful and look at me as weird. And so I naturally became more and more lonely, as I felt rejected by everyone around me. On a side note, I hate the way information is taught in school, and that demotivated me from learning and growing as much as I could. My question Even now, after moving to university to study physics I haven't met anyone whom I connect with. I've had better conversation with my university professors than I have with my "friends"/acquaintances. What's the best approach for me? Do I have to just face the loneliness head on and keep doing consciousness work? I feel so tempermentally different from everyone around that I just can't connect with anyone. Ive been deprived of human connection for so, so long that the loneliness just hits hard. Must I bite the bullet and go full zen to overcome my own demons?

@John Lula Hearing someone complain about too much conscientiousness offends me to the same degree that a starving African child is offended by hearing a middle aged white women complain that her steak is slightly too cold. It doesn't actually offend me, the last paragraph I typed was just something that popped in my mind. Damn my humour is dry.

@EternalForest The thing that "Non-duality" is trying to point to is an experience beyond words and language, and "Non-duality" itself is composed of words and everything I type to you is words. Quite funny eh? Are all the words I type to you completely void of meaning? Who knows?!