tatsumaru

Nahm will this work not for thoughts but for feelings or imagery (aka reliving some past event)? The thing is that I often don't know what to say about this other than describe what I am feeling the same way I did in the original post. Maybe it is a cry for help or something but I am not sure what the solution is so what do I do with that information? I hate how this feeling makes me feel weak, overwhelmed and on top of everything else I get this feeling like I can suddenly feel the suffering and desperation of the whole world - like everyone is lost and desperate in this purgatory or something. Then when this feeling is gone suddenly nothing seems so bleak anymore.

If you disregard the original definitions of the word and just make your own language that means a totally different thing then there can be no communication. God is a ancient term with a long history and has a very clear definition of what it means in all religions, I am not sure why you would take this word and use it to point to something that is beyond God and think that this was a good idea. Lao Tzu said: "The Tao created One (God) and One created Yin/Yang (Eve/Adam)". So clearly God and Tao are not equivalent. This isn't about semantics at all, it's about being trapped in the prison of Oneness/Brahman and believing this to be reality while missing Tao in the process. This is not about Oneness for there can be no One without a Many, and therefore Oneness doesn't transcend the illusion of separation.

Nonsense. God is just the illusion of Oneness/Brahman. There's nothing beyond belief about it. To better understand the difference between the Alaya Consciousness of Buddhism (which is actually beyond consciousness) and the Brahman Consciousness of Advaita (which implies “not two”), the following humorous story was said to be told in the Kevatta (Kevaddha) Sutta, as translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. “Where do the four elements cease without remainder?” Through meditation the monk reached the Heaven of the Four Great Kings, who did not know the answer. Next he went to the thirty three gods in a higher Desire Realm heaven, but none of these rulers knew either. He then asked King Sakka (Indra), the king of these gods, but Sakka did not know the answer. Up and up he went asking all sorts of gods at each and every higher level. Finally he came to Great Brahma, the Creator, Uncreated, Knower of All. When the monk finally achieved an audience with Great Brahma, Brahma appeared in all his majesty and glory announcing, “I am Great Brahma, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, All-Powerful, the Lord, the Maker and Creator, the Ruler, Appointer and Orderer, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be.” The monk then humbly and respectfully asked his question, but all Great Brahma did was repeat, “I am Great Brahma, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, All-Powerful, the Lord, the Maker and Creator, the Ruler, Appointer and Orderer, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be.” The monk eventually got frustrated and said, “I know you are “Great Brahma, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, All-Powerful, the Lord, the Maker and Creator, the Ruler, Appointer and Orderer, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be,” but I asked you a question about where the four elements cease without remainder. The Great Brahma replied, “Listen little monk, don’t embarrass me. All these other gods are listening and think I know everything. If you want to know the answer to a question like that, don’t ask me. I don’t know the answer. For a question like that, you have to go ask the Buddha. Our monk gets up from his meditation and finds the Buddha nearby, asking him where the four elements cease without remainder. The Buddha tells him that he’s thinking of the question incorrectly, and should ask where do the four elements have no foothold…” Why do you care about what Leo or anyone else thinks about death. Are you interested in experiencing life or in thinking about life? Are you looking for truth or just solace? Honestly I am not sure why Leo is even answering this, he should know better than to preach to people about things that are not in their experience. Here's all you need to know about death and life:

Actually, in one of the books that Leo Gura mentions in the course (The Science of Success by W. Wattles) it's explained that talents do exist, however that a person can develop new talents through deliberate practice and through having a mindset that accepts the possibility of new talents being developed. The book says that you will have the easiest life if you find a way to rely on the talents that you already have, but if that's not possible you can develop new talents as well. Personally I think this is true due to neuroplasticity. In order to develop a new talent however, it is very important that you don't simply practice repetitive things that you already know how to do but to constantly push yourself to do things that you feel the least confident about in the context of that talent that you are trying to develop. So for example if you're learning the guitar don't just practice the basics but also push yourself to try and reproduce music by ear. Go into that zone where you feel slightly overwhelmed (but not too much). This is the true fitness for your brain, not staying with the same weights you've been for the last year.

As Seneca said, “Do not regard as valuable anything that can be taken away.” That which can be taken away can't be protected. That which can't be taken away doesn't need any protection. This is the way of the Tao. Does that mean that this dream world is of no consequence and needs no interaction from humanity? I would say no. From my direct understanding of this world, each person harmonizes with life's flow in a certain way and that's how our purpose is discovered. Your only choice would be to be aligned with that purpose or to resist it and suffer until you die from exhaustion. Essentially you are not really making a choice, you've already made that choice, you are only here to understand why you made that choice. Even if the dream is just a dream, the spiritual momentum of humankind is worth protecting so that sentient beings can keep waking up. If I had to guess this dimension exists solely to help those stuck in the Oneness/God meme realize their delusion and uncover Tao. Lao Tzu said that the Tao created One (God) and One created Yin/Yang (Eve/Adam aka Feminine/Masculine aka Emptiness/Form). Most spiritually inclined people are infatuated with God/One/Yoga etc. and can't penetrate beyond the 5 senses. One is still not whole, for there is no One without a Many, but there is Tao without a One. When this dimension has completed its job it will dissolve on its own or we will destroy it before that happens in which case if I had to guess the whole evolution thing would have to start from scratch in some other dimension which would just be a bitch.

IMO don't focus on the tools (programming) focus on what you want to create in this world. "Making apps" isn't a vision or a purpose it's just a tool that you can potentially use to make a difference. No specific tool or craft will ever provide inspiration for you, it is the vision and the imagination that comes first. Don't search for your vision for it is not outside of yourself, it is within. Just listen to it and follow it, don't look for safety or for guarantees for approval. If there's approval that means you are just copying someone else or making something that already exists. Most apps that programmers make are just copy/paste nonsense with 0 added value. Who needs the 294387th food delivery app? Most of the times it's not that you haven't found your vision, it's that you've found it but you are afraid that it's so original that you are going to fail. You need to start with WHY and then figure out the tools to use to make your vision a reality. If you want to go to mars go to mars, if you want to solve aging solve aging, be a creator not a competitor. Do not look to others for inspiration for that is not inspiration but imitation. Don't do what the Buddha did, instead seek what the Buddha sought.

In my opinion this is about yellow, not about green. I am interested in mutualism, not competition. And it is definitely not an excuse. I worry about everyone and everything. Whatever I am doing needs to be beneficial for the whole system or it's not a real business at all. See verse 8:

As an entrepreneur I really resonate with the idea that competition is for losers. That competition is war, a race for obvious prizes, a sort of creative desperation aka "we can't create anything innovative so we are going to try and capture some of the existing value for ourselves by attacking existing market players or trying to steal clients from them" etc. Because of this I've came to the conclusion that innovation and competition are mutually exclusive for competition is drawing inspiration from what others are doing where innovation is creating something that didn't previously exist. That all being said I am still concerned with the fact that innovation can cause destruction. For example when Apple created the iPhone, Nokia got killed as a second order consequence of that. Now we could argue that it's Nokia fault for not innovating enough but this just feels too SD: Orange to me. How can we improve the world without causing suffering to those who offer less value? What is the right mindset here?

My nose is always stuffy. It's not an allergy because it's all year round, it's not food related because it persists even when I go on long water fasts. It's caused me to breathe through the mouth for most of my life which has been bad for my health and social life. It started many many years ago in high school maybe or earlier. My diet didn't affect it - vegetarian, vegan, carnivore, water fasting, gaps, fodmap, I tried it all. I went to see an ENT doctor and he said that I have slightly deviated septum but he didn't seem convinced that this was enough to cause this and just sent me away. What to do? I want this gone once and for all.

Could neanderthals become enlightened? If not, at which point did we receive the ability to wake up from the dream and why?

The very concept of infinity is pure nonsense.

That's not exactly true. We are not built to be universally attractive, certain things are not attractive to us because they are not compatible with us, the same we don't like all music and we don't like all food and the same like not all chemical elements form bonds etc.. Thinking you are universally unattractive however makes you unattractive to your compatible mates as well which is quite problematic. So this whole thing about being attractive or unattractive can be safely dropped from the mindset as it is not needed.

You could be right, sounds kind of disrespectful. It could be her way of expressing endearment though. Not enough information. Definitely you need to deal with this needy/clingy energy that you are expressing with this post here because it's definitely not helping with your potential friendzone situation. Desperation is not attractive. If the relationship is done, it's done. If not, then it's not. Attraction is not a choice so it can't be a big deal when it's gone. Is she excited about having sex with you or does it feel like just "something we do". You can figure it out if you pay close attention to what's happening.

@Mu_ Personally I correlate your thinking style in this particular video with something I call lazy nihilism. It's like saying "Hey no one really knows what a liver is, it's just a concept, and it's not even exactly the same for every person and it doesn't exist by itself anyway and we don't even know how it functions for the most part so it's just an idea so let's not think about it.". I do agree that it doesn't make sense to chase some beliefs or ideas about what spirituality is because this just turns spirituality into a religion i.e. how can you seek Ego-death if you don't know what the Ego is, how can you seek Enlightenment if you don't know what enlightenment is. In a sense spirituality works the other way around you start from within and expand from there and maybe an Ego-death will happen (or not) but not because you sought it. So for example to seek God because you read about God in some book wouldn't make any sense, that's not directly interfacing with life, that's a belief-system that obscures direct experience. If someone on the spiritual path discovered God and told us about it that's still doesn't mean that the mission of spirituality is to discover God. Nothing that comes from an external authority can ever be direct even if it's true for that person and even if they are 100% honest. Since spirituality is about working with our own consciousness and not about believing stuff random concepts and "studying" are irrelevant in that context. However (and that's the key part) just because God isn't in your experience doesn't mean that there IS or ISN'T a God. So to say that there is no higher or lower self or that an Ego-death isn't a thing is a premature conclusion. Once you can say with 100% honesty that you've reached the highest potential of your consciousness and there's nowhere else to go, only then you can claim there's no Ego-death and even then there's still no point in claiming it because such claims are of no use to anyone. The most beneficial part of your video was teaching people not to chase after beliefs.

I have been in a lot of pain for the last 15 years. To be honest I am tired of even trying to understand why. Just some infinitely complex net of cause and effect relationships which seem to be beyond my capacity to understand and control have resulted in me being in pain. Generally speaking I am the type of person who believes in not giving up no matter how painful the fight, but I am SOOOOOOOO tired. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tired. It's hard to express how tired I am of fighting to hang on for one more day. It's like my whole life is like "bear the pain, 70 years will be over soon". Certainly there have been glimpses of happiness, joy, creativity and profound appreciation as well, but mostly it's been loneliness, disease and despair and I am scared that it's starting to become harder for me to bear all that pain. The baggage is becoming too large to carry and I am not sure I have the energy anymore. I don't know how to let go of it, I've tried and I've tried for 15 years but it always finds a way to creep up back into my life. Or maybe I've never really tried and only fooled myself who knows. For me this dimension is like a purgatory. But I am running out of will and I feel like one day I am just gonna go under some tree and wait until I die there like a sick animal that's lost the will to keep fighting. I know I am also totally sick of psychoanalyzing myself trying to comprehend and control some infinite web of cause and effect relationships that seem to be beyond my capacity to understand and control. I am so tired of having to control every little atom of my life, it's like some house of cards. Smallest mistake and it all crumbles down, fuck systems thinking. It's not solving anything. Please I want to wake up from this nightmare already, how much is left... I need relief so badly...

Is it possible to live alone on an island or a planet without any human interaction whatsoever and be happy, fulfilled and attain enlightenment? I know a lot of legendary Yogis basically did something like this by living most of their lives in some caves, although they still met some people from time to time. Personally for me, even though I am an introvert and spend extremely little time with other people, I've not been able to transcend the need to exchange ideas with other people or to have friends. I am not saying that this is a goal of mine, but I am wondering if one was born on an island or if they were the first person on a new planet if they would be able to do it. Buddha purportedly commented (Sambodhi Sutta), “If wanderers who are members of other sects should ask you, ‘What are the prerequisites for the development of the wings to self-awakening?’ you should answer, that admirable friends, admirable companions, admirable comrades, is the first prerequisite for the development of the wings to self-awakening.” I know most people can't handle this psychologically and commit suicide or go mad, but some seem to be okay, like the people living in isolation in the forest with the bears or Henry Thoreau who became truth realized while living alone in a cabin in the woods. What's the trick here?

If you say so.

I just found this Lao Tzu quote and was wondering what you thought about it: “Do you think you can clear your mind by sitting constantly in silent meditation? This makes your mind narrow, not clear”- Lao Tzu. I also found information about other highly realized people who were against meditation. "Hui Neng reportedly scolded his monks for spending too much time sitting in meditation….He said that meditation is unnecessary, and warned that such practice can easily become a narcotic. Many Western meditators are so intoxicated by their practice that they see themselves as loftier to those who don’t formally meditate, like drug addicts see themselves as superior to non-users." Additionally at the highest level of Buddhism (Vajrayana) there are very few mentions of meditation and most practitioners are occupied with something called non-meditation which although has a dumb name is actually a specific practice that I do not understand. Is it possible that a bunch of people are overly preoccupied with meditation and clinging to it even though it's time to move on?

Why do you think it's obvious?

Actually the ego wouldn't choose liberation (aka the you that you think you are, not your true Self). The true Self never makes this choice as it is already liberated. Be careful not to spread misleading sentiments.

I've suffered from stuffy nose for 10 years. I've tried all of these basic things already - neti pots, warm water, hot water, salt water, herbal inhalations, nasal decongestants. Your answer might be helpful for someone who gets the occasional stuffy nose on the weekend, it didn't work for me.

Wow that was ingenious. I will just have to do this 50 times a day now and I will never experience this issue ever again for more than 30 mins at a time.

Really? It's 10x more effective? How did you confirm this?

It's like you didn't read my post at all...

Let's share some spiritual before/afters to see how far we've come. I will start with my own milestones: 1. Met a spiritual friend who taught me the difference between direct experience and belief. It put the start of an excruciating spiritual journey of dissolving myself in order to rebuild myself again from experience. 2. Went to a Zen Master in India for a 40 day Satsang, I was shown what awareness means, as a result my anxiety disorder dissolved permanently. 3. Gained a significant understanding of the spiral dynamics model and systems thinking paradigm. As a result I understood what makes people different and how to recognize admirable friends and build complex value systems. 4. Read a book about I Ching and realized this is a universe of feeling not things, as a result I realized the conceptual was a parallel dimension that was not really real and started to embrace wholeness and apply musical theory to explain this reality (harmony, resonance, octaves, thresholds etc.) This dissolved multiple philosophical paradoxes caused by deficient paradigms. 5. Today. What I have achieved so far: Dissolved an anxiety disorder, gained massive amount of direct experience wisdom, became able of complex coordination and system building, transitioned from INTP to INFP. What I have yet to achieve: Still have no clue what the fuck is going on, Dealing with self-hate and self-esteem issues, Don't have any super powers yet, Haven't found a way to address my health issues yet. Cheers.