What is the root cause of distraction? Why can't we just be?

[Arthogaan]

I started to go really deeply into observing whenever my conditioning wants to pull me out of just pure being.

After some days of digging I got to some really early childhood memories.

So as I understand it now it's just our brain programmed for survival.

1) distraction for physiological needs - that one is obvious, obviously my brain/ego pulls me to think about water, food, sex, to pee to poop, to avoid pain. But when those are taken care of there is more subtle distraction:

2) distraction for information - huge part of our daily life, checking the phone, maybe I should watch a movie? Maybe I should watch some youtube video while I'm eating my snack. It's weird because even if the moment is perfect there is still that part of the brain that wants to check the phone - is it just conditioning for always gaining more information? But it doesn't fully make sense to me, why would I watch some drama on netflix, that does not provide me with survival information? How is our desire for drama connected to survival? @Leo Gura

3) okay now if both 1) and 2) needs are fully silenced. Then there is also this deep subtle need to just do something. I got really deep into my inner child, before it had any societal conditioning, any idea of boredom and drama, just perfectly sitting there - there is this pull to just grab something, to make a mess, to explore to create - todlers do not sit still they do everything. It seems really natural. And beautifull. BUT IS IT JUST ANOTHER DEEP LAYER OF SURVIVAL? This natural will to move, to change shit to make a mess, is it just a way for our brain/ego to adapt to it's environments. Or is it some metaphysical feature of reality?

IS Reality fully okay with just being and standing still? It doesn't seem to be still, there's so much movement and life - so is meditation and being fully still and at peace for the whole day - is it going even beyond the conditioning of reality? The deepest conditioning? Merging into the ineffable unmanifested unchanging whole Absolute?

This seems fundamental, help me out guys haha. @Water by the River @Bazooka Jesus @Osaid @Breakingthewall @James123 @Inliytened1

Edited March 9 by Arthogaan

[Soul Flight]

You kinda reverse engineered Maslow’s hierarchy of needs here.

The external and internal worlds may mirror each other. One concept is you are god and god wants to stay asleep and dreaming so he built in guard rails and taboos to keep himself asleep. Or maybe the pleasure is in solving the puzzle and reuniting with yourself and godhood. So seeing these obstacles you mention is the first step in finding your god self.

Entertainment media seems to be a mirror or infinity mirror or kaleidoscope of ourselves. A positive feedback run amok. Drama and theater also distracts us from nihilism and existentialism while also flirting with our awakening. It is the hero’s journey and we live it in real life. It is self actualization. There is a symbolism in all this media which cannot be avoided. The creators insert it instinctively, compulsively, unknowingly, and subliminally. Once you see it, it is hard to unsee it.

There are layers upon layers. All is Hindu maya illusion. It can all be collapsed to the non duality and I guess the game resets at that point.

Good questions.

Edited March 9 by Soul Flight

[James123]

@Arthogaan you are already what you are. Additionally, you are extra thinking. Therefore lost in the clouds. Just know that everything is the way that it is suppose to be and you literally has no affect on anything. Therefore, thinking is unnecessary and root of suffering. 

[Arthogaan]

1 hour ago, James123 said:

@Arthogaan you are already what you are. Additionally, you are extra thinking. Therefore lost in the clouds. Just know that everything is the way that it is suppose to be and you literally has no affect on anything. Therefore, thinking is unnecessary and root of suffering. 

Thanks good remainders.

But even after separate self is gone, there still seems to be contemplationg happening here. This energy to understand is just part of the weather like clouds. Thoughts and questions come on their own. I am no longer thinker of them. Maybe this will to understand will pass at some point. Seems like natural process of unknotting happening on its own.

[James123]

9 minutes ago, Arthogaan said:

 

But even after separate self is gone, there still seems to be contemplationg happening here.

Anytime brother!!! How? If you do not attach with thoughts or do not think, what will be left? 

[strangelooper]

56 minutes ago, James123 said:

Anytime brother!!! How? If you do not attach with thoughts or do not think, what will be left? 

He can't attach or disattach from thoughts.. "he" has no will. So it's dumb to say this. I guess you had no choice.

[James123]

9 minutes ago, strangelooper said:

He can't attach or disattach from thoughts.. "he" has no will. So it's dumb to say this. I guess you had no choice.

When he has no will, there will be no more "he". He is asking now, therefore he thinks he is exist and has a will.

[Arthogaan]

1 minute ago, James123 said:

When he has no will, there will be no more "he". He is asking now, therefore he thinks he is exist and has a will.

Hahaha. I love this conversation.

I have no will, there is no "i" there is no willing. Everything just happens.

Unfolding.

And asking and understanding just flows out of it. Just as you responding.

[Yimpa]

@Arthogaan In other words, it is miraculously ordinary. 

[James123]

11 minutes ago, Arthogaan said:

Hahaha. I love this conversation.

I have no will, there is no "i" there is no willing. Everything just happens.

Unfolding.

And asking and understanding just flows out of it. Just as you responding.

🙏🙏🙏

[Princess Arabia]

Love this post and these questions. Questions I ask myself all the time. Love the one about meditation and being fully still going beyond the conditioning of Reality, even though I would put it as the going against the essence of Reality.

I think it's all energy at play. Entangling with itself. It's transformative by nature so it's impossible to really be totally still. Even a dead body or frozen ice is still transforming. I will be watching for the responses from those names you mentioned as they have a heightened sense of awareness even if what they say is bullshit. Just kidding guys.

 

Edited March 9 by Princess Arabia

[gettoefl]

thoughts will come, thinker hasn't choice until they do

then thinker needs to decide do i want to dissolve illusion or maintain illusion

when dissolution chosen, only love remains

[Osaid]

Where is the moment where meditation stops? Where do you stop being present? Is there an activity which prevents you from being present? Is it possible to ever not be present, truly?

You are labelling parts of life as "survival" and "distraction." What is it actually distracting from? Are these things really antithetical to stillness or meditation? Does reality want you to sit down in one spot forever, is that the conclusion?

When you are enjoying the taste of vanilla ice cream, whether it is survival, a distraction, a grandiose metaphysical plan constructed by reality, whatever the meaning is, does it actually change your experience of the taste of vanilla? 

It seems you are grasping for something deeper and more metaphysical. Something beyond the taste of vanilla. Something more grandiose. A bigger meaning to it. What will you actually experientially gain from adding that meaning? Will vanilla taste better once you find that meaning? 

You are trying to find meaning beyond reality itself; an overarching meaning to life. But there cannot be a meaning to life, because then that meaning would have to exist outside of life, which is impossible. Life is the canvas which allows for meaning to occur inside of it. You get to look at what exists and then create meaning out of it.

It is not necessarily that things are meaningless, but just that you have to first see the value in what exists, and then that naturally creates meaning for you. You are doing it backwards. You are ignoring what exists and looking for value in the meaning of what exists. You are looking for some kind of overarching metaphysical structure to justify and guide your desires and actions. It is much simpler than that, you just need to look at what you are doing and what it creates, and then decide if it is something worth partaking in.

Edited March 9 by Osaid

[Guest Bazooka Jesus]

Welcome to the amusement park of life! We've got roller coasters, water slides, ferris wheels, ghost trains, popcorn and cotton candy... enjoy your stay here, and don't take it all to serious.

5 hours ago, Arthogaan said:

This natural will to move, to change shit to make a mess, is it just a way for our brain/ego to adapt to it's   environments. Or is it some metaphysical feature of reality?

It's God having a ball, plain and simple. It's just too much fun playing the game of being human, doing stuff and getting entagled in made up drama, just for the heck of it. What else is there to do all day?

This reality is like an amazing movie that is watching itself, for all of eternity. And the hallmark of any great movie is that it makes the viewer temporarily forget that it's "just a movie"; that's what makes the experience of watching it so incredibly engaging and exiting. So all of the drama and distraction is there for God to forget that it is God... until it remembers. And then it forgets. And then it remembers. And then it forgets. And then it remembers. And then it forgets.

And that's...

---

PS: This would be my "bullshit" answer. The more sober and straightforward answer would be: It is what it is. Why needlessly ruminate on it?

But if that answer is too boring for you... feel free to re-read the load of BS I wrote above.

 

Edited March 9 by Bazooka Jesus

[Osaid]

2 hours ago, Arthogaan said:

This energy to understand is just part of the weather like clouds. Thoughts and questions come on their own. I am no longer thinker of them. Maybe this will to understand will pass at some point. Seems like natural process of unknotting happening on its own.

Is it possible to further understand the color red?

Is it possible to further understand a pleasant cool breeze during the summer?

Is it possible to further understand the smell of a flower?

Is it possible to further understand the taste of a cookie?

Who is it that judges these experiences as incomplete, as if it is lacking in understanding? And why? What more is there to understand aside from the experience itself? Is there a point where the color red becomes more true? Is there a point where the taste of a cookie becomes more true? Is there a point where the smell of a flower becomes more true? What are you really chasing after when you say that you want to understand?

[Breakingthewall]

As a human you learn to perceive in a linear way because it is necessary. You perceive yourself as a timeline with a route and a projection, and you see everything this way, this allows you to do things like cities, planes, literature, etc. The problem is that being trapped there is unreal and generates anxious energy. The solution is to understand what this type of perception is, its usefulness, and be able to deactivate it.

The key is to be able to deactivate the meaning at will, then the timeline disappears, since its substance is the meaning. Once you know how to do it, you do it in seconds, but it can take years or a lifetime to learn how to do it. When you deactivate meaning, you sink into the present, perception changes from linear to profound. It is preferable to live most of the time in this mode, since it is the real one. the other is also real in its own way but you get lost in the meaning which creates constant and compulsive threads of thought.

The deep mode is the beginning of open perception, the openness to the life that we are, total plenitude. All of us who are here are looking for this, and it is not that difficult but it requires understanding and not falling into traps.

[Yimpa]

1 hour ago, Osaid said:

It seems you are grasping for something deeper and more metaphysical. Something beyond the taste of vanilla. Something more grandiose. A bigger meaning to it. What will you actually experientially gain from adding that meaning? Will vanilla taste better once you find that meaning? 

Heh, I personally prefer sprinkles on my ice cream. Eating it plain is so boring. 

[Yimpa]

1 hour ago, Bazooka Jesus said:

And the hallmark of any great movie is that it makes the viewer temporarily forget that it's "just a movie"; that's what makes the experience of watching it so incredibly engaging and exiting.

[Osaid]

4 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

Heh, I personally prefer sprinkles on my ice cream. Eating it plain is so boring.

I like my ice cream plain, without any extra added meaning. The meaning adds calories I heard.

[Soul Flight]

@Bazooka Jesus That post went meta and I needed that Lol! So glad you’re here. Thank you for being you.