Can We Truly Seek Truth Without Losing Our Sanity and Happiness?

[UpperMaster]

I think many serious users on this forum have faced this problem in some way or another:

I highly value Truth and don't want to give up on understanding it. However, pursuing Truth and trying to comprehend Reality often leads me to sacrifice sanity and comfort, making it tough to navigate life.

For example, when I should be studying for a university test, I end up panicking because my understanding of reality is constantly being questioned.

How can I perform well at work or school if I'm always battling over aspects of truth in my head?

Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to stop focusing so much on finding Truth and instead prioritize comfort and sanity to actually live a happy life. Is this a viable option?

 

[LordFall]

Leo has many videos in which he does make the point that you should focus on the lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy before focusing on stuff like self-actualization, transcendence and truth. I have fallen into this trap myself where I feel I'm almost at stage turquoise and can barely feed myself and I don't recommend it. He started his journey in this topic being a successful business owner with multiple tens of thousands/hundreds of thousands to his name and not a college student/struggling entrepreneur.

I do wish he would keep mentioning it over and over as it is a very diabolical trap to fall into I'd say. 

Edited June 8 by LordFall

[LambdaDelta]

Doable, but it's like walking on a tightrope. The chances of you falling are extremely high, odds are very much against you. Chances can be improved through various means and efforts, but the truth is sometimes you may fail due to randomness or some predetermined conditions. Thing with Truth is, once you stumble upon it, you intuitively give it priority over everything else, even if rationally you understand there's survival concerns and the like. It's also irreversible, once seen it cannot be unseen. The sacrifices you mention are an undeniable reality though. In the end it's a matter of priority, which's more important, happiness or truth? I believe the two can be squared to a large extent (but not fully) if you're very prudent, careful, and also lucky.

[Ishanga]

2 hours ago, UpperMaster said:

I think many serious users on this forum have faced this problem in some way or another:

I highly value Truth and don't want to give up on understanding it. However, pursuing Truth and trying to comprehend Reality often leads me to sacrifice sanity and comfort, making it tough to navigate life.

For example, when I should be studying for a university test, I end up panicking because my understanding of reality is constantly being questioned.

How can I perform well at work or school if I'm always battling over aspects of truth in my head?

Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to stop focusing so much on finding Truth and instead prioritize comfort and sanity to actually live a happy life. Is this a viable option?

 

This is an Identification and Intellect Problem, both lead You further away from Truth and Reality which are basically one and the same... Identification with something You are not, leads You to insanity, because deep down somewhere you always know this is not what/who You are.  Intellect is a sort of Survival Level of Intelligence, it calculates, remembers, utilizes both and allows You to develop strategy, tools, and such to live better another day, but its all on the level of Survival or Accumulation of more, remember anything that You Accumulate or Gather its Yours but Not what You are, if Your in search of Truth and Reality You have to drop both of these things, Your various Identities and Intellect, both will divide You from within, lead You in so many wrong directions and confuse the hell of You, making you stop start, left right, zig zag all the way to not knowing a thing or being intouch with Reality and Truth...

Just Breath, relate to Reality on the level of where You are right now, because NOW is all there is in Reality, past is your memory, future is Your imagination, these tools and high capabilities allow us to rule this world as Humans, but they won't get You closer to Truth...Once You slow down, create or become Aware of what is You and what is not You, this will allow Peace to be Your natural State no matter what, when that happens Life opens up, things rise up naturally and You get more Clarity of what Reality and Truth is, since You are it, and it is all around You...Use Awareness as another form of Intelligence, not based on memory or Intellect...

Edited June 8 by Ishanga

[Yimpa]

2 hours ago, UpperMaster said:

Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to stop focusing so much on finding Truth and instead prioritize comfort and sanity to actually live a happy life. Is this a viable option?

Sure, that’s fine. God ain’t going anywhere 

[theleelajoker]

@UpperMasterI can totally resonate with this.

Sometimes, there is a lot of new experiences, of new information (truth?) coming in. Then, my understanding of reality changes a lot in a very short time. It's like "pulling the rug" and I notice how it confuses me, makes me uncertain, makes me question sanity. 

Part of me wants stability, security, something to hang on to (Ishanga explains this well IMO). Part of me is almost begging for a plan, a concept, some goddamn certainty instead of this constant change.

But it passes. Every time. And over time, I notice that I get used to this process, getting better and better at managing it. Like training a muscle.

In terms of practical information:

• I tell myself: I trust my subconscious. It reveals exactly as much information as I am able to handle
• Physical sensations - breath, walking, riding bike, singing etc help me to ground myself. Or simple things like reading a book
• When questioning sanity, I learned it's good to interact with other people. Meeting my friends, spending time, talking with them about what I believe about reality. Getting feedback instead of running thought loops in my head

I would questions three assumptions you make:

1. Is it really a choice of happy OR truth? Who says, it can't be both? How you know? Can you know this?  Maybe those two things are not contradictory, but complementary
2. Not studying for your exam is "the wrong" thing. How do you know that? Maybe you need the experience of failing the exam? Maybe you should study sth else? Maybe you should not study at all, but start working now? There is an infinity of possibilities, and "I should be studying" is just one out those infinite scenarios
3. Am I "insane" for seeing the world like this, or are most other people weird for NOT seeing what I see?

Bonus question: What value does your current experience have? If you don't see any, what value COULD it have in the future?

Edited June 8 by theleelajoker

[Ishanga]

14 minutes ago, theleelajoker said:

@UpperMasterI can totally resonate with this.

Sometimes, there is a lot of new experiences, of new information (truth?) coming in. Then, my understanding of reality changes a lot in a very short time. It's like "pulling the rug" and I notice how it confuses me, makes me uncertain, makes me question sanity. 

Part of me wants stability, security, something to hang on to (Ishanga explains this well IMO). Part of me is almost begging for a plan, a concept, some goddamn certainty instead of this constant change.

But it passes. Every time. And over time, I notice that I get used to this process, getting better and better at managing it. Like training a muscle.

In terms of practical information:

• I tell myself: I trust my subconscious. It reveals exactly as much information as I am able to handle
• Physical sensations - breath, walking, riding bike, singing etc help me to ground myself. Or simple things like reading a book
• When questioning sanity, I learned it's good to interact with other people. Meeting my friends, spending time, talking with them about what I believe about reality. Getting feedback instead of running thought loops in my head

I would questions three assumptions you make:

1. Is it really a choice of happy OR truth? Who says, it can't be both? How you know? Can you know this?  Maybe those two things are not contradictory, but complementary
2. Not studying for your exam is "the wrong" thing. How do you know that? Maybe you need the experience of failing the exam? Maybe you should study sth else? Maybe you should not study at all, but start working now? There is an infinity of possibilities, and "I should be studying" is just one out those infinite scenarios
3. Am I "insane" for seeing the world like this, or are most other people weird for NOT seeing what I see?

Bonus question: What value does your current experience have? If you don't see any, what value COULD it have in the future?

If Your Intouch with Truth, by product is Happiness, how could it be any other way? This is why in India they say Truth is Ananda or Bliss, you can't explain Truth/Reality, but if Your in it and experience it, then Bliss is what the baseline of Your Experience is. Intellect Identification destroys all of this, because Intellect divides and separates, not unites and brings together as one which is the Absolute isn't it?

The base problem is that people today are brought up via their intellects as the primary form of Intelligence, which in reality it is just a tool, but its gotten us so much in the form of comforts & conveniences, scientific discovery and higher quality of life, so we think it is the be all end all, but it just the beginning of what our true Potential is...

[Javfly33]

I dont know what you are talking about buddy. There is no such a thing as intellectually understanding Truth. 

Truth is not philosphy and IS certainly not entangling Yourself with the Mind until you drive Yourself to insanity.

 

Edited June 9 by Javfly33

[Leo Gura]

You need to do some compartmentalization. There needs to be two parts to your life: 1) work, survival, being human, social life, 2) existential truthseeking. You must master both parts, not merely one. When you are doing work, being human, socializing, surviving, remind yourself that that is not about truth. That's a kind of game you are playing, and you can enjoy playing it. But then there is time when you set aside the game and get to serious work on truthseeking.

As your truthseeking matures you will start to merge truth back into your human life and the gap between the two will lessen.

Yes, truthseeking is very intellectually stressful. No way around that since most human activity is built on lies and illusions.

There is much to intellectually understand about truth. Don't let yourself be gaslit about that.

You can perform well at school and work by compartmentalizing them as relative human activities. You don't need to know much about truth to play a video game. And school and work are like that. The reason you do school and work is to master survival and to get a basic foundation for human life. This is valuable to do regardless of whether it is truthful or not.

There is always a tradeoff between comfort and achievement. You just gotta get clear about which you value more and to what degree, and live your life accordingly. Ambitious people sacrifice comfort for achievement. The achievement can bring more joy than comfort. But some degree of comfort is also needed.

No doubt, being an asleep bullshitting lazy human is comfortable.

Edited June 9 by Leo Gura

[bazera]

@Leo Gura

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There needa to be two parts to your life: 1) work, survival, being human, social life, 2) existential truthseeking. You must master both parts, not merely one.

The difficulty is that work, survival, being human, and social life take so much energy, time, and resources that existential truth-seeking becomes hard, or sometimes irrelevant, or even counter-productive.

I guess if one really values truth, it can be done by designing survival in a way that allows existential truth-seeking easier than most humans can. 

What actions would you consider taking during the truth-seeking phase? I'd guess, daily contemplation on different aspects of reality, maybe some meditation and yoga practices, occasional psychedelics, and occasional long retreats. 

How and in what form would you fit truth-seeking into your schedule, if you had a full-time job at the office + commute, went to the gym, had a social life, and all that stuff?

[Leo Gura]

12 minutes ago, bazera said:

@Leo Gura

The difficulty is that work, survival, being human, and social life take so much energy, time, and resources that existential truth-seeking becomes hard, or sometimes irrelevant, or even counter-productive.

Of course. The purpose of survival is to create an elaborate distraction from truthseeking.

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I guess if one really values truth, it can be done by designing survival in a way that allows existential truth-seeking easier than most humans can.

Of course. When I was 18 years old I sat in my bed reading Plato or some Greek philosopher and contemplating the question: How can I design my life so that could be free to do philosophy?

Obviously the only reason people like Plato could do philosophy is because he was rich and well off.

So I started thinking: How can I become rich and well off so that I have free time?

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What actions would you consider taking during the truth-seeking phase? I'd guess, daily contemplation on different aspects of reality, maybe some meditation and yoga practices, occasional psychedelics, and occasional long retreats.

Yes, all the techniques we talk about.

And just basically, philosophy. Those techniques are tools that serve your philosophical goals.

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How and in what form would you fit truth-seeking into your schedule, if you had a full-time job at the office + commute, went to the gym, had a social life, and all that stuff?

You can always be contemplating stuff every day, especially during times like driving, shower, cooking, etc.

If you're serious about philosophy you do it every day. Your mind is contemplating every free chance it has. As Ralston says, contemplation 24/7.

Of course I recommend also taking breaks so your mind refreshes. It's actually perfect to combine frequent and intense contemplation with totally mindless activity like dancing at the nightclub or singing in your car.

Edited June 9 by Leo Gura

[UpperMaster]

Thank you all for your responses. I've read each one, and they've been incredibly valuable. I think I will try compartmentalizing my life as suggested.

There are definitely moments when I feel like abandoning the pursuit of truth to simply enjoy a relaxed, happy life.

I'll continue my quest to understand truth deeply, but I'll prioritize survival first, as someone mentioned it might be better to focus on Maslow's Hierarchy. The truth will still be there later.

[Leo Gura]

@UpperMaster You can do work for 8hrs a day, and then contemplate reality for 1hr per day. In fact, this make for a great combo.

After 8hrs of mindless work, I can get in my car, drive into the desert for an hour, and contemplate reality. This is actually the most enjoyable way to structure my day.

Just sitting around contemplating all day long is not ideal for me. I find contemplation works best in sporadic bursts, not as a fulltime job.

Edited June 9 by Leo Gura

[bazera]

@Leo Gura

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After 8hrs of mindless work, I can get in my car, drive into the desert for am hour, and contemplate reality.

By contemplating reality, you mean that you contemplate the metaphysics or include all the human stuff there too, such as emotions, fears, stuff like that. 

I'm trying to integrate this into my life as well, but mostly what I'm interested in contemplating is directly linked to my survival, like emotions, traumas, planning the future, etc. 

I guess that depends on where you are in life, and how much contemplation and development have you done so far.

[UpperMaster]

@Leo Gura

Ok will do, I'll organise my day something like that.

[Leo Gura]

17 minutes ago, bazera said:

@Leo Gura

By contemplating reality, you mean that you contemplate the metaphysics or include all the human stuff there too, such as emotions, fears, stuff like that. 

Everything! I don't discriminate.

Most of the stuff I contemplate is survival stuff. There is a lot of profound insight to be had there, and decades-worth of stuff to contemplate.

Contemplate whatever you're interested in.

Edited June 9 by Leo Gura

[UpperMaster]

@Leo Gura 

Oh, I forgot to ask a question. Is it possible to know everything? Maybe I'm being a bit delusional, but I realized that the reason I put myself through all this mental struggle is because I believe that, in the end, I'll understand reality. Now I'm depressed because history shows that people who thought they had the answers often ended up being disproved (or extended). We see this in science, and also in spirituality (like Dvaita, Vishishtâdvaita, and Advaita).

Leo, even you've claimed to have reached understandings that others haven't, and you often change your views (like when you felt like you were the Earth, which made you question Solipsism).

One of the reasons I started this thread I realised is because, I'm deeply unsure if the pursuit of truth is even worth it.

What's the point, if I won't find the answer or my conclusion will be disproven in some way later on.

I'm also a neurotic and open person (I suspect), so I don't respond well to new information, but I'm always curious to know more.

Edited June 9 by UpperMaster

[Davino]

@UpperMaster It is possible to understand Reality and awaken to Omniscience or Infinite Understanding, your intuition is right. However, it's very rare and not much talked about, but there are even historical figures that claim to have achieved Omniscience, like Mahavira.

3 hours ago, UpperMaster said:

One of the reasons I started this thread I realised is because, I'm deeply unsure if the pursuit of truth is even worth it.

It is worth it you know that, but you don't know how to balance it with the other facets in your life. This imbalance rises doubts on your truth seeking but wouldn't if you were beyond survival concerns. So a stable and mature life will make a healthy pursuit of Truth .

Edited June 9 by Davino

[Leo Gura]

3 hours ago, UpperMaster said:

@Leo Gura 

Oh, I forgot to ask a question. Is it possible to know everything? Maybe I'm being a bit delusional, but I realized that the reason I put myself through all this mental struggle is because I believe that, in the end, I'll understand reality.

Insane understanding of reality is possible, beyond anything every human can conceive of.

"To know everything" is a poor way of framing it. I am nowhere close to knowing everything, but I understand some things so deeply that that is good enough.

Don't worry about reaching some ulimtiamte final answer, just enjoy the process of understanding reality deeper, in whatever ways interest you.

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Now I'm depressed

There is no reason to be depressed on this point.

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Leo, even you've claimed to have reached understandings that others haven't, and you often change your views (like when you felt like you were the Earth, which made you question Solipsism).

All that is part of the understanding process and is good and proper.

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One of the reasons I started this thread I realised is because, I'm deeply unsure if the pursuit of truth is even worth it.

What's the point, if I won't find the answer or my conclusion will be disproven in some way later on.

God-Realization is the point and it's absolutely worth it.

No one can disprove Infinity.

Infinity is the final answer you seek. But even that isn't a simple final answer. Infinity is a hell of a thing to understand.

Edited June 9 by Leo Gura

[UpperMaster]

Thanks guys.