Seeking Advice On My Next Steps In Life

[Leo Eckl]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm Leo, 18 y.o. and from Germany. I finished high school in May with a very good degree and have basically my whole life in front of me. Being very sportive (various sports, especially triathlon for 10 years) since I was three years old and thus a "naturally" extremely ambitious person all my life, I got into entrepreneurship almost two years ago, joined a start-up for 8 months (besides school, haha) and then got into the self-improvement section. 

 

So much about my backstory, now to my current situation and vision:

I live at my parents' home (we have an amazing atmosphere at home) and wonder what I should do to live the best life possible. This thought used to be an obsession, now I can see it with greater distance. I think that self-mastery, self-actualization, enlightenment are probably the most rewarding paths to go after and I am willing to do whatever it takes to make the best out of my life (sometimes my ego might not :P) including following the most unconventional routes. I thought about going all-in on spirituality since I felt like anything else would become irrelevant after enlightenment. As Leo has already pointed out in one of his videos, this is not the case. 

Considering my physical future, I'm currently building up my Personal Brand in the Self-Improvement section on Social Media (esp. YouTube) and am going to study Psychology in November. My highest vision is to create an environment that allows me to grow as effectively as possible (including mentors, scientists, the material, etc.). I am willing to document all of this and to inspire the masses with it so that self-mastery becomes the ultimate goal an individual in society has. This is my life purpose and I am 100% sure about it and I'm not wavering about it.

To put it in a nutshell: I focus entirely on living the best life/mastering myself (since I believe it's the most rewarding thing we can go after [this includes spirituality]) and want to make a living off it through inspiring others and sharing my knowledge & experiences. (over the long term, I want to outsource any content production etc. so that I don't have to put any energy into inspiring the world and to use all of it to focus on my own growth)

My question is now: How strongly should I focus on the secular stuff and how much on the spiritual stuff? On the one hand I feel like becoming enlightened first, completely mastering my psychology etc. would give me everything I will ever want and everything after that would just be a funny game to play and on the other hand I look at all these decades I have ahead of me and I feel like I can do it both simultaneously, so I would document my journey and all that towards enlightenment and self-mastery, which would probably be more inspiring than popping out of nowhere and then starting to build it from scratch.

I'm asking here because I imagine here are a lot of highly conscious people (Hi Leo!), who can give me high-quality advice on that (and also don't feel like I'm talking about some fairy tale, haha).

Thanks for your help!

- Leo 

[Toby]

I don't see a problem here. There are four (of that I can think of right now) more or less enlightened teachers in germany that also studied psychology. So I guess it could fit nicely. Also the other things you do... why not, I don't see why there would be any conflict between your interests.

[Leo Eckl]

They don't conflict at all, they are actually synergetic. I wonder how much I should focus on what, especially since I have little experience in the spiritual path. I think my main concern is, that the spiritual path is so much more important than anything else that I would waste my time going after the other more secular things. But maybe that's not true at all since enlightenment etc. is just a realization that you are playing a game, which doesn't mean you don't play the game (well) anymore? I feel like I need someone who is highly spiritually developed to tell me that either everything else but meditation, self-inquiry and so on is garbage or that I should do what I want to do in this world because even after my awakening I will keep on doing it (while developing myself further spiritually).

Thanks for the response as well as future ones!

[Visitor]

4 hours ago, Leo Eckl said:

...My question is now: How strongly should I focus on the secular stuff and how much on the spiritual stuff? On the one hand I feel like becoming enlightened first, completely mastering my psychology etc. would give me everything I will ever want and everything after that would just be a funny game to play and on the other hand I look at all these decades I have ahead of me and I feel like I can do it both simultaneously, so I would document my journey and all that towards enlightenment and self-mastery, which would probably be more inspiring than popping out of nowhere and then starting to build it from scratch...

Hello Leo.

I studied psychology for three years, as a subject, to gain a degree in counselling. Psychology is very interesting for newcomers, but it lacks in certain areas. Firstly, it is under the umbrella of philosophy, and as such philosophy is not looked at very much. If I were you, I would study philosophy (as a hobby) while studying psychology. That is what I done and it helped me a great deal. Philosophy gives psychology more depth in regards to what a person is.

Spirituality goes even deeper than philosophy (phi) or psychology (psi). However, without phi and psy, spirituality tends to float away from the human, and become unrelated in many ways. Whereas with phi and psy, spirituality becomes more related to the human. Because of this, spirituality becomes more responsible and governed by the individual rather than by outside influences.

The truth (phi) and love (psy) side of spirituality becomes dominant. 

After gaining my degree in counselling, my truth seeking shifted from outside of me to inside of me. Self-honesty and dealing with all my fears became the cornerstone of my spiritual growth.

Since then, I found that the practice of psychology and counselling is only skin deep. Spirituality helps to understand the core issues. 

[Leo Eckl]

That sounds great, I'll look for a philosophy online course then. So you would say philosophy and psychology build a great foundation for spirituality and that the spiritual development benefits greatly from the knowledge in the two other fields? 

[Toby]

The best things spiritually imo that you can do is:
- meditation
- self-inquiry
- sitting with a teacher

so, it's really easy. you pick up some books on spirituality with different approaches and see what approach resonates for you and then you look if a teacher is available in that area where you live. then you look if they resonate with you and you go there. easy. so if you are drawn to mainly advaita you could click on the page in my signature. but I'm a bit hesitant to recommend it to you because I don't know if advaita is the best approach for you.

[Leo Eckl]

I believe this is a reply to my other topic, right? Thanks, I'll go for self-inquiry first and then it will probably merge with contemplating other things. This forum is amazing!

[ajasatya]

@Leo Eckl hi there!

first of all, i want to congratulate you because i'm very impressed with the sanity you're experiencing at your age. most people who come here seeking advice are quite broken inside but you seem to be pretty functional.

secondly, i want to thank you because you inspired me (even more) to build a good family with a healthy atmosphere to be lived, even though you haven't said much about yours.

third: your very parents seem to have their heads on the right places. ask them what they do to keep up with the proper mental discipline.

fourth: the greatest realization for a man is learning how to let peace flood his heart. people will say a thousand things about enlightenment. but enlightenment is simply the ability to be at peace, to be completely present in every moment of your life. and it's a trainable skill. if you do so, the other segments of your life will go with the flow. your romantic life, your professional life, your physical health, everything will come with ease.

i'm not talking from a theoretical level. i'm talking from personal experience.

may you be at peace.
ajasatya.

[Leo Eckl]

@ajasatya Thank you so much! I feel extremely blessed to be born in this body and in this environment  

Thanks for your advice on enlightenment, I kind of felt that way.

[Cocolove]

On 7/27/2017 at 2:30 AM, Leo Eckl said:

My question is now: How strongly should I focus on the secular stuff and how much on the spiritual stuff? On the one hand I feel like becoming enlightened first, completely mastering my psychology etc. would give me everything I will ever want and everything after that would just be a funny game to play and on the other hand I look at all these decades I have ahead of me and I feel like I can do it both simultaneously, so I would document my journey and all that towards enlightenment and self-mastery, which would probably be more inspiring than popping out of nowhere and then starting to build it from scratch.

 

Hey, I'm 17, and in a very similar situation to you. I'm going to university for psychology next August. Your overall perspective reminds me of myself in some ways. I am way less certain on life purpose though, however, I have made a lot of progress and put a bunch of time into it. I appreciate your attitude, I aim to be a positive as you about the future and my potential!

Anyway, on this paragraph, I resonate deeply with the idea of doing both simultaneously. Currently, while I am meditating a lot and all that kind of stuff, I am putting about as much effort into the 'secular' stuff, like life purpose. I have thought about going all in for spirituality, even skipping college to go meditate all day somewhere. Ultimately, especially after a retreat, I realized that that this was a kind of spiritual bypassing. Avoiding building an excellent life purpose and relationships and filling my lower needs would lead to a shallower awakening, and really wouldn't work. This is at the very least the conclusion I drew, I hope you find it helpful.

[Forestluv]

This is an old thread and the OP hasn’t visited the forum in 2 years.