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lmfao

Is mindfulness through intense suffering the best way to "kill the ego"?

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Is persistent mindfulness in the face of pain and suffering the quickest way to reach enlightenment? One or two weeks ago I was feeling depressed in an almost suicidal state of mind, but when I forced myself to be mindful, I found my mind racing with thoughts like "why me? Why am I in so much pain?" whilst I was crying. I feel like doing this gave me an experiential glimpse of what ego is and how it feels. After meditation, my neurotic hellish state of mind turned into a somber but gentle state of mind with less suffering. Is the quickest way to enlightenment just meditate and be mindful through intense suffering?

Edited by lmfao

Hark ye yet again — the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough.

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Quickest way to enlightenment is 5-MeO-DMT. But mindful suffering is pretty good too.


You are God. You are Truth. You are Love. You are Infinity.

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7 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Quickest way to enlightenment is 5-MeO-DMT. But mindful suffering is pretty good too.

When you say mindful suffering. What do you mean? 

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Best example would be strong determination sitting or doing a 10 day solo meditation retreat. The suffering experienced there, while you are fully mindful and not distracting yourself with anything, is like Miracle Grow for the soul.

The problem with most forms of suffering is that people suffer mindlessly, never looking into the root of the suffering because they are distracted with entertainment or business or relationships.

A classic shaman's vision quest in a great example of this. You go into the desert all alone with no food or water for 3 days. You suffer so much you start to have mystical experiences.

Jesus supposedly did that for 40 days in the desert.

The Buddha basically did that too under the Bodhi tree. He sat there and sufferred mindfully.

Retreats create lots of mindful suffering for me and grow me the most. Psychedelics also create mindful suffering, AKA bad trips, which are very healing.

It works because suffering is just the ego's unwillingness to surrender to reality. So by suffering mindfully without escape or distraction, you force the ego to die. It is like exposing a vampire to sunlight.

The only trouble is, it's uncomfortable and the ego hates it.


You are God. You are Truth. You are Love. You are Infinity.

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20 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Best example would be strong determination sitting or doing a 10 day solo meditation retreat. The suffering experienced there, while you are fully mindful and not distracting yourself with anything, is like Miracle Grow for the soul.

The problem with most forms of suffering is that people suffer mindlessly, never looking into the root of the suffering because they are distracted with entertainment or business or relationships.

 I understand that totally. Although I never went to a retreat. I did spend a lot of time alone in the woods investigating the root. Then realized the root was thought/psychological time. So in a way suffering psychologically did help. It’s when that psychological time ended that time ceased. After that inquiry became more efficient because there wasn’t any attachment to any particular outcome. 

Yeah I agree about not distracting yourself with common day entertainment and such. And as bad as my child hood was ‘suffering’ I am in some way thankful for it. If you know what I mean. 

Thanks for the reply?

Edited by Faceless

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