Thoughts On New Video - Lifestyle Minimalism

[appleaurorae]

This thread is to discuss Leo's video.

My comment:

But... why? Why slow down, there's so much to do, so much to see and SO LITTLE TIME. I am already 22 and if I slow down, I'll be late. After watching Leo's videos, I started taking up productive activities and remove unnecessary. And that's when I started to have no free time (not even to have time and energy to do all of the activities). And these are: running, magick, 1h+ meditation, game development (plan A) and shit-activities like going to university and working (plan B - strategy anyone?). Why two plans? If the first fails I need to keep being alive somehow. Or become homeless and die. Ok, I'm overreacting.

I know that slowing down will feel much better, but first you say: "work hard to get success" and then "slow down to enjoy life". But what's better: everyday good feeling or having giant doses of excitement and sudden relief when you achieve success? Or even better, why not merging the both: going fast (like sanic) and living happily, to show, to believe, that one is able to perform that fast and maintain sanity and emotional/spiritual side. Sounds like hypocrisy, especially after what I wrote before, but I feel it must be possible somehow and get double fulfilment. I know that materialistic life is pointless, but it's in 21st century vital to actually stay alive, to have freaking water and food. And again you start with education, how can one slow down to educate, at least on university - impossible - they are created to destroy people and make them cheap workers for the wealthy.

Simply, I see that if I followed your rules, I will die in like two weeks. That's how this world is already formed. It just doesn't make sense in physical world.

[Hussein Murad]

He said 50% not the hole fucking day or you work like a turtle .. absolutely non sense.. what clicked in my head is that we shouldn't engage in activities that suck our own energy or shift it to anther target ! 

my target is to be a markter for example and talking to people , socialized will not add that value . 1 hour a day or less will be fine 

slow  down little bit so you can be more than doing " that was the point " 

But doesn't mean that slow down and you will miss life ..  

actually it maybe a chance to see opportunities through this slow down. .. 

 

Edited May 15, 2016 by Hussein Murad

[appleaurorae]

@Hussein Murad At first he was talking about cutting down on activities, then he started about completely removing everything.

But from what I have seen, Leo changes his mind quite often, he changes directions and versions in like every ten videos.

[Hussein Murad]

Can you tell me what did he change ?

[Naviy]

4 minutes ago, appleaurorae said:

Leo changes his mind quite often, he changes directions and versions in like every ten videos.

Actually, he does not at all. You just do not understand the paradoxes of self actualization work (to be honest, there is even no paradox here, but it is easier for the mind to accept these concepts, labeling some of them "paradoxes"). To understand them, you need to get more experience on this path. Just continue doing the work, continue reading and learning more about all this stuff.

This video tells you how to live a more fulfilled and happy life. You need to slow down and do less for it. In order to be able to slow down and do less, you need to be more grounded in being already. You need to have much more stable and healthy psychology. You need to understand life much more. You need to understand what it is like to be a human much more. You need to understand what is important in life and what is not. You need to be much more free from social and psychological conditions. 

So, only neurotic (=normal) and unhappy person needs to live crazy fast life and do too much stuff. Because he always needs something more, something next, to be happier, to survive, to escape his torturing mind, to delude himself all the time, to escape and avoid life, to identify with the ego and fears, etc.

Self actualized person is not needy and is not neurotic. He is happy with being the being. This is the only stable and true happiness. This is even more valuable than happiness actually. The video tells you how to achieve this fulfillment instead of constantly pursuing things in life because of your neurotic motivation ("the need"). The video tells you how to be free from delusions and torturing mind.

[appleaurorae]

Maybe an example: you have an overclocked CPU with standard cooling. You know that if you keep it that way, the CPU will break in some time. You can underclock the processor and have it slower but working. Or you can choose an expensive option to buy a better cooling and keep it overclocked which will profit in the future. What is you choice: to be in the same place and work slowly or to "invest" in yourself and perform better?

[Naviy]

CPU's only goal is to work better.

Your goal is to live an actualized life.

[Joyboy]

The only thing I can't accpet is let go of success. I have to become success while still keep an eye on enlightenment, damn!

[Joyboy]

But you know those two things are on different way, one over here and one over there  How can you become success if you say NO to almost everything and everyone.

[Extreme Z7]

@appleaurorae Knowing the path is not the same as actually walking it. You can discuss about this topic all you want and that's fine but ultimately what you need to do if you want to really understand Leo's video is try to see where he's coming from. And then put massive action into trying to get to that same place and wanting it badly.

[Ajax]

@appleaurorae  He is getting into the really advanced stuff now. If you are not ready to hear it... don't worry about it. One day you will.

Just do this slowly and gradually.  For example, take 20-30 minutes to enjoy your supper. There used to be this thing called "table conversation" where people would just sit and talk and relate sometime for hours at a time. Then they would retire to the den sit by the fire and talk some more. In the south there is an activity called "porch sitting" and it was an open invitation to just sit and visit with your neighbors. In this way the "home" extended past your home into your neighborhood. Unless you have personally experienced this, you wouldn't know what this is like.

Here is an example of slowing down in my youth and how it increases productivity.  I was often by myself and my parents didn't allow tv in the house. So I had a ball and a basket ball hoop. Since I was by myself and didn't have some sort of contest to play, I slowed down and wasn't trying to make as many basketball shots as possible. Rather I simply focused on practicing on my technique to make the basket. So I might have made one shot a minute,  Yet, every shot was slow, deliberate and modified an increasingly evolving technique. I got to the point where I made the shot almost every time. In time my speed increased considerably as my technique improved. And when I played kids at school, I outshot every one there. I didn't have the greatest ball handling skills but boy could I sink those three-pointers.

When you say "magick" do you mean "prestidigitation" as in magic tricks. If so, I have a bit of knowledge in that field. The tricks really are simple and repetitive. Most of them rely on slight of hand. Today's magician are woefully deficient in the finer points of slight of hand. They may fool the audience, but they don't fool me. The great magicians of old would spend hours upon hours and days upon days on just a few polished acts. Then they would work on their patter and presence to pad the time between acts. This would also take, days, weeks, months to perfect as well as they were intended to build anticipation. Therefore, much of their "magic" resulted from their "act" not their trick. This was done by working hard but slow.

You were perplexed about the working hard-working slow paradox.  Why? All too often working slow is hard work. Don't believe me?  Try dedicating a few days a week to meditating 5 or more hours a day... Try working 6 hours on one or two magic acts a day. Now, that's HARD WORK. Not physically perhaps but mentally it certainly is.

Try this, instead of running one day. Just  take a long walk through nature for 2 or three hours. Or go on a hiking trip and instead of just trying to get somewhere... Stop and smell the roses... Watch the murmuring of the wind through the pines, the cool gentle breeze on your skin, the joyful melody of song-birds. The wide variety of colors in the sky and on the ground and in the life. The veins and pattern on the leaves...  have you taken the time to see and experience any of these things.  You say you got places to go and things to see. But have you truly looked and experienced these things you are in such a hurry to visit? 

Could it be that you were in such a hurry to get to the next thing that you missed out on so much beauty for you to see?

[ChimpBrain]

I see no paradox or flip flopping at all. Different videos are created for different people who are in varying stages of their self development. My only problem with this video is that I feel like my life is already trimmed down to the bare minimum of work, family, self actualization work, and household chores, yet I'm still overwhelmed with activity most days. A lot of that is just part of having a 4yr old and running your own business though I guess. I definitely don't want to complain about my situation, I'm just not sure what else I could trim down on. Material minimalism is a different story, that's somewhere I could definitely make progress. 

[Corte]

dont you think it's funny that you're complicating a video about minimizing? 

One day the success you're working so hard towards won't be enough anymore.  The question is: how long will it take you? Will you want to realize this after all your success in materialism, in old age when you have no more life left? 

You are "fueled" by this lifestyle, the people who have provided incredible replies to this thread are not anymore. You're probably doing amazing things. But when the time comes when you start to ask yourself hard questions, you'll understand this espisode. 

The way Leo discusses isn't the right way, it's a more fulfilling way.

Your work has all been done before

[Mal]

@Corte Nice response. 

I'd like to add that we shouldn't forget that materialist is a stage along the way of developmental unfoldment, and therefore it is not entirely futile in itself to try to chase material treasure (and this also includes spiritual material goods in the form of enhanced well being, spiritual states, and even relational procurement aka conventional relationships).

It's just not the "be-all-and-end-all" of life. It's not the complete story. 

Materialism is indeed a compelling stage, and the drive to seek in this realm is completely healthy in the correct context.  Nobody in this life wants to be cut off from bodily existence, and even the greatest realizers so far in the likes of Ramana Maharshi would still have benefitted greatly from better integration of this aspect of living.

Whether we like it or not we're always going to be a slave somewhat to relative craving for material forms. We currently have no evidence that we can fully transcend this realm without there being some serious problems as a consequence. 

I said before in a previous posting that it's always good to "go for it". This is because every stage holds a piece of the truth, and can satisfy some aspect of the whole. 

I even see my contribution to this discussion, along with yours and everybody else's as an Integral part of the whole picture.  The whole is greater than the sum of its parts and all parts compliment the whole. 

Regards

Mal

 

[Saarah]

@appleaurorae Although he says you are supposed to not have a life, it is by cutting out all the unnecessary stuff that you begin to have a proper life 

When you stuff your life with things, what happens is you get so lost in it all, in all the doing, that you are no longer working at a higher consciousness level. You stop noticing who you are and what life is, because you will head down a spiral of doing. You will hold so much importance to all these external activities, you won't be able to separate yourself from them. And when you become stuck to them, you cannot be free. All your ideas about life, the beliefs, the neurotic ego, all of it will continue to be reinforced deeper and deeper, it will become entrenched, and you'll be once again heading back to meditation attempting to get out of the noise and the stubbornness of the ego. 

The video's conclusion is something that can be reached at more advanced levels though as others have mentioned, so for now just try to be minimalist with the simpler things like focusing on doing only one or two work related activities in the day. Maybe in the future it will no longer seem so extreme once you gradually start shifting to less and less activities.

This is all long term so although the message is super drastic and shocking right now, being consistent and gradual will make it seem like the next step you'll want to take one day.

[Corte]

@Mal that was beautifully written, and a much much better explanation. your post needs to be read by everyone on this forum that has issues with nothingness and enlightement. This understanding is so important while actualizing. Thank you! 

[ArabiaNytes]

"Lifestyle minimalism - renouncing your busy stupid life" on YouTube 

It's really interesting to see a different perspective of how vital a minimalistic lifestyle is  to becoming  self-actualized  and then enlightened.

His description of what it is and what its accomplishment entails, basically can be applied to how I've come to live.  I don't know about others, but my path brought me to this minimalistic lifestyle out of disappointment and frustration. Those feelings pushed anxiety in my susceptible neurotic mind. And then, in waves of exhaustion, the purging of all the illusions of the meaning of "happiness" that the domesticated lifestyle has led most to believe brings me to feeling a sort of peace...this lasts until I relapse into the depression of unsatisfied expectations. 

I'm guessing this sounds like the withdrawal symptoms that he was talking about in the video, huh?

All I thought I was missing in my life, and the absense of these things depresses me.... how ironic that it is exactly these things I need to cut out of my life in the first place. And that doing so successfully elevates you to a whole new level of living a fulfilled life. In a different perspective, all that I saw to be a lacking in my life has been a blessing in disguise.

Slowly, I'm becoming to understand this...

"Do without all that which is ails you, and you will find true happiness."

Sometimes I'm cynical and sometimes I'm bittersweet... but many of the times I'm frustrated  and tired....I just want to find some peace in my mind and be free its imprisonment. Letting go of the need for the wrong things is truly not easy and such a counter-intuitive move. 

[ArabiaNytes]

10 hours ago, appleaurorae said:

Maybe an example: you have an overclocked CPU with standard cooling. You know that if you keep it that way, the CPU will break in some time. You can underclock the processor and have it slower but working. Or you can choose an expensive option to buy a better cooling and keep it overclocked which will profit in the future. What is you choice: to be in the same place and work slowly or to "invest" in yourself and perform better?

I thought you were going a different way with this example. Maybe minimalizing the programs used in order to reduce the overclocked CPU and  needing less to cool while allowing more efficient use of processing space....lol

[ArabiaNytes]

So before knowing that there was a thread already made for a response to that video, I had posted my thoughts as a separate post in this forum catagory. 

Oh the irony of what I thought was wrong in my life is actually what's right. Purging of the neediness while abstaining from the distractions it produces... I guess the attitude one has in respects to all this is what really matters in whether one can progress towards attaining a fufilled life.

Edited May 15, 2016 by ArabiaNytes

[ArabiaNytes]

I suppose I found what I was looking for in a thread posted by Ayla... maybe this helps others like me.

It's pretty amazing how I came to find her thread in a link of another thread through the randomness of happening on the initial third thread. I have been struggling with being confused of this paradox and her post addresses the issue in a reassuring and clear manner. I am thankful to have found it.... I can breathe a little easier now. ?