How to Financial Independence

[Nickyy]

9 minutes ago, Serotoninluv said:

Just an idea that popped up. . .

You say that happiness isn't anywhere but right here. Would you say that happiness is something that appears and disappears right here? Or is happiness always right here?  

 

Happiness is always the case, it's just covered up with time.

Whatever comes out of that freedom is one's life purpose.

It may even manifest as an impulse to strip all your clothes off and dance across a dual carriageway lol

Whatever life wants from you, that's it ??

[Forestluv]

17 minutes ago, Raptorsin7 said:

@Serotoninluv I just know it can't be anywhere other than direct experience because that's all that ever exists. I've been happier in my life before but it's all been based on external events. I've never just sat and been happy for no reason. That's what i'm going for now.

That's beautiful. It reminds me of a time I was out in nature feeling happy. Then I thought "why am I happy?". I didn't have a reason. Like you said, I realized how much of my happiness was dependent on external events. "As soon as I get a gf, I will be happy.", "I soon as I finish this semester of classes I can be happy", "If I was on a beach in Costa Rica, I could be happy". It's like I had "rules" for my happiness. . . . So here I was just sitting in nature with no reason to be happy, yet there was happiness. And it just wasn't my happiness. I was also sitting within happiness around me. It felt free to me. It was beautiful. 

[Nickyy]

8 minutes ago, Serotoninluv said:

That's beautiful. It reminds me of a time I was out in nature feeling happy. Then I thought "why am I happy?". I didn't have a reason. Like you said, I realized how much of my happiness was dependent on external events. "As soon as I get a gf, I will be happy.", "I soon as I finish this semester of classes I can be happy", "If I was on a beach in Costa Rica, I could be happy". It's like I had "rules" for my happiness. . . . So here I was just sitting in nature with no reason to be happy, yet there was happiness. And it just wasn't my happiness. I was also sitting within happiness around me. It felt free to me. It was beautiful. 

Excellent. That's it! When you're in that state you're expressing the truth of who you are, being instead of trying to become something. In that state you know the right job for you, the right friends for you, the right woman for you. And it all comes your way because there is no more conflicts. 

What intelligent woman wouldn't give their right arm for a guy who is genuinely happy and doesn't need anything to make him happy? 

That's why attraction and relationships that are successful are based on a guys life purpose. 

Trustable 

[Raptorsin7]

@Serotoninluv Can you access that state any time or does it come and go now?

[Raptorsin7]

@Nickyy I can only really get to the highest states after yoga, weed, and meditation. Otherwise thinking is more deluded, and i don't really feel present. How often in your day are you in this state of just being compared, to wanted, desiring, suffering etc?

[Nickyy]

9 minutes ago, Raptorsin7 said:

@Nickyy I can only really get to the highest states after yoga, weed, and meditation. Otherwise thinking is more deluded, and i don't really feel present. How often in your day are you in this state of just being compared, to wanted, desiring, suffering etc?

Meditation is an all day affair. I've written 703 posts all saying the same thing from as many angles as I possibly can.

[Raptorsin7]

 @Nickyy So you are done seeking?

[Forestluv]

29 minutes ago, Raptorsin7 said:

@Serotoninluv Can you access that state any time or does it come and go now?

I think this may be entering an area of relative and absolute happiness. 

For me, relative happiness is a pleasurable state of being. That type of relative happiness appears and disappears. I can do some things activities to invite it's appearance, yet it's not something I can turn on or off at will. All sorts of feeling appear and disappear: feelings of fatigue, hunger, grouchiness, joy, curiosity, confusion, love, attraction, annoyance etc. They come and go. Yet through the practice and process of letting go, healing, realizations, my mind-body is much more relaxed, present and content with Now that it used to be. 

Yet I would say that there is also a deeper form of happiness that is always present and can be accessed. Yet it's not limited to a giggling feel good kind of happiness. I remember about a year ago, I was listening to some sad music. Sad songs just kept coming up on my Pandora station. Each song was about loss and sorrow. Like the loss of a loved one. Outside it was raining. It's like I felt the sorrow of so many human beings. Yet not like a suffering sorrow. The other side of true sorrow is true joy. They are two sides of the same coin. The reason the singers could experience so much sorrow is because they experienced so much joy. It was so beautiful. I spent hours in beautiful sadness and I had no reason to be sad. It had nothing to due with me. And I didn't want to be anywhere else in the world. I wanted to be Now with this music and rain - with this human experience. . . . Later that night, I told my gf about it and she immediately said "Oh no! That's too bad. Let's do something to change the way you feel and make you better". She didn't get it. This sadness was transcendent to my own personal suffering. There was an underlying peace, beauty, love and connection to humanity about it. In a way, it was "happy", yet not in a relative giggling happy way. . . This type of happiness of presence seems to be always present. It's like being Now and wanting to be Now. During the sadness, there is no place I would have rather been than Here and Now experiencing what I was experiencing. That is a deep form of happiness to me.  

[Nickyy]

4 minutes ago, Raptorsin7 said:

 @Nickyy So you are done seeking?

There's nothing to seek 

You can expand your knowledge and grow up, but you can never become happy through it. 

[Raptorsin7]

@Serotoninluv The deep all encompassing happiness is what i'm after. Not necessarily the peak experience of joy, bliss etc. I think of it like if you could go meta and observe your life from somewhere else, is the totality of your experience happiness. Are you living a good life? Of course if you are mid yoga and your body is throbbing you may not be "happy", but this all part of your happy life. 

I don't like going into theory too much because i feel like the truth i'm seeking is the opposite of theory, i guess i'm just hoping someone will say something that clicks and produces a change in me. But i just gotta keep going.

[Raptorsin7]

@Nickyy Even when i stop seeking for a moment, i just get lost in the story of my life over and over again. There is no stable peace. Moments, maybe but even then any moment of peace is just lost to the next moment over and over again.

[Nickyy]

Just now, Raptorsin7 said:

@Nickyy Even when i stop seeking for a moment, i just get lost in the story of my life over and over again. There is no stable peace. Moments, maybe but even then any moment of peace is just lost to the next moment over and over again.

Yeah, its like that. You lose it and then you find it, then you lose it. 

But are we clear on how to discover life purpose?

 

[Nickyy]

3 minutes ago, Raptorsin7 said:

@Nickyy Even when i stop seeking for a moment, i just get lost in the story of my life over and over again. There is no stable peace. Moments, maybe but even then any moment of peace is just lost to the next moment over and over again.

Buddhists go sit in grave yards. Or they have a skull sitting in the retreat centre. 

Maybe that is a good practice?

You soon discover what's really important.

 

[Raptorsin7]

@Nickyy Yes, when i find what i'm looking for i will use what you said to guide my life purpose. My plan right now is as follows:

1. Find some stable happiness from enlightenment work, where i'm no longer seeking and can honestly say i enjoy my life.

2. Exercise extreme discipline to start an online business and achieve an income that will allow me to be financially free, and then I can decide if i want to drop out of law school or just stick it out like my family wants me to.

3. Enjoy my new found financial freedom a little bit. Go on vacations, go on meditation retreats, just enjoy materialistic pleasures.

4. Help people on actualized.org like people here have helped me. Maybe do some free coaching for people who are seeking hard like i am now.

5. Go after life purpose no matter how scary it is. 

[Nickyy]

@Raptorsin7 So all of that is what you really want to do?

If so then go tell someone close to you and ask them to give you feedback if they feel that it's true for you.

If they don't feel it's true then take what they say seriously and keep working on it.

[Nickyy]

@Raptorsin7 They should be able to feel your passion.

 

[Forestluv]

48 minutes ago, Raptorsin7 said:

@Serotoninluv The deep all encompassing happiness is what i'm after. Not necessarily the peak experience of joy, bliss etc. I think of it like if you could go meta and observe your life from somewhere else, is the totality of your experience happiness. Are you living a good life? Of course if you are mid yoga and your body is throbbing you may not be "happy", but this all part of your happy life. 

It looks like you are looking at a big picture of a happy, good life. One in which there a good times and rough times, yet holistically its a good life. It reminds me of long distance running. There were times that were blissful and exciting. . . and there were times that I was uncomfortable and didn't want to be running. Yet overall, it was a great activity that added to my life. Even when my body was throbbing, I could still be silly and make fun of myself. There were times after marathons that I could barely walk for days. I struggled to get up off the toilet. At times I would laugh at the absurdity of it - it was like I was an old man in a young body. . . I've also known people that seem to have positive attitudes even during hardships. Some people can "make lemonade out of lemons".  . . I also think there is another form of happiness that is unconditional, yet perhaps it is more elusive because it doesn't fit the standard idea of an emotional happiness. 

[Raptorsin7]

@Nickyy My family doesn't understand this stuff. If i told them i wanted to drop out of school and pursue financial freedom they would think im nuts and resist it. 

This is the place i go to pursue this kind of work. 

I think its a good plan. Idk if other people's opinions should matter 

[Nickyy]

Just now, Raptorsin7 said:

@Nickyy My family doesn't understand this stuff. If i told them i wanted to drop out of school and pursue financial freedom they would think im nuts and resist it. 

This is the place i go to pursue this kind of work. 

I think its a good plan. Idk if other people's opinions should matter 

I get it, I really do. 

It's not other people's opinions you want, it's you want a mirror.

Think of it this way. I did a job that I hated three times in a row because in my head I believed that I couldn't do anything else and that I had to pay the bills.

Every day my work colleagues knew that I wasn't happy doing this job..it didn't excite me but I didn't even realize that I was unfulfilled. 

That's the sort of feedback you want. You want to make sure you're not deceiving yourself. People can feel you better than yourself. 

It's not their opinion, it's their wisdom you want.

 

[Raptorsin7]

@Nickyy i'm going to start working with a life coach i think thats where ill have to iron this stuff out. I don't feel comfortable sharing this stuff fully with anyone in my life.