How Can I Beat Comfort And Luxury?

[faith]

Was watching Leo's Maslow Hierarchy video, and have a question about comfort and luxury. He basically said something along the lines of how people tend to cling to comfort and luxury because their potential is not being actualized, which creates a zombie, mediocre society. 

Does somebody have a personal experience with comfort and luxury and how you were able to transcend it? I think I have struggled with it for as long as I can remember, and I seem to always grasp at the TV and food until I tire myself out. Trouble is I don't feel bad about it anymore. I have no idea how to climb out of this hole. Any wisdom would be much appreciated!

Thank you everyone

[Prabhaker]

@ashashlov

The search for material happiness does have a significant contribution to make in the search for spiritual happiness. The most significant contribution this search makes is that it inevitably takes one into frustration and anguish. 

It is not that the theist doesn't have a relationship with material happiness, of course he does, but the more he seeks it, the more he will find that attaining it is impossible. And only when the search for material happiness leads one to experiencing its impossibility, does the spiritual search begin.

Material joys function as negative warning signs on die path to spiritual happiness. Again and again we seek happiness through material pleasures, and again and again we fail. Again and again we desire something, and fail to get it every time. Again and again we aspire, and each time we fall back.

The desire for material pleasures has an essential role in the spiritual search, because its failure, its utter failure, is the first step towards the search for spiritual bliss. That is why I don't call someone who is seeking material happiness irreligious. He too is seeking religiousness but in the wrong direction; he too is searching for bliss but in a place where it cannot be found. But at least he has to discover this much first: that he cannot find it there. Only then will he look in a different direction --- meditation and yoga. 

[Nahm]

@ashashlov Forgive my forwardness but I'm calling bullshit. It's not the tv or the comforts that ail you, it is your fitness level. What I'm trying to communicate right now is elusive as fuck but I'm doing my best in hopes it reaches you in a beneficial way. You have to do this almost impossible thing - you have to see through the illusion that your ego is creating. It is making up a story with a backdrop of justification with regards to "comfort". You must realize the wisdom in "The body IS the temple". Perhaps consider all the trouble the Egyptians went through to make temples/pyramids. Now consider what care, time and focus you do or don't allocate for your own 'temple'. You must break out of your repetition. That is not easy. It is far easier to do the most probable thing - more of the same. FUCK. THAT. TRAP. 

Put an elliptical or excercise bike in front of your tv. Buy jean that are the size you will be and hang them in a prominent place on the wall. Write your wieght / excercise goals on the wall. Listen to 'pumped' music. YouTube "Motivation", listen for as long and as many days as you need to. All this and whatever else you can think of will prime you subconsciously and you'll start to gravitate to better health, and a better temple. You have to put how you feel as always the most important thing, because that is where you learn or don't learn, expand or not, connect or not, etc. I hope this helps and yes I realize I'm being preachy and dickish but it's from compassion. 

The road away from enlightenment is paved with "I don't have enough time" "I don't have enough money" "I don't have the desire" "After I resolve my issues" "once my spouse does this" "When my kids are older" "When I get my own place" "When my boss does this"

ALL TRAPS!!!!!

 

The road to enlightenment is paved with "I can"  "I am".

[faith]

9 hours ago, Prabhaker said:

@ashashlov

The search for material happiness does have a significant contribution to make in the search for spiritual happiness. The most significant contribution this search makes is that it inevitably takes one into frustration and anguish. 

Thank you Prabhaker,

I have noticed that meditation amplifies and clarifies all the things I had been doing automatically. My biggest concern right now is apathy, but I am starting to think it's because I don't have a life purpose. I had a full day off yesterday to work on my school work and my hobbies, yet I had such a strong resistance that pulled me towards TV instead, so I wasted a whole day. This cycle has been repeating all my life. I have never had to work hard, and always clung to comfort. 

[faith]

17 minutes ago, Nahm said:

@ashashlov Forgive my forwardness but I'm calling bullshit. It's not the tv or the comforts that ail you, it is your fitness level. What I'm trying to communicate right now is elusive as fuck but I'm doing my best in hopes it reaches you in a beneficial way. You have to do this almost impossible thing - you have to see through the illusion that your ego is creating. It is making up a story with a backdrop of justification with regards to "comfort". You must realize the wisdom in "The body IS the temple". Perhaps consider all the trouble the Egyptians went through to make temples/pyramids. Now consider what care, time and focus you do or don't allocate for your own 'temple'. You must break out of your repetition. That is not easy. It is far easier to do the most probable thing - more of the same. FUCK. THAT. TRAP. 

I don't mind at all Nahm, I really appreciate your compassion, my friend

I like your message, but I am not so sure it applies to me. This is because I exercise and eat healthy, and I cherish my body as best as I can. However, you're right that I abuse it as well when I have my binging fringes with food and TV. I think my problem is more so that I am apathetic and lack a life purpose. All my life I tended to hide from hard work for the sake of comfort, and now that things are more clear for me, through meditation, I am starting to debunk some of my behavior. And so, I think the real culprit is my lack of life purpose and apathy. 

Thank you for your message

[Prabhaker]

6 minutes ago, ashashlov said:

I have never had to work hard, and always clung to comfort. 

Try to improve health and physical fitness. Learn yoga, start any physical activity, like walking, jogging, swimming. 

Drop old ideas of meditations, that just sitting underneath a tree with a yoga posture is meditation. That is only one of the ways, and may be suitable for a few people but is not suitable for all. For a small child it is not meditation, it is torture. For a young man who is alive, vibrant, it is repression, it is not meditation.

Maybe for an old man who has lived, whose energies are declining, it may be meditation.

[faith]

12 minutes ago, Prabhaker said:

Try to improve health and physical fitness. Learn yoga, start any physical activity, like walking, jogging, swimming. 

Drop old ideas of meditations, that just sitting underneath a tree with a yoga posture is meditation. That is only one of the ways, and may be suitable for a few people but is not suitable for all. For a small child it is not meditation, it is torture. For a young man who is alive, vibrant, it is repression, it is not meditation.

Maybe for an old man who has lived, whose energies are declining, it may be meditation.

Could you please tell me what kind of meditation I could do?

Thank you

[Prabhaker]

1 minute ago, ashashlov said:

Could you please tell me what kind of meditation I could do?

You will not think of running as a meditation, but runners sometimes have felt a tremendous experience of meditation. They were surprised, because they were not looking for it -- who thinks that a runner is going to experience God? -- but it has happened, and now running is becoming more and more a new kind of meditation.

It can happen in running. If you have ever been a runner, if you have enjoyed running in the early morning when the air is fresh and young and the whole world is coming back out of sleep, awakening, and you were running and your body was functioning beautifully, and the fresh air, and the new world again born out of the darkness of the night, and everything singing all around, and you were feeling so alive.... A moment comes when the runner disappears, there is only running. The body, mind and soul start functioning together; suddenly an inner orgasm is released.

Runners have sometimes come accidentally on the experience of the fourth, turiya, although they will miss it because they will think it was just because of running that they enjoyed the moment; that it was a beautiful day, that the body was healthy and the world was beautiful, and it was just a certain mood. They will not take note of it. But if they take note of it, my own observation is that a runner can more easily come close to meditation than anybody else. Jogging can be of immense help, swimming can be of immense help. All these things have to be transformed into meditations.
 

Jogging, dancing, swimming, anything can be a meditation. Whenever your body, mind, soul are functioning together in rhythm it is meditation. And if you are alert that you are doing it as a meditation -- not to take part in the Olympics, but doing it as a meditation -- then it is tremendously beautiful.

[Nahm]

38 minutes ago, ashashlov said:

I don't mind at all Nahm, I really appreciate your compassion, my friend

I like your message, but I am not so sure it applies to me. This is because I exercise and eat healthy, and I cherish my body as best as I can. However, you're right that I abuse it as well when I have my binging fringes with food and TV. I think my problem is more so that I am apathetic and lack a life purpose. All my life I tended to hide from hard work for the sake of comfort, and now that things are more clear for me, through meditation, I am starting to debunk some of my behavior. And so, I think the real culprit is my lack of life purpose and apathy. 

Thank you for your message

You are hiding from an illusion. You created your connotation "hard work". So that is the belief you need to let go of. You're categorizing "hard work" and "purpose" in a way that does not benefit you.  My compliments to you for your healthy habits and my apologies for assuming otherwise. That is a great feat!