LastThursday

Time management. Have a weekly schedule of activities. Sit down, draw up a timetable of things you want to do each day and when. Then do it. The first few weeks will seem difficult but persevere, after that it will be plain sailing. Adjust your timetable over time as new ideas emerge.

I know that cash is going the way of the dodo. But the best advice I ever had was to pay for as many things as possible with hard cash. Have a weekly cash allowance that you take out just once on the same day, and use that as much as possible. Avoid using cards. The idea is that it stops impulse buying on small items. Any cash left over at the end of the week, should be topped up to the allowance amount - not rolled over! The other thing is to buy quality items and then keep them for as long as humanly possible before replacing. If they break and they're fixable then fix them. Don't buy mobile phones on contract, buy the handset and then get a cheap and realistic deal for minutes and texts. In fact, try and avoid anything which involves recurring cost. Keep all recurring costs to an absolute minimum. Gym membership you hardly use, then bin it. Accounts for all those streaming media services you only watch once in a blue moon, bin it. It's more economic to pay for one off use sometimes.

What Infinite Intelligence knows is the same thing as what Infinite Intelligence is. Everything is Infinite Intelligence. Infinite Intelligence is everything. Complete symmetry.

Absolutely, we all make stupid mistakes sometimes and we should be receptive to being challenged - in both directions. But in general shouting from the forum rooftops about the injustice of having a thread locked is fairly... stupid. Any of these responses is less stupid: 1. Forget about it and move on (don't bite the hand that feeds you). 2. Why not PM you or a mod and ask why the thread was locked? 3. Come up with a better topic. 4. Cool off for 24 hours, and think about what to do next. 5. Ask yourself: is it really that important?

Leo can do what the hell he wants. It's his forum. The problem with being stupid, is that you don't realise you're stupid. Only someone less stupid than you can point it out. Whenever people moan about locked threads and banning and so on, the only expression that comes to my mind is: don't bite the hand that feeds you - that's basic stupidity right there.

Why not challenge stupidity? You can't knock the stupidity out of people, but you sure can make them become aware of it. Once a stupid person becomes receptive, then you can open them up to a world of non-stupidity. Of course, it works both ways, don't be a hypochrite. We are all deeply stupid in lots of different ways. Accept the challenge in return.

For every measure of ugliness, there is beauty. For every worry; fear; a happiness. In every loneliness, a yearning for togetherness. For every dream destroyed, some kind of bliss. In the abyss of my despair, there is a shining light. In every wrong; there must be some right. For I'm no longer that kind of man. Far grander than some thought am I. Because: In every waking moment, I must die.

What a load of old waffle

Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream. What's the revelation that life is a dream? Is it that it's insubstantial? Is it that once it passes it becomes a whispy memory? Is it that you can actually wake up from it? Is it that it's full of weirdness? Is it that it's all an illusion? Is it that you can actually become lucid? Is it that night dreams and waking reality are the same? Is it that given the right magic, you can suddenly end up being someone else entirely? Is it that the dream is fantastic and incredible? Is it that dreaming is the natural mode of the universe?

???

@Frenk yeah, probably not one to tell around the campfire.

Apparent separation from the Godhead is a feature not a bug. All that being alive means, is to be separated. Alive to dead is not just a one way street though. "You" could merge with the Godhead and die and yet still come back to life later. Will it be the same "you" again? No. But you're not the same "you" even of five minutes ago: that "you" already died.

If by future you mean the present moment in ten minutes time, then yes it probably will along with all those non-physical events. If by exist you mean with 100% certainty, then probably not - maybe we'll all be swallowed by a passing black hole?

The future doesn't exist. It's just linguistic trickery. All there is, is an ever-changing present moment.

Some of the most rewarding things I've done in life have involved communal activities. For example I remember a work trip where we made willow fencing for a play garden for disabled kids. The sheer act of doing something physical for the communal good is magical. Some of my most rewarding holidays have been where I went with a bunch of friends and just hung out together. I think many of us are missing this communcal aspect of living in the modern world. There seems to be an inverse correlation between the richness of a country and how communally they live. Don't misunderstand me I'm not advocating a political system here. I just thinking that there is a missing piece of the humanity jigsaw in modern Western societies. As well as a strong emphasis on individualism there appears to be an island mentality within family units. That's not to say that there aren't bridges between the islands in the form of friends: but that doesn't constitute communal living. Of course if you don't have much money for rent in Western society you can go and flatshare. You may or may not get to choose you share with however. I'd say that in general it isn't conducive to living communally. What is missing is the sharing of resources, ideas, meal times, child care and generally "pitching in together" that communality entails. Perhaps it isn't for everyone and certainly we are so inculcated in the myth of individual consumerism that deviating from that is impossible for most. It's a cultural attitude and mindset more than enything. It isn't a complete panacea of course. Any society of people at whatever scale will have its inherent problems both organisational, relational and in terms of self policing. Long term communality requires rules and regulations and probably a strong element of routine, so that everyone knows where they stand. As an extension to the communal tribe that you belong to, you would also have to fit into the bigger tribe of society at large. So largely there would be an overlap of values: there is no point living communally if that community shuts itself off from everything else. Even the Amish are not completely disentangled from American society at large. You see how difficult it is not to veer into a political system. How difficult is it to live differently in Western society? It appears that communal living entails living in communes which by definition are somewhat separated from mainstream society. Often there is a strong element of religion and or idealogy involved. I believe that just provides a shared basis for living from the outset. But I also think it's possible to do it the other way around. Start living communally and over time work out what the best rules and policing strategies are. After all most of us are employed to work communally, often we have to "work out" the culture of the workplace, there are no explicit rules given to us from the outset: i.e. it can be done. So why is employment not a good surrogate for living communally? It certainly has some of the aspects of working together for the common good (of the business) and of sharing values. But there are other aspects which don't work so well. Most businesses have a strong hierarchy where the people higher up the echelons are distant and don't interact much with the lowly workers. The emphasis is also wrong: making money, instead of sharing. And if you don't belong to a union of some sort, there is generally no safety net if you get ejected from the workplace or you need your child looked after. In other words working in business is at best token communal living. If I were to set up some sort of commune then the following is a must: Regular shared spiritual practise (non-religious) and high consciousness activites in general Shared physical activities - building, constructing, gathering food, Shared preparing and eating of food, Ready and open discussion of ideas of any persuasion, The use of technology as an enabler for communal living, Some system that stops certain individuals dominating the group: no kings or big-man mentality, A strong attitude of self sufficiency for all members, An attitude of doing things for both the common and individual good, altruism and reciprocity. I'm sure there are 101 other points I could add.

NLP has the Swish pattern, where you can use visualisation: https://www.nlp-techniques.org/what-is-nlp/swish/

@BipolarGrowth exactly. If nobody (including you) has ever occupied another perceptual bubble, then how do you know they exist?

This is solipsism in a nutshell. Which is it: is it just me or is it we? Can it really be both at the same time?

@seeking_brilliance a brilliant topic idea! I'm being lazy, but this a micro-story reposted from my journal: "I woke up. I think. I couldn't quite work out what I had woken up from. What had been razor sharp and solid just then, had diffused into the husk of a sensation. The serenity had been broken and I began to feel agitated that I had been let go of without my consent. What was it? Where had I been? It was nowhere now. Out of the husk grew something that I could remember. Yes, yesterday I had celebrated my birthday. I thought about this. There had been the usual cohort of friends. Jez the joker in the pack, quick to make light of a heavy situation, his disposition rock solid; he was never outwardly melancholy. Cassy was forever warmhearted and would always get me quirky gifts - why is it I never returned the gestures? I couldn't remember just now. Franco idolised himself as some sort of Adonis, but I always found him to be harmless, and he threw a great party, it helped that he was in catering. The rest I couldn't bring to the fore, but boyfriends and wives and friends of my friends, there must have been twenty or so. Come to think of it, had there been family there? No. Karen was on holiday in France with girlfriends. Mum had died only last year, what a god awful time that had been. Dad? I couldn't recall yet. My temples began to throb. Ah yes. The Mojitos Franco had mixed one after the other. I was sure I could still smell the mint on my breath. I breathed in sharply. Of course Cassy had told him to stop and offered to show me to bed when I had started to say absurd things. Jez thought I was hilarious. Bed! I reached out and felt if there was a body next to mine. No. I felt a wave of relief and nausea come over me at the same time. I took another deep breath. Suddenly, an alarm buzzed. I opened my eyes for the first time. 10:20 am. "Shut the fuck up!" I shouted and the alarm stopped. It felt good to shout, but it also somehow felt like the first thing I had ever said, my voice was rough and raspy and unexpectedly deep. It was at that point that my bodily functions kicked in, and I knew that I had to get up. I showered and dressed and ventured cautiously downstairs. The place had been immaculately cleared of the debris of the night before. In middle of the round oak table in the kitchen sat a small white box with an overly large red bow on it. It had to be. I opened it. Inside was a snow Globe, with the motto "Cassy" in red letters underneath. Once the snow slowly drifted down, I began to make out the words "Welcome to Heaven". I half smiled. I sat down and shook the snow globe again.

I think I've always been looking for serenity in my life. There's a small boy inside me that is easily overwhelmed by the real world and wants tranquility and peace. That feeling of overwhelm still dogs me as an adult. The adult me is incredulous: how can some of the simplest things overwhelm you, man up will you? Instead of manning up, the fixer in me has a different idea. It's recently become aware that emotions are held as tensions and sensations in the physical body. I mean I've read as much in the past, but not really paid it much attention. But in my continuing exploration and fascination with self hypnosis, I've come across a particularly effective video that pretty much paralyses my body and thoughts. When I'm in that paralysed state for over an hour, and also without the normal internal running commentary, certain things have started to become very clear. The feelings of overwhelm are 100% represented in the body. In that hypnotised state I can watch the overwhelm flick on of its own accord, and track exactly where in the body it expresses itself. For me, it's mostly tension around the chest area and I have been doing some visualisation to move or remove that tension (as if it were a physical object) away from the body. I think even realising (embodying lol) the fact that all my negative emotions are just tension and vibrations in different parts of my body is curative. It means my awareness is heightened as to when anxiety, fear and overwhelm grip me, and I can bring on the trance and dissipate the negative energy. As a consequence I can stop the body->thoughts->body feedback loop which keeps me overwhelmed for long periods. Magic indeed! My aim in the middle term is to "man up" and eliminate the anxiety and overwhelm that's plagued me my entire life; and have some of that serenity instead.

We are all narcissistic to a degree. We want the love to flow into us from outside, so we puff ourselves up to grab attention and delude ourselves that this is the love we want. Really, the flow needs to go the other way and you should be the source of love. We should give it freely and unconditionally and practise until we become masters at it. And in the process you'll learn to love yourself in the way you want and teach others to do the same. God I've become such a hippie.

I'd say learning is downloading knowledge in slow motion. Can you increase the speed of learning so that it becomes instant? But there are instances of instant learning out there: Is the only way to do this to have a head injury? I wonder.

I'd say there's two types of exist. One is the direct type: you're looking at your hand right now. The other is a kind of mental story or sensation: my mother is living in London. One is direct, one is an inference or a mental construction. The problem with the direct type of existence, is that it's not static. Stuff is constantly coming in and out of direct awareness. So you look in one direction and see the chair, you look in another direction and see the table. So the chair goes from one type of existence to the other. There are even things that come into your awareness that you didn't know previously existed: typically we call it news. The question you're asking is do you believe in the inference type of existence? The problem with inference, is that it's always in the realm of possibility and probabilty. It's never 100% certain. When you're waiting at a bus stop, you can't know with 100% certainty if the bus will turn up. You are inferring from evidence that the bus exists and is coming your way. Quantum scientists grapple with the exact same problem. My opinion is that even direct experience is not certain. When you look at your hand, what is it you're experiencing? Is it a hand? Or five fingers and a palm? Semantics, maybe, but that's precisely my point. To say that you have a hand is a mental construction: i.e. inference.

The question of "realness" is quite a gnarly one. I'm just guesing that by objective you mean persistent and autonomous. But, I'm willing to bet there are people in your dreams and that they act independently of you: i.e. they are persistent and autonomous. You could argue that people in your dreams are random and don't hang around for long, but it's the same in waking life. That's just one example. The more you examine dreams the more commonalities you see with being awake. In the end I think it's difficult to call one real and the other one subjective. Either both are real or both are subjective. Where's the boundary between dream and awake? If that boundary is "waking up" then it's not inconceivable that you could wake up out of reality. Maybe there's no end to the waking up?

Is judgement itself "high" or "low" consciousness? Should we stop doing it? Maybe call it what it is: "good" and "bad" actions. Actions which cause suffering or actions which cause happiness or neutral actions. Phew!