Ibn Sina

@Staples I think a genocidal individual would be someone anti-social, he does not want the herd, he wants to destroy the herd. By 'we' of course I mean the average mindset, not the mind of a mass murderer. Yes, I do believe that it is possible to be happy no matter who you are with but it is not the default mode and also it is not easy to develop such a mindset, I think in most cases, one feels shit just like I did when one is in a herd out of one's own personality. I think many people will agree with this. This idea is well preserved in the age old cliche ;Bird with same feather fly together.'

@MisterMan I was talking about making the distinction between knowledge and belief, which are after allbsymbols, but I didn''t realize that this would give a message that because I was talking about knowledge and beliefs I was equating experiential and physical reality with symbols. yes, I am fully aware of the distinction between symbols and the reality they represent. The sentence " apple is red" is also nothing else but symbols, there is nothing real about the symbols of the sentence "apple is red" nor is there any reality to the sound that they produce, but whether we create or not create these symbols, the reality that they hold is true, your eyes can see it. The apple is not red, because we think it is red, or imagine it, but because light of a certain wave length acts on our retina and certain photoreceptors are activated then we see red, then we create certain symbols to represent this experience. Like someone here said-we cannot say that the act of peeing is a belief. Why? because we can experience the act of peeing, then we represent this experience in symbols. You said thougths are like mirror which is true, but it is not a very perfect mirror. It can easily reflect the reality that apples are red because it is a simple physical phenomenon which is just about perception, but what about something like- Jesus is son of God. This sentence and that of apple , both contain nothing else but symbols, but what it is not about the symbols, it is about the reality that they represent. Symbols are only there for communication with other people, but to percieve reality first hand there is no need of symbol. So it is true that an apple is red because you can SEE that it is red right before your eyes, or it is true that fire is hot because you can FEEL that the fire is hot , touch the fire and you know that it is hot, but you cannot touch, hear, feel, taste , or has a physical evidence of the setof symbols that - jesus is the son of god, and despite this if one thinks that this is true then it is a belief . So in the end, yes the physicality of the symbols have no connection to reality but the represented reality of some symbols matches the experiential reailty more than other set of symbols. Like the represented reality of the set of symbols sun rises in the east matches the experiential reality more than the represented reality of the set of symbols- sun rises in the west. Now with this kind of thinking another question arises, so should we rely always only on the present moment reality? Is there no reality to experiences that is in our memory? Did history never happen? Was george washington never alive? Did american revolution never happen? I mean, no one ever saw that right ? We have only some symbols and some manuscripts to back up this claim right? So american revolution should have never happened? One forum member was saying that death does not exist because it has never happened to you. Seriously? Ok lets extract the logic out of this sentence and just change the variables. Old age does not happen because I am a young man and it has never happened to me therefore it will never happen. Justin beiber does not exist because I have never seen him nor heard him in person, just sound waves and electrons in the the screen. Even Leo does not exist , I have only got some sound waves and electrons in the screen. So should I believe that Leo DOES NOT EXIST? Should I believe that ageing does not exist? Remember, I have never had first hand experience of these things. By that logic , entire field of medicine can be thrown away, there are thousands of diseases, concepts, dose regimens, which even the oldest of physician don't have the time for first hand experience, at one point or another, it's all just symbols in some book., we cannot say-ah, these are just symbols , I have never experienced it so it doesn't exist( like- I have never experienced death so tI doesn not, exist) and yet it works,it works because the reality that they hold repesents the experiential reality. Most knowledge that we hold, comes from a secondary experience, we have never fallen of a building, or went into a tiger's cage and still we don't want to , why? Because deep within we know that these secondary experiences are true, that is why we don't fall off a cliff although we have never actually fallen off a cliff. Now if that is the case, then how can death be a belief? We have seen it happen to other fellow people, how they stopped to animate. We are willing to believe that taking poison causes death although all we have seen is other people dying, but how can we say that death does not exist because we have never died yet and have seen only other people dying?

The only way to truly eliminate Satan's manipulation is to realize that Satan and God are just the modes of the same reality. Satan is just the shadow God. You cannot arrive at God without moving through Satan. Play them together in a musical rhythm.Beauty is in their harmony, enlightenment is in their synthesis.

For the next few days, meditate on this magnificent piece of work.

I am curious, what good is tripping on 5-Meo DMT if the enlightenment experience just wears off after sometime and you are back to ground zero after the experience. I mean, okay so you got a glimpse of the absolute, but now what are you going to do after 1 week from that event? It does have a benefit in that it can act as motivating factor towards the pursuit of the absolute, but will your life alter completely? Or will you be the same person you were before you took it? I highly doubt that the former will happen. At the end of the day, it's not just the experience, but the disintegration of all kinds of mental bondages. That is Nibbana. It is the measure of how much bliss you can extract out from mere existing under a bodhi tree , or by a river, with nothing but the lawn underneath and the sky above. If you need 5-Meo from time to time to feel good, then that is not what Buddha is talking in his Suttas.

Talking from a highly crystallized but non-metaphysical, non-gurean, pro-materialistic perspective, all that my non-awakened mind can call for is to make to a clear distinction between belief and knowledge, which is the core concern of epistemology. You are a homo sapien. It is because the DNA in your cell is same as other homo sapiens. This is knowledge. You are a hindus, muslim, an alpha, a beta, a descendent of caesar, napoleon, a success , a faliure , these things can be categorized as beliefs. I think a fact is static, it can be replayed again and again. It is when your mind and mind of god are in sync. A belief is a fussy fact that our particular position and chance has happened to by the infinity grace of the divine light, impinged into the mirror of our juvenile mind when we were once children.

@MisterMan Nice. Where did you get that Kierkegaard poster? Plz give me the link.

Now this is going to be interesting.... hehehe

actualized.org wouldn't be possible without this magnificent catch phrase "But Leo". It is one of the greatest dictums mankind has ever managed to conceive.

Hmmmmmm.... it's not a frequent occurrence that the wisest man in this forum pays you his attention, let alone give such a wonderful compliment. I think this is it. I have experienced the ultimate bliss. I need enlightenment no more.

@Dragallur Thank you my friend

Let me give my 2 cents on this. Just my opinion. Read it at your own risk. Beauty is such a double edged sword , it is at the same time the most precious thing in the world and also the most deadliest thing. It has the potential to make you feel absolutely great, like in a cloud 9 , and at the same time it can crumble you into pieces, beat you down into a bloody pulp. I have seen boys going tooth and nail for pretty girls, and girls fighting viciously over handsome boys. It is obvious why beauty is good, because it is a statement that says you are worthy of love , it basically says that- I am a valuable person. I am an important person , not only to others but to yourself. It is an avenue to acquire love and admiration, sense of worth, which is a need which every living being and every creature on earth aspire to have, live for , die for , the fundamental basic need of their life. When this need is fulfilled, one feels great. So how does beauty become a living hell? It is when you start to increase your standard. When you think that this person is more beautiful than me. She is more curvier, has bigger eyes, has smoother skin.And this is all just a game of genetics, statistics and chance, it has nothing to do with your being, you have no responsibility, it's not like you get bigger eyes, symmetric faces, smoother skin because you are a deserving. It's all about the bell curve. You have pretty eyes, blonde hair, smoother skin all right, but we ave 9 billion people on this earth, there is a good chance that there are thousand others who have slightly better facial symmetry, slightly better curves, slightly bigger eyes, and another 1000 who are better then them, and then comes another 1000 who are better and so on it doesn't ever end. And if your emotions are dictated by such comparisions, then you have a disastrous emotional life. By that logic all the people in asian countries , who have black hair instead of blonde, who don't have as much whiter skin , have brown eyes instead of blue, should be mentally and emotionally crippled and handicapped for life. But this doesn't happen. I have seen far beautiful people living absolutely miserable lives and far homelier people living the greatest life ever. The beautiful people start to raise their standard and get into a comparison game, which basically means a pathetic miserable life. Once you get into that mindset, it's just pathetic, they are so like a slave just hopelessly attached to their beauty, and in few years they start to get into their 40s and start to see their vibrant beauty disappear and become jealous of other younger people who are beautiful then them just like in that snow white story. Then you have got more suffering, more pain, more misery. It's pathetic. Life should be about appreciating what you have, loving yourself, doing what you love, and finding beauty in small things, . It's not about being beautiful but feeling beautiful. The art of life is in appreciating the absolute, in finding the divine beauty in nature and godliness in the miracle of being alive and having lived. When that happens , even if you are 100 years old, you will be the most beautiful human being on earth. You'll become God's favorite child.

@Marios Tsagoulis Thanx man. I am very glad that you like my writing. But unfortunately I am not a well balanced individual. I have got deep problems and issues. I have trouble forming good relationships, I am not a very articulate speaker , I am inside my head all the time and struggle with staying focused on my life purpose. These problems get me delving deeply into these spirituality and self help stuffs.

It is good to see that you are having this sudden insights and I am well acquainted with that great feeling one has after getting such insights. But the insight you had about how awareness/ enlightenment frees you from the cycle of karma, from maya( great lack of awareness which makes people to react and gets them locked in the cycle of life and death) is a well known idea found in hindus and buddhist traditions. May be this time you got a deeper feeling for this concept , or arrived at it from a completely intuitive level. But I have issues with this idea of karma. As I look at the overwhelming amount of evidence for so many good people suffering and bad people thriving , and finding almost no evidence for the opposite to be true except in cases which have the same consistency as mere chance , I begin to doubt this idea. The idea of karma is beautiful, but when one is constantly aware of the overwhelming amount of suffering present in this world which follows no rules of morality, but follows only the rules of statistics, chance and organic evolution, it's very hard to buy into this idea. The living world is surely dictated by laws, by a logos, but I it has very little to do with morality, and more to do with survival. So I think that even the awakened being is susceptible to ,karma the cycle of cause and events . But because he is now aware of course there is something different going on. But you said- And as you slowly become concious LITERALLY the laws of your reality changes.... I think the physical world will remain the same. I don't think that now for some reason good things will start to happen to him. I think that the meaning of being free from karma , means being free from all the habitual conditionings of the mind ,being free of the deep unawareness that people go through which puts them in a bondage and makes them act in a reactive instinctual away and when this unawareness is collectively taken ,the people work within a chain of cause and effect ,which is the bondage of karma. I think being free of karma means being free of this deep habitual bondage that we go through in our daily lives. Another way to look at it- To be within karma is like being a dog. You are completely unaware that you are a dog, and you live and act as a dog, and you suffer a lot because of this, and you follow the rules of a dog. When you become a aware, you start to see what is going on. Now you are outside the paradigm that other fellow dog friends are locked in. That is what being outside of karma means.

What are the differences between a fully actualized person and a fully enlightened person?

That got me taking a deeper look into these so called self actualized people. Lincoln is known for his nervous breakdown, Jefferson for severe depression and Einstein for his disastrous marriage. So I think the entire concept is now looking less attractive. May be self actualization is not a reality to be achieved but an ideal to direct our lives towards.

Thanks for the answers. As @Nahm has quoted, Maslow says- ‘I think of the self-actualizing man not as an ordinary man with something added, but rather as the ordinary man with nothing taken away. Now this is eerily similar to the standard idea of enlightenment which is to return to one's original state of being and becoming one with the source. However, in the same breath he gives examples of self actualized people as Lincoln, Jefferson , Einstein, who were without doubt extraordinary , legendary men in their own right but they are only about the outer greatness, they have no relation to the glory that lies within. So here I am finding a discrepancy in the relationship between these ideas.

I just want to know what kind of problems people are dealing with.

@Samra Woah! your pet human looks good! I want one for my self!

I wouldn't recommend making chess as your life purpose as 1. it has low earnings/effort ratio 2. You are not Magnus Carlsen or Paul Morphy. They were not just geniuses, but they were playing chess from the time they were on their diapers, and basically worked on their game every single day for 10 hours or more till they became the best. They were basically born to be chess players, they breathed chess they lived chess , chess circulated through their veins. That is what having a true life purpose means. But like me, you can play chess as your hobby. Another thing, man you are already 22, by now you should be moving towards something, like studying for a degree. Knowing language and playing chess is not going to help your finances. Just pick up a path and stick to it so that at least you will making money out of your time instead of letting it go waste. You can pursue your hobbies at the side.

After long grueling years the wisest soul in this forum has finally revealed his abode ! It's time for rejoice and celebration ! I feel so excited! Leo = Buddha Shin = Mahakasyap

He certainly wasn't enlightened. He tried a lot though, but became mad instead.

The art of the deal by Donald J Trump. One of the greatest books on system thinking ever written.

In this situation, there are mainly 2 things that is desired to undergo change.1. Your body and 2. mindset of other people. Since both are very unlikely to change there is a 3rd meta alternative which is your mind and how you see yourself. Whether you think you are a boy or a man, you are right.