tsuki

Well, my view of this thing is that subconscious mind is not something that you are conscious of. It is a theory made by psychologists that observed tons and tons of patients with various problems and connected the dots. These theories were then extrapolated to the whole of humanity and are accepted now as common sense. I'm tempted to say that it is not really possible to work on your subconsciousness unless you know what to look for. Why? Because it is subconscious. On the other hand, if your observation skill increase, some of the stuff that had been subconscious before, may surface in your conscious experience. But at that point - it is no longer a part of your subconscious. This is when you can address it directly. There may be techniques that work with whatever is subconscious for you, such as meditation, kriya, reichian therapy, etc. These techniques however are something that one needs to sort of 'believe' in to even try and stick to long enough to see the benefits. I'm not a huge fan of that, but I get that I'm probably missing out a lot. With these techniques it's more like fishing than actual work because you kind of never know what you're going to get. It's like throwing a dynamite down the toilet to have something to clean. I may be confusing the subconscious with the unconscious though. I see the former as something between unconscious and conscious.

@Peo By living harmoniously. Explaining it will only serve to trigger people like you've noticed. Try putting it into practical context, without spiritual jargon. Share your inner peace and reassurance. If they become curious 'why' you're so benevolent, you may share something introductory with them. This doesn't happen often though, so don't be too fixated on that.

@Pouya I can relate. The 'I don't exist' phase is about dis-identification with whatever I perceive. "I" exists as a thought, but I am not that thought. The 'I am everything' comes from a place of peace and safety of this dis-identification. It is as if the whole world was 'me' and there was nothing to worry about. Everything is familiar, like 'my' hand. In my experience, this is more of an intuitive/emotional thing, so it's not really something that I expect coherency from. It doesn't matter that it forms a contradiction.

@Ampresus These people read so much to put that book together for you. Going through them again yourself may be beneficial, but only partially with respect to SD.

Yeah I've known that product since childhood, but I'm not manly enough to stomach painting my nails. Why? Is it because I put so much effort to sound unreasonable? You know, I've been persecuted by my inner critic for squishing things my whole life. I'm a man after all. How would I not be afraid of squishing small silly humans?

@Zigzag Idiot Man, you're a warrior. I was getting all upset that mine had a little bump on the bottom. Lamination does not reflect light perfectly anymore . It looks like you memorized it by now. How old is it? Balisongs are so cool! I wanted to be cool when I was 12, so I picked it up and started to learn the tricks. I still flip it, but it's my primary tool for manicure haha. It had its renaissance lately when I sharpened all knives in my home. I took the picture yesterday. Three of them, actually. The other two show my meditation cushion! Instagram disease. Getting too brazen? I always liked you that way.

@now is forever I guess that I do. Serves me right for projecting how I feel about my childhood onto my hypothetical children. On the other hand, it gives me chills to imagine that I could have a son as cheeky as I was. Or maybe, that I wouldn't and I would have to constantly watch my steps to not squish a small silly human. Anyways, my boredom is fixed now that I have this: This book spits fire on every page. Thanks @Zigzag Idiot!

I skipped that stage as well for various reasons and now that I'm married it's not an option anymore. From my experience, I will tell you that the most valuable thing you can get from manipulating people is: feeling at ease with being manipulated by others taking ownership of your desires As humans we need stuff. In order to get it, we need power. If you do not acknowledge this simple fact, you will still use power but in such a way that you will not notice it. You will feel like a victim. This way, your needs will be insatiable, because you will not be conscious of the fact that you are exploiting people and reap benefits. The other problem is that you will not feel joy in having things, which will feed right back into your need for more. It's a vicious cycle. You can, but it will result in you having a shadow. In fact, you probably already have one with respect to power to begin with and it is the cause of your willingness to avoid this stage altogether. If you want to do pickup, you need to ask yourself: what do women get out of being picked up by you? Do you provide some value to them? Or are you trying to outsmart them and lie your way into their pants? The other question is: will your future wife really be happy with a man that can't fuck with her psyche properly? How are you going to keep being attractive to her through 40 years of marriage/relationship? You need to get this experience somewhere. <- ooh, that paragraph feels so wrong. Long term relationships are not built in pickup skills, but I believe they could help. I guess that's my stuff right here. This feels like a classic example of trying to be smarter than yourself. You are exactly as smart as you, so don't try to use knowledge you gathered to avoid uncomfortable areas of life. It will bite you in the ass in the end.

I've been bored out of my mind for the past two days and it's bugging me. Why can't I just enjoy life without problems? Nothing to do? Just sit flat on your ass and enjoy yourself for fucks sake. NO, I NEED TO COME UP WITH A GREAT SCHEME OF HOW I WILL IMPROVE MY LIFE. I'M WASTING MY TIME. i SHOULD CONTRIBUTE TO THE WORLD. I HAVE SO MUCH UNFULFILLED POTENTIAL THAT I NEED TO ACTUALIZE. Well, the only reason I work is that I want money. It's not like I want luxury, if I had more I would probably save it. It's just that I think that I should earn more given what I think that I'm capable of. I think that this company does not give me any opportunity for growth, so I can't prove myself to be more productive and useful. Is that really the case? Well... Kind of yes, but no. We need money to do stuff which seems to be the bottleneck for the time being. Of course, it is always the case for management and I can't really count on their reliability. I could try to coerce them into giving me a raise if I had a counter-offer from another company, but in order to negotiate I would have to be willing to leave. I'm not. I would probably have to reallocate and sell/rent my apartment and it's just too much of a hassle to do. Or is it? Am I too comfy in my current lifestyle? I kind of am. Is it bad? Not really - things are stable and reliable here. So, am I really just bored and try to find some problems to solve? It seems that way. If I were to entertain the idea of changing a job, I would probably have to pick my alternative career as a programmer. I could make much more money, but it would probably not be as comfy as it is right now. I could clean up my life a little and my wife could get a better job in another city, so that's an opportunity. On the other hand, I've never worked as a programmer before, so it's risky. So, is it just a self-esteem problem? It's not like I have a social life to boast about my career. I tend to stick around simple minded people and connect with them. Am I just curing my grandiose self-image that I've been cultivating in my early 20s? Is it just a backlash from a set of beliefs about my intelligence and potential? If I were to ask myself: "What do I want to accomplish in life?", then I would probably say that nothing is worth spending my life on more than simply enjoying it. People are a very potent canvas to express myself in, but I have that covered by my marriage. Having children is something that intrigues me. There are many benefits to them, practically speaking, but I'm hesitant to indulge in this pleasure out of egotistic reasons. Are there any other reasons though? I want to create the world, that's how grandiose my ego is, and I suppose that children are very potent vessel for that purpose. On the other hand - how do I not succumb to the temptation of molding them into a shape that simply pleases me? Obedient, sweet children are great children, but they make terrible adults. After all, people that crave power are the ones that should stay away from it, and what is less vulnerable than a blank slate?

Suffering is when we face something we consider unpleasant and our imagination sucks us in, telling what to do to stop it and avoid it in the future. Then, we decide what we need to accomplish it and try to secure it. We become attached to it. We desire. In order to secure it, we need power. Power comes from leveraging other people's attachments. We threaten to not provide others with whatever they need from us, or to outright disrupt their plans. This is how knowledge is born. That some things are good and other things are bad. Once you know this distinction, you prime yourself for this very cycle, because it comes back to the beginning. You have to avoid facing bad things, so you need to plan. See how this paragraph started? Notice that suffering is not whatever we consider unpleasant. Suffering is the reaction to it. How to stop suffering? Do not know good from bad. Pleasant from unpleasant. Future from past. You will die regardless of what you do. Regardless of what you plan. Come to terms with it - everything else will follow. Wake up.

Returning to the root - Tao Te Ching ("translation" by Ursula Le Guinn) Be completely empty. Be perfectly serene. The ten thousand things arise together; in their arising is their return. Now they flower, and flowering sink homeward, returning to the root. The return to the root is peace. Peace: to accept what must be, to know what endures. In that knowledge is wisdom. Without it, ruin, disorder. To know what endures is to be openhearted, magnanimous, regal, blessed, following the Tao, the way that endures forever. The body comes to its ending, but there is nothing to fear ---------------------- (To those who will not admit morality without a deity to validate it, or spirituality of which man is not the measure, the firmness of Lao Tzu’s morality and the sweetness of his spiritual counsel must seem incomprehensible, or illegitimate, or very troubling indeed.)

@CreamCat TEACHERS write in all caps in their journals.

@Amun Okay, here comes a new one: Concepts are a belief! Whoa! I'm pushing the boundaries of understanding here! How does this influence the metaphysical epistemology of spirituality?

Let's just settle on that Joseph is deliberately doing this to teach us how we ourselves evade self reflection, okay? How utterly blind we are to the fact that we're deceiving ourselves and that we can't be reasoned out of it. This thread is a perfect bait for us, spiritual egos.

@peqkno Define art. You can't. AI needs a definition to optimize.

@Viking Yeah, the mind says so.

@Aquarius Congratulations! You're the happiest person that can ever exist! How does it feel? Beats me. Chop wood carry water? Maybe we do what we do because there's nothing else to do?

@Aquarius We need the concept of meaning because we can't admit to ourselves that we're puppets that are guided by forces that are beyond our comprehension. We invent reasons to distract ourselves from the fact that our lives are utterly insignificant and that the final station is graveyard, regardless of what we accomplish and who we're friends with. Let go.

@Aquarius Meaning is a human invention.

@Viking All knowledge is grounded in belief. Even this knowledge that I'm presenting to you. Your reality is held in place by either your inability, or unwillingness to challenge it. What asks questions? The mind. What answers them? The mind. The point is not to silence it, but to see that you have nothing to say in what the mind ponders. If you do, it is because the mind says so. The mind loves to get hung up on its own riddles.

Anything can be explained by virtually any model. I think that it's besides the point to look which model is true because it depends on the person that is conducting the search. Some answers will fit into their worldview, and some won't. It's very valuable however to be able to hold even contradictory models just in case some of them become useful in one context or another. Of course, it's a great source of confusion for the ego to not be able to hold on to any particular theory of everything, but the price is well worth the payoff.

No. You can't describe it positively. At least, I haven't found a way, words turn to ash in my mouth when I try. However, strangely enough, I can tell whether my consciousness had expanded, but I can't tell whether I'm higher or lower level than anybody else. At best, I can tell whether I resonate with them or not. If I don't - I may be above, or below them. Sometimes ego gets its kicks out of it, but I can see through it. Expansion of consciousness can only be observed if it's rapid. The mind tends to freak out at that times, but it can get used to it. It's associated with dis-identification, as if some part of reality was a mechanism to operate on. Something had been understood for its mechanical nature. It's a great leap to see your personality as such, but it doesn't end there.

@Manjushri Do not try to fight anger. Anger is fight. See the paradox? Learn to stay centered despite this feeling.

No, it's just that it's that emotions are a strange thing to discuss. If you're having a specific dilemma - what is the point of asking other people's opinion? Nobody can tell you what you should feel and dealing with your feelings is very circumstantial. This is why psychotherapy is so time consuming. You have to learn to translate your feelings to questions and answer them to reach closure. Random strangers on an internet forum can only share principles to work with and these are very obvious and widely known. The other thing to learn is that people can't really be described and most important things are always left out when you're composing a life story to share. When people try to 'get' you while reading your stuff, they add a ton of their own baggage into the process, so it's not really obvious who are they responding to? You? Their shadow? I think that the most important thing about emotional mastery is taking ownership of your life and to stop getting hung up needlessly. Asking people to fix your problems is counter-productive in my opinion, but I get that unless you ask - you wouldn't have known that. PS. I wrote this post as is if I thought that you don't know these things, but I don't know you and it's an assumption, so please don't get upset. It's a general answer. PS2. It's sometimes the case that the best questions remain unanswered because they're too deep for the audience. Funny how easy it is to confuse the ambiguity of silence.