riplo

Found during derivation of black body radiation in a uni textbook

This guy seems to have a super amazing life purpose - translating old undeciphered music scripts then conducting his orchestra to perform them with the exact alcohol, banquet food, atmosphere etc it would have originally been performed in. It would have been the first time the songs were heard in 100s of years. He was crazy passionate and poured his whole heart and soul and life into his work - then one day got a coldsore which infected his brain by pure chance and within a few weeks he was reduced to the above. I don't even know what lesson to draw from this necessarily although there must be something there. I like to think there's always some way to grow consciousness if you just choose to - even in concentration camps Viktor Frankl style, but I don't know where I would start if I was him. I guess having as a firm principle to always in daily life try and be present and aware of the inner body etc - then gradually his consciousness would rise, because although it would always seem like the first time returning attention to the present the effect of this constant meditation would accumulate anyway. He can't learn new info though so unless he knew to already he's pretty fucked. Seems like unnecessary cruelty from our abrahamic style god

I'm a student in my second year at Oxford uni, uk, with an (admittedly small) family + friends + girlfriend that loves me. I had an enlightenment experience on acid many years ago so I know it's real. At that time although I can barely remember it, it felt like I was so lucky to have a glimpse and that I almost died without one, and that it was the only thing worth actually pursing in life. I occasionally read about enlightenment in books and also (seemingly) waste my time watching people talk about it on youtube constantly. Even though I'm young and successful by societies standards I am a drug addict, I feel empty and purposeless inside and feel like I'm wasting my life and my youth on pointless shit that I don't feel passionate about. Sometimes I get these impulses to give everything I know up and join a zen monastery or something - I know of some people (like Andy Puddicombe founder of Headspace and Shinzen Young) who have done exactly this - just picked up and left their old life behind and been forced to adapt to hardcore spiritual practice - something I feel like I don't have the willpower to do while carrying on in my current environment. It's rash but it surely seems like it's is the right thing to do. Idk if this even counts as a question, but is there anyone here who is now older and regrets not doing this as such a young age despite all the seemingly important obligations that stopped them doing it at that moment? Or is there some trap I should look out for when people become monks etc? Is this a move in the right direction is what I'm asking.

@NoSelfSelf For one it helped me to understand that my rational goal oriented way of looking at the world is just one perspective, and that there are other equally valid ways of understanding and moving through life. Understanding how attraction works - understanding how relationships work - an example would be that my girl testing me with seemingly random turbulent emotions n that is a healthy part of every relationship and not a problem that must be 'fixed', had I not read about this the relationship would have collapsed by now due to my ignorance. Learning to deal with this in the proper way has taught me also how to think about and deal with the general turbulence of lifes challenges in the proper way. When I express my masculinity in healthy ways it feels like I'm connecting to something really deep and true about my self - maybe even the spiritual self. An example is that masculine quality of non reactivity and authenticity, is really just what happens when you're really conscious, and is a property of consciousness itself - it just is itself and accepts itself without needing to react or hide. These are just a few examples - there are a lot more. I get that ultimately this label of 'masculine' is meaningless and will collapse - I'm not there yet though and the concept is useful at this stage.

One thing that has been insanely valuable as a guy was developing and understanding my masculinity - using books like way of the superior man. Leo's approach to enlightenment etc is also quite a masculine and in your face challenging one, as well as very rational - and speaks to me in a powerful and engaging way. My girlfriend is on board with self actualization too - I wonder is there any books, courses, or other stuff like that that focuses exclusively on developing the feminine and would speak to my (very feminine) girlfriend - more feminine teachings and books on enlightenment would also be really useful, as well as (don't know if this is a thing) more feminine spiritual practises. Any help would be appreciated people - if any chicks on here know some stuff that speaks to or was really engaging for them or worked really well for them, I'd love to know what that was. Thanks people

I wonder though if these mass market gurus actually know that they are doing this. Like do they deliberately sit down and think they're going to dumb it down to make it spread? Seems pretty manipulative - although I guess what's wrong with that if it's done from a place of love.

@Nahm That's a good question. Just reading Eckhart's books puts me into a meditative loving state, but it's the kind of thing you read and then just forget about a week later. Leo's videos tend to either motivate me to action or just freak me tf out. I don't really know what resonates for me really - I've still got to explore more n get them juicy multiple perspectives.

It seems like almost no popular gurus (other than Leo) talk about the massive levels of discipline and hard work that goes into enlightening oneself. For example Eckhart Tolle's books make no mention at all of a serious spiritual practise. I know that a lot of these people became enlightened by accident almost, and also that when one becomes enlightened you discover that there's 'nothing to do'. Even then though, people like Adyashanti don't really stress how much work is required, even though it seems he had to do a lot of it. Why is this? I mean surely these people would love others enough to tell them straight up how to actually get there - as well as being aligned with truth in general, so they'd want to talk truthfully. I guess maybe it's to not discourage egos from listening to their teachings - but even that seems like a manipulative thing to do.

So 'you' came into existence by making a distinction between 'you' and 'environment', but in order for you to make this distinction, 'you' have to be there in the first place. Is that what is meant be 'you are a strange loop'?

@Highest You're right haha, the variety is so beautiful. I haven't experienced absolute infinity, but infinity seems to shine through even now, just from the endless variety of every single object, person, culture, thought - everything.

It feels like most people never really think about the sheer size of the existence they exist in. In much the same way that death is kind of brushed under the carpet in modern culture - and so we spend our lives distracting ourselves from it - so is the sheer size of existence. Every individual thinks that there is something special about them, and their lives, and are so attached to it. Me me me. They act like this straight in the face of the fact that there are literally 7 BILLION other people thinking exactly the same thing. That number is pretty much impossible to fully wrap your mind around, so culture just flat our ignores it. 7,000,000,000 people and you are just 1 of these, and you act like life revolves around you. Contemplating this puts self obsession into perspective.

It's presumptuous to rule something out completely because some sages advice against it. Sex has been demonised for a long time and seen as temptation but there are definitely people who have used sex for their spiritual development.

@Spacious What you said about primal therapy is really interesting - do you mind telling me what video Peterson talks about the malevolence in and what retreat you went on?

Spirituality talks about enlightenment or reality or truth having positive or kind of higher consciousness qualities - like love, honesty, peace, joy, health, energy, patience, wisdom, true creativity, compassion, generosity, humility, humbleness etc... but why? For some of these, like honesty, it seems obvious why living in truth would produce that. But for something like joy... why is enlightenment inherently joyful? Is it that identification with self produces all the negative 'opposite' qualities (like selfishness vs generosity), and getting rid of that identification means getting rid of those negatives? This doesn't really explain why reality is inherently loving or joyful though. Where does divine love come from?

That may be true, but it's not really answering the question