Damir Elezi

@Edvard Firstly, I don't think that the actions of ISIS are really fundamentally motivated in their religion, because if they were, every orthodox muslim would be doing the same. ISIS is motivated by socio-economic factors. If you take a look at history, religion almost never really acts as the reason for war, not even in such a typical case like the crusades a.s.o. It acts like a fuel, which turns people who are already full of hatred into monsters by justifying their acts. In other words - we may lack that form of justification, but if we fight them out of fear for our lives, we act very similar as them. Do not believe that they are doing this out of some evil intention. But I don't want to turn this to a debate about politics or the nature of Islam. (I'm not a muslim btw, but I don't consider Islam an especially dangerous religion. Religion itself may be a problem, but Islam is really nothing special in that case.) Moving on then: Keep in mind that it's your opinion to think that the military is necessary, I would say it is not. But it's a matter of perspective. I also think you can't say that going to the military is low-consciousness automatically. This is also a kind of judgement which we actually don't want to make so quick... right? I think what Leo wants to tell you is the thing they call "unwholesome deeds" in buddhism. Specific actions, harming and killing another being on purpose for example, are said to influence the mind in such a way that it takes you further away from an enlightened state. But Buddha also says that it's the intention, the thought behind it, which makes the difference, not the action itself. By that logic, if you kill somebody with the intention of saving others, it should not be considered a "low-consciousness action" (Notice that this is also a term used to discriminate things which just happen.) I know, there are many paradoxes in this field, but accept them and over time you will understand a bit better. I have been following Leo for some time now and it starts to really make sense to me, although it often seems to contradict itself. As the french philosopher Albert Camus said, the most important question a human being can ask is: Why should I not kill myself? There is ultimately no "good reason" to eat, to wake up in the morning, to live at all. You do it because you want to (if you want to), and that's all there is in my opinion. If you want to go to the military, go. If you want to live in the woods and pursue enlightenment, go. Nobody really knows it better than you.

1 - You could just learn to talk to girls and create new relations without the goal of having sex with them. Use the techniques pick-up gives you and find some female friends without any intention. This way it's not manipulative, just an active way of making friends. This might help you to get over your ex and maybe find another (better?) girlfriend. But I wouldn't search for a girlfriend either, just let it happen if it happens. 2- This might sound different than anything you heard here, as This is a self-help forum, but I experienced that looking for techniques to apply just stresses me and destroys more progress than it creates. You should have some simple habits which really help you and commit to them, like meditation. Maybe try to meditate 30 mins straight instead of 10 minutes every few hours? As far as I know, it's not the total amount of time you spend, but the "deepness" of the meditation which creates the most progress. You can also start with guided meditation if sitting for 30 minutes completely quiet is too much for you. Other than that, I would recommend not looking for a technique, but just thinking about and examining your own visions and preferences in life. Build some hobbies and create something which may make you more peaceful, go into nature etc. More techniques often just means more concepts and we really don't need much more of those. Journaling may help you with that but again, don't take it that serious. You are just writing down What you think. Nothing fancy. 3- I struggle with the third one as well actually. Do you exercise or Do any sports? It's helpful. Move around a lot and go outside if you have time. All that can channel your sexual energy. Or Do some creative thing you can put that energy into. 4- Maybe you can ask yourself What exactly you miss about her. Remember that This is not really about her, it's about you. You are missing something. Find out What it is and then find out how you could correct that, or at least, accept it. I am not an expert but I hope I could help. Good luck!

As you noted correctly, Good and evil are labels we apply to things we like or dislike. They create a dualism which does not exist in nature. I mean look at nature. Do you experience any Good or bad behavior? Almost any animal will give his own life if it is necessary. Everythimg consumes, Everything can inflict pain, Everything suffers somehow, Everything dies. Good and bad are different perspectives of the same thing, which are both necessary. This superficial dualism we put up does not affect the true nature of things. I think that, As Leo said, if you reach a high enough state of consciousness, you can be happy and content, no matter what happens to you, whether you're in pain or dying or anything physically. But of course - This is just a belief until you experience it. About the military though, I wanted to share a funny truth with you. Those ISIS guys you consider to be pretty dangerous, They Do not see themselves As terrorists. They see themselves As rebels fighting off an opression of western culture against islam. If you join the military to protect your country against foreign attackers... Are you a soldier? Or a terrorist? As you see, Good and evil depends on perspective, They are fundamentally not existing. My advice: if you want to pursue a carreer in the military because you're just into all that stuff and want to become more disciplined and physically trained, I don't see a problem with it. Keep in mind however, that it will force you to strictly obey to rules other people have put up and conditions you to Do certain things unconsciously, which counteracts self-actualization work a little bit. BUT, if you want to join, because you think you are doing your country a favor by fighting people who are motivated by the same kind of mindset As the army you are fighting for... Will I think you might be deceiving yourself Then No offense bro, I hope I could help

I think about it like this: You gotta keep in mind that, although we have all very well-written philosophy from ancient times in our hands, the majority of the population at that time couldn't read or write. The people who had such insights were very rare and most of the time very wealthy, being able to learn all that knowledge and having all that time in their hands, not having to work. If you look at the great philosophers (Aristotle, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Buddha, Lao Tsu, Confucius) each of these individuals was born into a pretty wealthy family, otherwise, they would have never been as wise as they were, in my opinion. In modern society, each individual has access to high quality education and can find all kinds of theories, insights and ideas in a matter of seconds, if he/she knows how. This is a big advantage. The problem is though, that because of our technology and because we have access to everything, we are so distracted. There is so much we COULD do, that most people end up doing nothing in particular. They don't even care about some kind of deeper meaning any more because there is so much to stuff the mind with, that it does not search for a solution. Centuries ago, people did not have any refined foods, loads of sugar or something like that. They ate because they were hungry and did not get many diseases from their food. Today, we have so much food, that we don't even feel hunger any more. We eat because we like the taste, which results in our main causes of death being diet-related. We have unlimited resources, but we waste them mercilessly.

Trying to build a carreer as a musician in the Hip Hop industry, I noticed that a strong social media presence is very important in order to gain more fans and followers. I figured, that the best way to do this is to reveal some of my personality in my posts and to kinda make my fans see how I live. To let them take part in my life, so that they don't merely see me as some dude trying to promote his music, but as a friend and a cool and authentic personality, who they can relate to. But as I am naturally a pretty introverted person, posting (sometimes personal) stuff on a regular basis is not that easy to me. I also don't want to run around with my cell phone all day, trying to take pictures in order to post them later. I may already be addicted to my phone already. Do you have any tips or ideas on how to post stuff regularly without thinking too much about it? Thank you in advance

Alright, so I'm gonna ask you THE most basic, but still not very clearly answered question when it comes to nutrition. What do you define as eating healthy? I think everybody agrees, that it's not good to eat fast food and junk food and that vegetables are good for you. But beside that, I see discussion about almost everything. Is fruit healthy to the body or is fructose also a dangerous/unhealthy thing? How much carbs does the human body really need and are low-carb diets useful? What role do cereals, especially wheat play? Are meat and animal products harmful to the body? Is it a good idea to change your diet to something like vegetarian, vegan, paleo, or even raw-vegan? All in all - what does "eating healthy" mean to you? Just wanted to hear some opinions

@Prabhaker Very nice comment, thank you. But what do you mean by "Only if you are a meditator, then a vegetarian diet will be helpful"?

I also have a shit ton of things that interest me. Keep in mind that you can pursue all of those, if you like. To find out what you should pursue mainly, you should ask yourself what you want to have in your life. What your lifestyle should be like. Visualize a lifestyle according to each of those interests and try to find out which of those you'd like the most. I would also recommend finding ways of trying all of those out. If possible, go visit some lectures in university about all the topics you like, do voluntary work, etc. This way you will see which of these you really like the most in practice.

My girlfriend and I are very interested in the question, what place human beings have in the eco-system of the world and what nature and life really is. Thinking about it, no animal, no plant and no human being really is "one being" as we see it, but it's an ecosystem made up of billions of different individual cells and bacteria. All these individuals don't seem to have the intention of helping each other, but they are living in symbiosis because it benefits their own well-being and reproduction. Many cells make up a tree, many trees make up a forest, which is an eco-system on its own, nourishing every part of it. What seems to be a "law of life" is that the individual beings do not really matter as much, as life itself matters. The theory of evolution suggests, that the main "goal" of life, so to speak, is the reproduction of genes. Some bacteria even evolved from a living cell to a non-living part of a bigger cell, just because it's a safer way to reproduce DNA. What came to our mind is that life all together might be a big organism, with beings dying and being born, each of them being relatively insignificant, while conserving life itself seems to be a naturally "important" thing on earth. This would philosophically support the concept of enlightenment, as we heard it from Leo and other spiritual teachers (I wouldn't consider Leo a spiritual teacher, but you know what I mean ) We also came to the conclusion that humans, most of the time not being aware of this symbiosis and seeing themselves and their own growth as the most important thing, destroying the eco-system and creating imbalance, are kinda like cancer cells of the earth. My girlfriend thinks that this means it is sort of a "natural law" of life, that every human being has responsibility to help the planet. I, personally would not go this far, because I think living and dying are the only things we can really say that we "should do". Everything else seems to me like interpretation of what we see, I logically and empirically can not find a moral code in nature anywhere. Still this notion of , sort of as a giant animal, seems plausible and beautiful What are your thoughts about all this? We would love to hear them.

Very well written, have a like from me! But don't forget, that all religion is in its core, is the attempt of the ego to answer the deep questions of life. It's nothing bad in itself, but because its very ego driven, it seperates, labels, assumes without any sort of evidence, forces and hates a whole lot. I think not even the occult "religions" are free of this. There are even buddhist terrorists in tibet, trying to fight the chinese opressors violently, even though buddhism is a non-violent path in every kind of way. To get out of this, we first have to see that we all have no clue what is going on here. The ego claims to know and then tries to silence every voice, which claims it does not. Because not-knowing is not a secure option. But it's the wisest state of knowledge someone can have. Being at peace with not knowing. "I know that I know nothing" - Socrates

@Rajat Most things we deal with do not exist objectively. Meaning there is no "ugly" or "beautiful" at all. There is no ugly person, there is no beautiful person. It's just a matter of perspective and the own self-image shapes other's perspective of you as well. Of course, the concept of "millionaire" is a bit different, as the amount of money on someone's bank account can actually be measured. But if it is your goal to be a millionaire, it is not just your goal to have a lot of money, because money is just paper or some number on a screen. What you actually want is the possibility to buy stuff, confidence, prestige, freedom, security. All of these are also mainly concepts, so in a sense I would also say, that believing to be a millionaire makes you a millionaire, because you aquire the confidence, security, freedom of a millionaire - because you believe you have it. That's just really deep thinking of course. In a more "practical" sense you are right. Believing something will not make it happen immediatelly, but creates a path to it.

I'm 19 years old and currently studying a subject called 'social sciences' at university, which does not have good carreer chances later on, but I took it anyway because it interested me. After some months of going to Uni, I don't enjoy being there at all and I have decided to change my path. It is a dream of mine to become a rapper and I found a private academy where I could get a major in music production and theoretically work as a producer and Sound technician later on and pursue my Rap carreer while studying and later in the job. The skills I'd aquire would benefit my carreer as a rapper as Well. The problem is that it's a private academy, and you gotta pay around 20,000 euros in total (living in Germany) to study there, which is like 200 per month. I'd have to get a part-time job AND find some additional ways to make money in order to pay all the bills. But I could also go and study another subject, like a foreign language, and become a translator or something. I know I'd also be good at it, but it wouldn't really fulfill me. On the other hand, I don't know if studying music production would fulfill me either. I don't know if it's worth the money, my guts tell me I Should not care too much and just take a risk. But I am scared. Scared of what might happen if it doesn't work out or if I don't like it having wasted so much money, scared of other people's reaction if I fail, scared of not being able to pay that much every month, or having to work so much that I'm too stressed to enjoy life, which would make the whole thing pointless (I am the kind of person that is stressed easily). What would you Do in my situation? And Do you know any Way to earn money regularly without having to put much time into it? I thought about selling stuff like cars (my father is a salesman in that business) or random stuff in the internet or on markets. Thank you in advance for your advice.

For me, the first step in this kind of work is acceptance. Accept that you have these kind of issues. You are not weird or even bad or evil because of it. You are not a failure. You are perfect, just as you are right now, even if it is hard to think of it this way. It's okay. Really. Then accept that the journey you are about to take on takes time and you are 100% going to fail. A lot of times. Everybody does. It's normal and okay. In fact, it's the failure that makes you stronger. You will fall off track and you will probably hate yourself for it many times, but in the back of your head, remember that this too is okay. Start with practical baby steps. Trying to keep eye contact to a person a few seconds longer than usual. If this is too much, trying to keep yourself standing straight next to somebody, always a little longer than the last time. Remember that failure is not a bad thing. There are tons of ways to increase self esteem, look some of them up and apply them. What helps you, keep it, what doesn't, throw it out. And don't forget to reward yourself often. You deserve it. Even coping with all this stress is impressive. I guess many people wouldn't even try to change if they were in your shoes. Keep going, I know that you can do it. And I think deep inside your heart, you know that too.

I'd love to listen to you and I'll try my best to give you advice

@Shin Thank you so much

@Rajat If you believe, for example, that you are ugly, you will behave as if you were ugly. You will take on a body-language that shows that you are scared of people judging you, you won't smile much, you will keep away from people who are handsome in your opinion. Even if you are not that ugly, your whole body language and charisma (or lack thereof) will make people want to stay away from you, or view you as kind of "weird", which only reinforces your idea. "Nobody wants to talk to me, so I must be ugly!" People will probably view you as unattractive because of your behavior. So the idea of you being ugly, in fact makes you ugly. Now if you believe you are the most handsome guy on the planet, you will walk around with confidence, dressing nicely, showing off your good attributes etc. and people will find you attractive. This is an obvious example, but the same thing goes on for most aspects of our lives basically. If you think you are a successful person, you will behave like a successful person, which will make you a successful person. I think the reason behind this is, that most things we deal with in life: Relationships, business, religion, politics etc. are concepts of the human mind. They ONLY occur in the human mind and do not exist objectively (or without a human mind). So of course, they will change according to how your mind sees them. Events in the outside world might trigger an emotional reaction and a following belief based on that, but in the end, it's all in your mind.

@Shin Because of the lyrics, rhyme-schemes and patterns, wordplay etc. I'm really into that and because I can express my emotions in such a strong way, happiness and grief, disappointment, and fun, I can both be silly and be serious if I want to. It gives me a lot of confidence and I simply love that type of music, especially if it has some deeper meaning to it. I love how you can put much more lyrics into it than in any other musical style, and because the vocals don't have to be melodic, you don't even gotta have that much of a nice voice, you can scream and use different vocal tones, different accents, rap slow or extremely fast, sample almost every musical style..... I just love it. I love writing and I love music and it's like rap is the perfect combination of those two. Sometimes I literally spend 10 hours a day writing, recording and mixing without eating or anything, and I don't get tired or too exhausted. I also had some smaller live gigs and those were some of the greatest experiences of my life.

Going deeper and deeper into Meditation and contemplation and studying various Spiritual traditions, I start to see more and more how modern society really embodies and is driven by egoic values and thought-patterns. However, to be successful in this world, I have to arrange myself with it and be somehow seeking and pursuing success. Many Spiritual traditions consider the pursuit of material success an egoic desire and don't recommend going after it at all. Can looking for a fulfilling carreer (as in Leo's life purpose course) actually make you happy and how is this compatible with the Spiritual Practice of detachment?

@Dingus You really helped me and your explanations were great advice to me, thank you!!

Out of free choice or because he couldn't find a job?

@Dingus So you're not that concerned about what you do as long as you earn enough money? But you spend a lot of time with your job right? Do you enjoy that time or simply wait for it to be over?

Are you disappointed with your carreer choice and how it all developed and did you ever have a sort of dream carreer you did not follow? Sorry for the personal questions but I'm at a critical point in my life, looking for advice for my next steps

Thank you so much for your anders, but I'd like to ask another question. If I need money to be stable, as a foundation for Spiritual growth, why is it better to work with a "life purpose" Instead of just earning money in whatever Way?

I wanted to ask you about something that I have been struggling with for at least a year now. I am from Germany, 19 years old and it's my dream to become a successful rap artist. I have been writing lyrics since I was 13/14 and since around this time last year I have recorded and released some songs and a self made music video. My problem is, that I realize you have to put a massive amount of work into a carreer like that to really be successful. But there are so many other domains of life I really care about. For example I understand that physical health and fitness is really important. I have never really been a sporty guy but some months ago I had a stable gym routine which brought me some results, but in the end I could not focus on it because of all the other stuff I want to do. Same with meditation and spirituality, which is worth pursuing a whole lifetime as well. There are times where I read a lot about this stuff, meditate every day and try to integrate mindfulness into my daily life but then my focus changes to a domain I didn't pursue for a long time and I only meditate once every few days. I also started going to university this year, studying sociology and I could really picture myself being a professor or a scientist in this field if the rap thing does not get me so far that I could earn enough money to live. But this is also much work. And of course there is always my girlfriend, the few but important friends I have and my family who I care for and who I don't want to lose contact to. The problem is that I consider each of these domains really important, so I don't want to cut any of it. Each of them kind of makes me happy but when I lose track of the others, I get unhappy, changing up my plans, always planning new strategies on how to fit all this into my life. I know it's about doing less, not more but as I said I think that all of these are important. On the other hand I think that they all prevent me from pursuing my true passion: hip hop. Needless to say I don't create real results in any of those. Do you know how I can solve this problem? What can I do to pursue a rap carreer but still take care of all those other things? Thanks in advance

Of course I recognize that fitness and health is important for personal development, as it provides the physical well-being which is essential to mental and spiritual growth. But what role does sports play exactly? I used to think of it as something that simply has to be done in order to stay healthy, so I try to go to the gym, run or work out at home regularly. But is dedicating yourself to a particular sport an important tool for the actualization work itself? What are your opinions on that?