SaWaSaurus

I love this metaphor. Also ironic since your username is 'holygrail'.

I highly recommend the book The Inner Game of Tennis by Tim Gallwey. It applicable to all disciplines, not really about tennis. The inner game is all about increasing concentration, being in the present moment, stilling your mind. To the degree that your ego mind is active, you will be less able to concentrate on what's happening in the game. Thinking about the glory of victory and the torment of defeat, and the feelings that accompany those thoughts, will take you out of the present moment and hinder your ability to concentrate. When you're 'in the zone', you have no time for anxiety, anger, fear. The idea of winning or losing is just an afterthought, something that doesn't even pop up until after the game. You feel joyful and at ease, and your effort is effortless and graceful. All the cells in your body sing with joy, commanding you to move faster. It's like you love the game so much you can't hold it in.

If you're saying that competitive gaming as a life purpose doesn't do much good for society, then I agree. However if that's your point of view, you're going to have to lump in a lot of different life purposes into that same category of which is something I'm not sure if you'd agree or disagree with: things like art, dance, sports, culinary arts, music, comedy.. with the caveat that these aren't used as mediums for political or ideological messaging (George Carlin, Pink Floyd, etc.). Competition is something that is misunderstood, especially in the spiritual community, and understandably so. For 99% of people, competition is an ego game for feeling superior to other people. People get off on the thrills and dopamine rushes of winning and losing, and the idea that they're more special or talented than their opponent. Observing this in people would make it seem obvious that that's all there is to competition, but there exists another perspective of competition that very few will experience. At the higher levels of competition, an inner game develops where ego gratification becomes the obstacle. In order to reach higher levels of concentration, the ego mind must be silenced. Competition then becomes an avenue where the stronger your opponent is, the more concentration is required. The strongest opponents let you fly the highest. Winning and losing no longer have much emotional weight on them, and in the moments of competition you feel a relaxed joyfulness and effortless effort. You'll be so 'in the zone' that you aren't thinking about what's happening, you're just letting your body act on its own. If someone asked you details about what occurred while in the zone, you'd have to go back and think about it because you were so focused you'd be unable to remember. Competition can be a powerful tool for increasing concentration, which is useful in all areas of life. If we're talking statistically and generally, then ya video games are a useless time-sink that can potentially become a life ruining addiction, something to distract yourself from greater aspects of your life. That's not where it begins and ends though, for a small minority of people these games (heavily depending on the type of game, btw) can be useful tools. I find this true for sports as well. Neither will be sufficient for a meaningful life purpose, but tools for honing concentration, yes.

Lol can't wait for that episode

Would you consider becoming a grandmaster at something like dance, music, slight of hand magic, surfing, to be no difference than jerking off in terms of flow state? There's a reason people love to perfect these types of arts. There's nobody who loves to perfect the art of jerking off, that's pretty much the same old schtick, nothing to be mastered.

This is not true for tomatoes, but true for pretty much everything else you get in a can. You can get get high quality tomatoes from a can if you choose the right brand, like San Marzano. Canned tomatoes also contain more glutamic acid, the umami taste. Store bought fresh tomatoes are picked before they're ripe, so they don't get the benefit of extra sun and nutrients, resulting in a tomato with inferior flavor. These tomatoes are also breaded for commercial reasons like shelf-life and disease resistance, further screwing up their flavor. Canned tomatoes however can be picked and stored when fully ripe, and aren't required to be bred for shelf-life. For quality fresh tomatoes, you'd have to go to the farmer's market during the few months tomatoes are in season, or grow them yourself. There's a stark difference in flavor between those and supermarket tomatoes. When buying canned tomatoes, always go for whole peeled tomatoes, not the diced ones, since those generally contain calcium chloride that prevents the tomatoes from turning into mush, and it makes them unable to break down properly when cooking. There are dishes where canned tomatoes won't work because of they require the texture of fresh tomatoes, like salsas or bruschetta, so in those cases you'd just have to just go with fresh. I have some concerns about canned tomatoes though, but not because of the quality of the tomato itself. Tomatoes are highly acidic, and that acid breaks down the plastic chemical lining inside the can, mixing plastic and BPA into your tomatoes. Glass containers would be preferable, but afaik the high quality canned tomatoes are all in cans.

What do you all think about Chomsky's analysis of the education system, that it's broadly a system that maximizes for obedience? Not to say that no education system is better than the current system, but that the way the system is designed is not to create human beings who will innovate and progress humanity, but to create humans who will conform and fit in place with the current hegemony. I'm interested in hearing your takes on the education system, and if Chomsky is on to anything here.

The whole simulation thing just begs the question. Ok, so this is a simulation within some other higher level universe, and that explains existence. So what about the higher universe, is there another universe simulating that universe? Seems like simulation theory is just a byproduct of modern tech, where we theorize that maybe future tech could simulate a universe, therefore we might be simulated, etc etc. Just keeps begging the question.

Don't be afraid, it's only love Don't be afraid, it's only love Don't be afraid, it's only love Don't be afraid, it's only love Love is simple Love is simple Love is simple Don't be afraid, you're already dead Don't be afraid, you're already dead Don't be afraid, you're already dead Don't be afraid, you're already dead Love is simple Love is simple Love is simple Love is simple

I was assuming that the changing of vocabulary you are referring to and concerned about is the 'woke vocabulary' coming from the LGBTQ+ communities. Is that correct or did I misinterpret your message?

Newspeak does not just mean 'changing vocabulary', that would be a very limited understanding on what Orwell meant by newspeak. In 1984, newspeak was meant to establish a simplified vocabulary that would limit people's ability to think and express themselves. With modern language we have all sorts of words and ways to express ourselves and our ideas. Fantastic, excellent, great, amazing, astounding, stunning, breathtaking, staggering, etc... In newspeak, you'd have: good, plus good, double plus good.

You can't boil the drug war down to just racism, but it seems very likely that racism is one root element of Nixon's war. Nixon was an open anti-black racist who also hated hippies, but he also hated drugs and drug users. The anti-war left got in the way of Vietnam war, and the continued movement for black liberation were problems for Nixon's campaign and the right. So the issue is multi-faceted, but that's my basic understanding of it. You could say that John Ehrlichman was just making stuff up for person reasons, but then you still have to explain the reason for the drug war. People don't just do things for no reason. As for the drug wars in Asia, you're talking about completely separate societies now. I don't think anyone is saying the drug wars in Asia are rooted in racism, because I've never seen any evidence for that. What seems to explain those drug wars is a collective backlash against the social havoc created by The Opium Wars.

Except the drug was originally politically motivated and based in racism.

Twilight zone called: "A Nice Place to Visit" A man gets murdered and finds himself in a world where anything he wants comes true. He wishes for beautiful women and instantly they walk through the door. He goes to the casino and wins every gamble. He shoots pool and every ball goes into a pocket. Weeks go by and he gets frustrated, and begs for unfortunate things to occur, however for him it doesn't feel right knowing he's the one arranging it all. It's a good episode, and really drives home this idea of not being able to appreciate things when they're unlimited.

If you're thinking about making money, wait for the market to fully crash.

@Blackhawk Why is Obama black and not white?

This. 1. wait for the price to deflate. 2. don't buy shitcoins, stick with the established coins. It's actually very simple, but people tend to get a massive dopamine-boner when faced with the prospect of $$$. Just keep it simple and don't put much dopamine secretion into your investment... i.e. don't spend your time tracking every subtle movement in price and getting high on the idea of how much money you're making, cuz this is going to cloud your judgement.

VALIS is PKD's magnum opus. It's a fictionalized version his exegesis, which details his 1974 theophany. VALIS is part of a 3-part series, but each book is set in a different universe and only share similar themes, not characters or plot. VALIS > The Transmigration of Timothy Archer > The Divine Invasion, IMO. Also since I remember seeing your Evangelion post, I thought this was an interesting similarity, especially considering VALIS and EVA share similar themes:

It's a reversal of the accepted paradigm that: The universe is a dead material object, and consciousness came to exist within the human body and animal life. The mystic point of view would say: The universe, including your physical body, exists within the container of consciousness, which is ultimately you.

VALIS - Philip K. Dick Island - Aldous Huxley The Teachings of Don Juan, A Separate Reality - Carlos Castaneda

I notice this from spiritual people.. here's one from a mr. "i don't like talking about politics publicly" where he publicly implies that covid is a deep state conspiracy to cripple the economy which would help Trump lose the election. Also "doesn't believe in germ theory", thinks you're an unenlightened sheep for wearing a mask. All this with zero push-back from Aubrey.

Neon genesis evangelion ping pong the animation Akira Princess Mononoke Mind game FLCL All high quality anime which I think this forum might enjoy, thank me later =]

Wasn't Hitler a proper fascist? I just watched a vaush video and he did a rant on how all the books show Hitler and the nazis were incompetent, selfish and unintelligent. Is Trump next level incompetent or something? Timestamped video for below: (17:09)

The series is an emotional, psychological, existential, and philosophical. The show feels like a psychedelic trip, especially toward the end and most especially in End of Evangelion. I first watched it many years ago before I had any interest in spirituality or psychedelics. Rewatching it more recently gave me an entirely different take. Here's a spoiler-free quote to give a tiny glimpse

Your DMT experience almost exactly mirrors my own... I even use the video game analogy. The way I described it, I was in the lobby of a video game called life. There were no characters, no environment, no setting. I also felt the 'feeling' (idk if it was fear exactly) of seeing something which cannot be unseen or undone. It felt like the game was permanently over. The final takeaway, and the most profound for myself, was the dissolved separation between inner and outer world. The outer world became fluid like mind. I think this is what PKD might have meant when he said, "Matter is plastic in the face of mind". Like you I'm also afraid of taking DMT again, so I don't have much experiential advice to give. Though I was also terrified when I decided to smoke DMT in the trip I just described. Took me like 30 minutes of sitting silently with my fear before finally smoking it.