Enlightenment

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  1. I guess twenty years of training in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw, including three years of intensive silent retreat in monasteries in Asia and the U.S is a serious meditator "I had been led to believe that stream entry and certainly second and third path were so lofty and quasi-holy that by the time you had them, you’d basically be on easy street; if your life wasn’t yet a cosmic bliss out, it was certainly on the way. If anyone had said I would still be depressed after the second path of enlightenment I wouldn’t have believed it. But as it happened, by the standard diagnostic criteria I learned from the Mahasi system, by 1994 I did have second path and I was still depressed. By 2003, I believed I had attained third path too, but my life was still in shambles. There was a rift between what was happening and what I thought ought to be happening. On the one hand, I was a meditation expert; I had a high level of facility with altered states, knew a great deal of Buddhist theory, and had had myriad fascinating and profound experiences. I could easily access jhanas, and use them to temporarily remedy my problematic mind states, but it wasn’t enough. Depression and anxiety continued. It seemed to me that my brain chemistry was seriously fouled up, and this movement via my meditation practice through what I thought of as an organic, somehow biological spectrum of development was not addressing my mental health issues. I was becoming resigned to the conclusion that meditation would help me accept my depression but would not help me overcome it. I bitterly came to terms with my depression as a long-term, chronic problem that might be with me for the rest of my life; in 1999, I begged a friend to take me by the hand to the county mental health clinic and help me ask the doctor for antidepressant medication." "Now, we go back to, I’m claiming that I had attained Third Path. So, now, we’re talking about the mid-90’s through the early 2000’s, and I was really depressed during this time. So I had access to all kinds of remarkable mind states, all these jhanas, and yet, my life was in a shambles, my brain chemistry was scrambled. I was taking Prozac and whatever antidepressants seemed to work best. I tried several. I was taking an anti-anxiety drug at night, in a very low dose, but I couldn’t sleep at night. So, here I am, you’d think that, according to all of the legends about what an Anagami is, a Third Path practitioner, I should have been really together, and I wasn’t." 700 to 900 hours if I had to estimate. Yes Occasionally, except for a period where I wasn't meditating almost at all at the peak of my depression Usually 45minutes 2x a day No retreats If you're familiar with The Mind Illuminated stages - I can make fast progress and get to stage 8-9 and then a stressful event can easily drop me back to 5/6 again. So it's very unstable for me 4 books Haven't studied with any masters in real life but I watched a ton of videos. In the last 4 years, I was basically obsessed with this topic. It can but the question is to what degree and how long it takes. And BTW I'm not claiming that once you get depressed, you will be forever. Even in hospitalized patients depression fixes itself within about 5 years, it's an episodic illness even tho episode may last quite long. I agree that Leo should have more intense practice if he wants to make progress. It took me a while to even learn how to properly meditate and apply proper intentions with proper effort. If anything I have exceptionally good genetics for spirituality as I lost the sense of agency and the sense of self in the first two weeks of meditating which is very rare. For concentration meditation and getting into Jhanas, I'm probably average You can disagree all you want but taking 3 hours each night to fall asleep because you have anxiety speaks for itself. The only thing that really significantly helps for falling asleep with such severe illness are dangerous and addicting drugs like Xanax. It is a body problem. Depression is actually very closely related to arthritis. There are 'objective' measures like significantly higher inflammation levels in the body and brain. Heightened startle response and constant anxiety that makes your cortisol higher and heart beat faster making it very hard to fall asleep. I disagree that it's all just thoughts but even if it would be, you can't control or know what your next thought is gonna be, neither live without thinking at all
  2. intuition an ability to understand or know something without needing to think about it or use reason to discover it, or a feeling that shows this ability Do you claim that if you wouldn't have thoughts as mental talk, you wouldn't have any negative emotions/feelings? Yes, the same mechanism which allows me to write this sentence or work or survive at all is also creating an aversion to sensations in my head commonly known as 'headache'. It's possible to meditate up to a perfect equanimity where all aversion disappears but there is no way to do anything in cessation. Also, the fact that even very advanced meditators are only able to get cessation for maybe 30 minutes. There is still suffering in Jhana yet even Jhanas seem to have a natural limit to how long they last Bro, you have no idea what you're talking about. Again, states you're referring to where there is no aversion doesn't last long, it's extremely hard to become so good at meditation to have them on demand at least for a moment. No, you don't have to think "me that is depressed" to be very depressed. Animals can get severely depressed, do you think they think to themselves "oh no I'm so depressed" and that's why they are depressed? If you have a genetic vulnerability and get triggered by stress - you may get depressed and dysfunctional for a few years, and no amount of philosophizing will change that, you may be able to reduce some suffering through spiritual practice but not gain cognition and functionally back. Depression is a deeply embedded adaptive mechanism you ain't curing it through meditation. Maybe it is possible to do make some profound fix if one would be getting a constant high dose stream of 5-MeO to the brain, like Leo talks about updating your neurotransmitters but IDK if it's even possible. Also, tell it to enlightened teachers who have been depressed and on meds (Jan Essman, Kenneth Folk, Martin Ball insomnia issues) and even committed suicide (Nathan Gill)
  3. Thoughts are only part of our suffering. A lot of our suffering comes from feelings, and they don't necessarily have to be caused or accompanied by thoughts Why you assume I'm not enlightened? I didn't claim anywhere those are the reasons one can't attain enlightenment. For this discussion to make sense I have to ask you what is your definition of enlightenment and suffering? Just so we are on the same page, because I know people use the same words but mean different things
  4. Examples of things that can easily rob you of your happiness: Schizophrenia, cluster headaches, arthritis, major depression, CPRS
  5. Again this comes back to the definition of what we mean by awake. Commonly if someone lost their standard feeling like a 'self' being in the head - they are considered awake, and what is changed in their brain is not different levels of neurotransmitters but merging together default mode network and task-positive network. Donkeys and other animals do not have a default mode network at all (only humans do) so yes donkeys are awake by the most common definition of awakening. Now, by your definition which requires a constant stream of 5-MeO to the brain - I've never heard of such a person and doubt even one exists
  6. Well, following that line of reasoning we may as well say everything is 100% genetics. Let's take major depression as an example - it's believed to be about 50% genetics/50% environment but an argument can be made that if you would have the right genetics, you would not get depressed no matter what, you would physically die from stress before it makes you depressed. There actually are people with childhood trauma, experiences of extreme chronic stress from war... and not a single depression episode in their lives. Similarly, I've heard that some rats they use to study meds on by first inducing depression with chronic high stress are "impossible to drive crazy" some rats/humans just have the right genetics. If you would have Warren Buffet's gut genetics it wouldn't matter that you eat vegetables, dairy, or junk food. So does it mean your issues are 100% genetics? A donkey can't do spiritual techniques because he can't learn them because he doesn't have the right genetics to do it in the first place Yet still, a massive chunk of these gurus wouldn't be anywhere close to their spiritual development if not for techniques. I had absolutely zero spiritual experiences until I did my first meditation session and I highly suspect that with my genetics I would never get any without doing meditation
  7. Yes You should get vaccinated for your own risk/reward health benefit and compassion for old people
  8. Half a billion dollar house
  9. A while ago I made an online dating account with one normal selfie and gotten a few matches in a few weeks. Now I took the same selfie and morphed it (50/50) with a very good looking model and I got more matches within the first few hours than a few weeks with an untouched selfie + hot women messaging me first which was quite shocking tbh. It's a weird feeling cause that photo is 50% my face Most women on dating apps use some form of photo editing like Instagram filters, build-in beauty camera mode. Of course, I'm aware 50% morph is too much but I wonder what is still a reasonable edit. Are filters ok? Beauty mode camera? 25% morph? Photoshopping a picture just a little bit? Where would you draw the line? Or do you think any photo filters/edit is a no-no?
  10. @meow_meow Yes and Yes From my 4 year experience in meditation, there's no way to make it far without going through boredom and sometimes having to force yourself even if you don't feel like it. When you eventually make it to blissful effortless mindfulness and concentration, you'll see it was worth it
  11. Getting laid or getting a girlfriend which is even less likely than getting laid with my autistic mind
  12. This has been disproven already. Lowering serotonin in healthy people doesn't necessarily lead to depression. Depression is not caused by low neurotransmitters neither it's even close to being cured with antidepressants - they doesn't cure shit Depression very complicated evolutionary adaptive mechanism to stress. It affects the whole body and 8/10 genes associated with an inflammatory immune system response are also associated with major depression
  13. @IAmPaulQuinn What you should chase for happiness: Low stress, especially if you're prone to mental illness or have a history of mental illness in your family Locking in persistent no-self state AKA awakening/enlightenment Getting good at meditation (stage 10 from The Mind Illuminated), Jhanas Regular exercise and a good diet sufficient in magnesium, zinc, omega 3
  14. It's not just a matter of going out. You have to know techniques/methods to attract women (or be very good looking), otherwise not much gonna happen by just going out
  15. @Podie45 supposedly buspirone can help with that In your situation, I would try amphetamine (a very dopaminergic drug) and research psychedelic amphetamines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_psychedelic_drugs Maybe this is the main problem? Of course, you're not going to have a sex drive if your testosterone is low. Have you thought about hormonal replacement therapy?
  16. @The_Truth_Seeker Do you have experience fatigue? I don't get why so many people have such a desire to become immortal, live forever etc. at some point you just kind of seen it all and experience fatigue starts to creep in. Leo in his latest video said something like "those last decades of your life you're gonna experience the worst suffering because you will have to face your own death" but he doesn't get that many people are totally fine dying, especially older folks Being immortal would become huge suffering at some point I think
  17. @Striving for more
  18. @Vision The number one thing to focus on if you wanna improve insulin sensitivity is losing fat via caloric deficit. Exercise is also important but not as important as diet. There are a number of methods of caloric restriction. It seems like it's a very individual thing in terms of what method is most sustainable for you and makes you suffer the least. If you like keto - great, do keto but can you be on the keto diet for the rest of your life, or at least most of it? For me, keto is not sustainable but 15/9 h intermittent fasting is effortless. You can also focus on eating the least calorie-dense foods possible which works great for some people Being low in body fat and not exercising is better from an insulin resistance standpoint than being fat and exercising a lot https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurjpc/zwaa151/6105192
  19. I didn't watch yet but I guess this guy as a physicalist believes in the many-worlds interpretation of QM, right? If so then in one of these infinite amounts of worlds he is a new age woo guy and Leo is a physicalist who is "debunking" his views. Or my understanding of many-worlds interpretation is wrong
  20. Foxconn workers were jumping off windows to commit suicide So they installed nets to catch the bodies... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/18/foxconn-life-death-forbidden-city-longhua-suicide-apple-iphone-brian-merchant-one-device-extract https://www.hrcapitalist.com/2010/09/picture-of-the-day-workplace-suicide-nets-in-china.html
  21. @Alexander Nigma Arahants are the same as Buddhas
  22. @Lyubov What's wrong with her eye? Adriana Lima is not my favorite too but she is the one all the blackpill guys jerk off to because of facial bones etc. My favorite of all time is Barbara Palvin