luckieluuke

@TheAvatarState Apart from what has been said I´d like to add something that helps me: Accept that part of you that wants to game, vape etc. Don´t try to hate that part or distance "you" from it. Do this by prior to for example gaming take a moment and feel yourself, ask yourself: is this really what I want to do? If yes, don´t deny it but go ahead and game. During and especially after gaming take another moment and feel and ask yourself how you feel. This will feedback next time you ask if you really want to do what you are going to do. Might be good to do it when meditating as well as a comparison. Simply, do whatever you want as long as you are aware of what you are doing

Unfortunately didn´t feel anything "special" Apart of a calmness naturally occurring. Your smile made me smile so that worked

Thanks for you lengthy response. You are absolutely right in everything you said and I know I can get tangled up in the goal rather than the journey at times. However my response to this topic is similar to what you say: We don´t need a detailed view of the goal so this discussion here is rather pointless. Why try to understand the "10 ox picture" when you´re at a lower picture?

@Arhattobe Thanks for doing that, i´m grateful that you do; I enjoy reading your ideas / experience. I´m just offering my perspective,

Ofcourse there is problem with oversimplifying but that is what language, thought and ideas does. They take reality and put it in a box and decide this is the way it is, when in reality it´s not. But it´s the way we make sense of the world. Like saying something is Orange. There are infinite varieties of Orange but to simplify we call the Red / Yellow spectrum Orange. In order for a first grader to understand what a math professor does we offer a simplified version. It´s not correct but it helps us work with it. If the professsor tried to explain in detail what he does the first grader wouldnt understand anything. Similarly Buddhism says that no text is sacred or true. It´s just a tool to help you along the way and when you got the message and used the text leave it behind. We are all at different stages on the path and for a newbie like me who don´t understand enlightenment I need a simple idea to work towards, when I get further down the road that idea has been left and replaced by a new more nuanced idea. Now I need a low resolution picture of Enlightenment and as I advance the picture will become clearer. So for me I feel like I dont need an detailed explaination of enlightenment since Im not advanced enough to understand it. It might even me dangerous as my Ego might missunderstand it.

Sounds to me like a simple difference in language. From what I gather from this: (as simple as I can put it) Awakening is when you realize the truth Enlightenment is when you embody the truth First you Awaken which basically anyone who put real effort to it can do. Enlightenment seems more mystical and I don´t know what it means really. My interpretation is that awakening is the progress towards perfection, which is perfect in of itself, Its the journey. Enlightenment is Perfection which might not ever be reached but is a goal, the star to navigate by, Its the destination. From this perspective I agree with Leo. What we focus on here is awakening, after you do that you might move onto other sources and communities. At this point what we do here we focus on awakening but in the same time are aware of the path after awakening. But It seems of less importance to try to understand the path after awakening prior to awakening.

@-Rowan That´s true! For me personally it can be abit to overwhelming to have no sound and close my eyes cause then i´m on my own. Music can direct the experience and make it flow like it´s holding my hand. It can also at the same time make the trip deeper as you trust the music and the trip and it´s easier to let go and give into the trip.

@Akuma The logical mind cannot understand the impossibility of existence or reality. What you say is true and it´s not true at the same time, as you practice you will see this. So don´t worry and relax. It´s a roller coaster and this is one of the scary parts. But you are safe and everything is as it should be.

Oh and @Antonius Thanks for some great music

5 758 588 763 views can´t be wrong ;-)

@Roman Edouard So why are you still alive? BTW what kind of logic says that you need to be old enouf...what about jumping of a height, standing in front of a train, hanging so on and so on. Please tell me you´re just trolling us....don´t even know why I feed you...

Use temporary email: https://temp-mail.org/ Also, you people who claim its useless and you who claim it helped you: Please elaborate!

@TheAvatarState Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I´m in a similar position but finally moved onto realizing the beauty rather than the horror of it all. But this battle is much more subtle in me.

@Arkandeus LOL yea right that´s why theres suffering I had no idea!!! Let me tell all my flat earther friends!

How long have you been using Hash and how frequently? (sounds like quite frequently, like daily?) In my experience using substances can give you a glimpse but the real work is incorporating the experience into normal sober life. If you don´t do that the ego will recreate the experience to suit and strengthen itself. Maybe im just projecting or jumping the gun here but that´s my two cents.

"Why is there something rather than nothing?" ;-)

Counterintuitively Life is love. The challenge is to love life. Like Jesus did. Life is the process of perfection. I remember Allan watts said something like: "imagine you could have everything you want, that you were god. Soon you will get bored and you wished something would happen and you didnt know the outcome. But you´d get bored if the outcome would always be good so you might say you want something to happen that you dont know the outcome and it might be bad. Going down this thought experiment you would end up where you are today."

I saw a documentary about placebo effects. A guy ate his placebo pills to commit suicide. He was sent to the hospital where he almost died, the doctors had no idea why because there was nothing wrong with him physically...but he was dying. In the end he didn´t die fortunately but it´s crazy what power your mind can have over your body.

@Matt23 Why so dramatic? Just take a month off and go into the woods and see how you like it? There are alot of communities in the fringe of society, eco villages and so on. Maybe you should find one, visit and see what it´s like. If you have alot of baggage at home, with family or friends etc you need to sort that stuff out first. But you seem to know what kind of environment makes you happy and what doesn´t so go make a change for the better I say. But going living in the woods for years? no reason for such a big decision.

@Baotrader Sooo happy and relieved to hear from you this morning <3

@Baotrader Please don´t do anything rash! When I was depressed for a few years this Ted Talk was one thing that made me feel that I was not alone in this feeling and there is a way out of it

"Before Enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment chop wood, carry water” There. That should clear things up?! ;-)

Id say, ditch the conceptual models completely. Do the practice and the answers will flow effortlessly

I´d say that treating reality as material works great. It enables you to do fantastic stuff, like going to the moon and creating the internet. The problem is that we get caught up in this material game and think everything is just material, including us. Then we try to find happiness in the external material objects or ideas of future and past. There is nothing wrong with using a material perspective IF you know that it cannot effect your since you are the eternal awareness. We have made incredible scientific discoveries but since we dont know our true self we use them like we were kids. If we want to be at peace and "happy" and build a better society materialism is not the answer. We will need to mature in spirit.

Leo has never said that he reached enlightenment. The "psychotic" episode in the video was induced by psychedelic and Leo explained afterwards that it was an enlightening experience but not THE everlasting enlightenment. I have a feeling Leo takes his lessons from psychedelic experience to literal. Like Carl Jung said: "beware of unearned wisdom" This guy "unspiritual" seems very aggressive, pushing his agenda. Get a bad vibe from him.