Consilience

Science is not a joke. Without western science, my body would be dead. I use medicine everyday to stay alive; medicine that wouldn’t be available without science. You also rely on science everyday whether yoy realize it or not

Beauty = being. When you understand that, life becomes a lot more beautiful

That question presupposes that there is someone to have wishes and desires so I'm not entirely sure how to answer you. But I guess there is nothing to stop it.

They can be explained using science and models yes. They cannot be *understood* until they are directly experienced.

Omnipotent? This is more conceptualization, is it not?

Excuse the word vomit of a thread title, but I thought this may be interesting for some of you to read about. If anyone has similar experiences, I would love to read about them. Over the last month or so, an interesting dynamic has been taking place during meditation wherein neither the concept of surrender nor the concept of control really describes what’s been taking place. It’s almost as if I am both “being” or “doing nothing” (notice how language can’t actually articulate this process taking place… language requires process-orientation even when there is no process) and actively inquiring into my true nature. Interestingly enough, there seems to be arising a conscious energy directed towards understanding the self even though I have relinquished all control. So many times the thoughts “Who am I?” “To whom are these thoughts occurring?” will arise on their own, yet it feels as thought its from a genuine and clear intent to understand my true self. Which is the odd part… There is genuine intent to know the truth here, and yet “I” am not doing any of this WHILE simultaneously allowing the energy to arise and question. It’s as if I’m contemplating the question “Who am I?” by doing nothing but letting that energy, what the symbols “Who am I” represent, flourish in an unobstructed manor. Through total surrender to being, genuine intent and questioning arises. In other words, by giving up all intent during the meditation, intent arises. It feels like there is a very primal force inside that wants to know itself that is both separate from myself and is myself. It’s as though both perspectives make sense depending on how you use language to describe it, but remember, language can’t ever actually communicate what I’m trying to convey. It feels very strange but is very interesting indeed.

Any dose could lead to an awakening experience just as one could awaken right now, sober

I can sometimes feel this way... but for me it’s not the motivation that changes. It’s that smoking weed helps me see through the illusions of the world. It’s like my resolution of reality gets turned up a notch. I would contemplate what are the ACTUAL differences between your sober state and high state that allows one to increase the motivation over the other. A simple explanation may be that weed helps lower your ego and therefore allows more authentic feelings (such as the feeling to attain enlightenment) to flourish. If that’s the case, try to mindfully recognize that in your sober state and see if you cant get them to match. The other thing to keep in mind is that while motivation is great, discipline and commitment will serve you better imo. Motivation is way to acute to really bother putting much stock into it. That’s my perspective anyways.

Everyone is different. Dont over generalize yo. Im glad do nothing works so well for you.

My problem with do nothing is that unless the mind is already still, it’s not a very productive method imo. I pretty much always do a session of concentration meditation before do nothing as a way to still the mind. Once the mind is still, then one can settle into just being present and aware

Notice that the body is shapeless, formless... any shape you feel is a projection of the mind over the experience. Also notice the feeling of the body is not seperate from any part of your direct experience. Very cool stuff.

He addresses this topic in this one:

^^^^

Ive come to realize there’s both no free will and no no free will simultaneously. Reality transcends both of these dualities in a weird strange loop type of way.... it doesnt make sense nor could I explain it except by saying don’t get caught in the no free will mentality. But equally, dont get caught in the free will mentality either.

It’s a belief that they cause you to change. How is this belief serving your self structure? How is this belief totally false? What is an alternative explanation? Start viewing this as something YOU’RE doing rather than something your parents cause. Then, investigate how to change!

I think so yes. Exercise, nuttition and sleep are all very important as well. Moreover, I find a lot of these are interrelated as well, affecting each other. For example, if I dont sleep enough, meditation is pretty horrible. The more I meditate, the easier exercise has become because of pain tolerance and body awareness. Nutrition affects energy levels which affects exercise and meditation quality. Exercises helps keep my body feeling healthy which affects mood, sleep, strength.... etc etc. If I had to pick 1 though, I guess id say meditation just because it has had the most direct and fundamental shift to my life and resting level of consciousness. And I value consciousness and self knowledge more than I value health so yeah.

That’s 1 perspective yes. And equally, Tony Robins and a homeless heroin addict are infinitely distinct, just like all facets of reality and consciousness.

To answer the thread title directly: it’s relative

And yet in the end, the polar opposites collapse into one. To self actualize is to transcend your egoic, selfish, low consciousness behaviors. To self transcend is to self actualize into who you always were.

It’s completely relative. What works for one my not work for another. Some my most intense and profound states if being have occured after smoking weed, which isnt even a real psychedelic. And then being able to integrate those experiences has, without a shadow of a doubt, helped along the spiritual journey. Don’t become dogmatic yo~ Edit: Maybe you’re right though. I view psychedelics as tools along the journey. Not the end result, I guess you could say.

No they arent. Eventually you become conscious of the fact that laziness, comfort, and unhealthy foods are all addictions that create suffering. Caring about health acts as a way to counter these addictions similar to how meditation counters the addiction we have to thinking. Furthermore, one realizes that pleasure is itself completely relative and that you can find just as much and even more pleasure with healtht habits like eating well and exercise than being inactive and eating like shit. Good health provides so much more than a prolonged life. It increases overall energy levels, helps the immune system, helps emotional processing/stability, helps with body awareness/control and depending on how hard you push yourself, it can teach you a lot about pain, and suffering. It also provides a lot of functionality in life in terms of how strong or how much endurance you have for certain activities. My overall point- while death can certainly be a motivator, the benefits of valueing one’s health are much more than the quantity of life lived. We gotta think in terms of quality. This was an imteresting question though. Thanks for asking

To answer your thread title's question - you can't. In fact, you thinking there are other conscious beings is a concept. A rational concept that has evidence to support it, but a completely impossible question to prove. And any answer you have to this question will fundamentally be a belief.

Absolutely not. Im not sure I would have ever gotten onto the spiritual journey had it not been for finding lofi hip hop/chillhop music. Some music can be distracting sure, but it’s all relative

Maybe a better question would have been what is fatigue? It’s been really confusing lately about what the hell sleep is for, and why energy seems to ebb and flow based on things like sleep, diet, exercise, and even mediation. But if it’s just a thought, does that mean one could transcend it completely?

What is exhaustion, from the perspective of enlightenment?