zambize

Yeah I know, part of my comment didn't relate to what you said and was kind of fleshing out my story, I just think you're pretty smart and like to comment on your stuff to see what you think of what I have to say haha, so if there is ever any disconnect, it's just that I like to hear what you say. I'm so excited to do a ceremony myself, hopefully I'm brave enough to not struggle and let the terror be

Seems to me like there is some debate on this, I feel like I distinctly remember Moojiji saying something along the lines of, "why be happy in a year, if you can be happy now". I think overall this journey should be fun, even if there is "terror and insanity". Most experiences I've had with ego dissolution feel mostly like jumping off a cliff into water, you kind of know you'll be fine and enjoy the adrenaline rush, but there is still a large degree of terror. That being said, I think for some people this terror can be excitement too, or at least a mix. I kind of have an issue with both sides, those that push the fact that this should be some grueling journey and don't mention that it can overall be fun and exciting, and those that push it being only fun and loving. I tend to just believe that everyone has to deal with what's on their plate, if you feel fear, you gotta embrace it, look into it, what is it trying to tell you, but if for some reason you don't, I don't think you have to force yourself into bad situations believing it's the only way to make progress

Im so glad that I live in a time where we are pretty open at least in my area about use of psychedelics and that I didn't have to go through 20 years of meditation to get a feel for what can be experienced in meditation

Allowing yourself to be rolled over because you don't want to make someone else uncomfortable is not kindness, no amount of doing this will change their heart from my experience so far.

I think the problem is what to you do when someone has a baby hasn't taken the course, I mean you can't just go around aborting babies, taking it away from a mother who refuses to take the license also seems unreasonable (if you don't abort it). Maybe parenting belongs in public schools for a day, not sure

The better theory predicts reality, the more dangerous it is to you in terms of over applying and not second guessing. I'd rather have a shit theory that I'm skeptical of and can fix as I learn than an overarching theory of reality that I'm trying to stuff everything into to work because it has worked in the past

I celebrated these holidays because my family did and it was fun, now I chose to continue celebrating them because I enjoy the Halloween parties with my friends and a chance to exchange gifts. While these may derive from pagan festivals, it's now anyone's choice to celebrate depending on if they feel like the benefit from any given holiday. I think it's easy to look too deep into this, I think the pagans celebrated these holidays with very different intents than we do today. Also cool that you live in Sweden! Have some family in Norrtälje and Stockholm, beautiful country

I think it gets better, but I can only speak from my experience, it's possible that some of this anger comes from ego-backlash,especially if you've been making a lot of progress in meditation etc. I don't know this is the case for you, but I repress some of these emotions such as anger,emptiness, feeling loss, when I think the better approach is to invite them in full strength and to just be mindful of them. As far as friends go, I left a larger group of my childhood friends because people just go their different ways and have different values in life, you'll find new people if who you're hanging out with atm is not a match

Strange, especially with meditation, I feel like that acts as sleep in its own right. Could be diet, could be too much screen time before bed, for me I noticed I get better sleep when I dont have music or any forms of active background noise. Could just be you though, for whatever reason you just need 8 hours to get the right amount of REM cycles or whatever

Have you really found 8 hours of sleep necessary? I can't seem to find any evidence supporting that other than an article that kind of pooled population sizes, and used the trends of populations to prove sleeping more was healthier, of course this is a shit metric because correlation doesn't prove causation, there could be reasons why these populations can't get enough sleep such as over-working that are the root cause, and not sleep. Psychology today seems to agree saying that if 6-7 works for you, keep it that way, you're more than likely fine. In fact sleeping 9-10 hours lowers your life span ironically. My point being that if you're doing 8 hrs because in your experience that's what produces, great, but if not, it is a common misconception that people need 8 and that if you can function on 6-7 hrs just as well, I would recommend 7 personally.

Probably not because most bullies just use words and not fists and you cant just go around beating the shit out of every bully who makes fun of you. Glad I could finally answer one of your questions for you, now its mutual

I've been writing IA on my hand to remember that throughout the day I want to be contemplating existence and who I am, I don't think you have to get yourself into any loops like this haha, just ask what behaviors you want to have throughout the day and take the necessary steps to make that possible. You don't want to be as distracted or forgetful (seemingly), so put up reminders, have a schedule, write on yourself, set your intention at the beginning of the day, visualize yourself living the kind of day you want to live, list goes on for you to choose from... I'm slightly confused though because you titled the thread about recognizing ego backlash, and I think you mean that distractions are a way that you think your ego might be backlashing. In THAT case, I wouldn't really call that Ego Backlash because that is just always the case haha, your life would be an Ego Backlash. When I think of Ego Backlash, I think of something that comes and goes, maybe a particularly moody night after I've made good progress recently, or kind of an extreme laziness over habits that I thought were cemented and it seems like it's fighting against those changes I've made

Leo's neck looks pretty normal though, not too beefy, but it's a functional neck

I don't think so, they seem most upset with people who are misleading people into thinking that everything is going to be sunshine and roses on this path, in order for you to get to try their techniques and listen to them. People who say what other people want to hear. Leo may sometimes do this, I don't know, I'm not in his head and don't know if there are any games he plays in order to maximize the amount of people that end up listening to him. That being said, it seems like Leo actually fairs on the side of this path being super difficult, and life being challenging. If anything, Leo to me seems to aire on the side of telling us it's going to be at least as difficult, if not more difficult than it will be in reality. In that way, I don't think they were taking a shot at him other than using that buzz word "actualized" which relates back to Leo. So maybe a bit harsh, maybe ignorant, I don't know, but I didn't interpret it as a shot directly at Leo

Could you be specific by what you mean when you say pursue the heart, do you mean do whatever you feel passionate about in the moment or something else?

By that definition Mcdonalds is a forums, I mean come on, when did the word "forums" become so loosely used, this is getting out of hand

Need to work on being grateful daily

That sounds more like a classroom than a forums, going to have to disagree, Buddha didn't have a forums

Not really a fair comparison cause the Buddha didn't have a forums to talk shit on

Why is enlightenment so difficult and rare despite there being so much literature and enlightenment teachers out there who have been through the process?

That's a really good description of why when you're afraid and you ask yourself who is afraid, the fear tends to dissolve after that, at least from my experience

I had bad weed anxiety after some synthetic weed almost killed me, could barely smoke with my friends for a year, or at least didn't enjoy it. I did shrooms in the middle of this, and I had the same worries but my body for whatever reason accepted the drug really well and accepted the head space it puts you into. Since then I've kind of fallen in love with psychedelics. I don't see any reason you have to go balls deep, even a half tab of acid will likely give you good insights into how your mind works. It will also push you out and cause you to merge a bit more with reality, making it a really good time to practice self-inquiry techniques, one Leo recommended is looking at your hand and just asking "what is existence"/"who am I" etc... Try a half tab if you're worried, see what you think from there, if you aren't worried, I'm sure you could handle a full 100 micrograms or more, but I think you can use your intuition, would recommend 100% though

What is said to exist in the final analysis? What can one say about the "final analysis"?

First of all, your RM self-inquiry has been fantastic, I feel like I can merge with reality a lot easier and to a much greater degree than ever before. Everyone should try this technique. Anyways, could you briefly explain whether or not "karma" exists, and some of its basic principles?

Enlightenment work is super easy and can be done during the day while you're just out and about, here is a technique that has produced the most for me. This was from the post called "I'm enlightened, sincere seekers ask me anything", you can go there and he will answer any question you have within like an hour seemingly "The recommended technique is Ramana Maharshi's self-inquiry. It's very simple. You know that "I am" right now, right? It's obvious. Well, how do you know it? Where is that feeling coming from? Try to find out where in your experience it is coming from, that certainty that you are. Start in your body. Just like if someone asked you where you were feeling cold, and you searched your experience and said "Oh, my feet are feeling cold." In the same way, ask about the feeling of the "I" that you somehow know with certainty. And every time you think you know where it's coming from, the rule is that you must ask yourself if you are aware of that thing which you think is the source of the I. If you are, you haven't found the real source yet. So you keep going If, for example, you say "It's coming from my head" -- well, ask yourself "Well, I am aware of the feeling and sight of my head, right?" Notice that. So where is the "I" that is aware of the head? It's not coming from the head -- it is aware of it. So where is the I feeling? It's just like you notice that there is light in a room, and you're looking for the source of the light. Is it coming from this chair? No. The chair is lit up by something else. Is it coming from that table? Same deal. So keep searching until you find the light bulb. You'll know it when you find it."