Bill W

the chimp paradox (prof. steve peters) I have this. I think it's a fantastic book to get people to realise how much of their life is dictated by their ego (the chimp), well that's how I saw it. Like most self help books I think the book could have been a bit shorter and still made it's point. My only doubt is that because you are already on the actualisation path you might not get as much from the book as someone who has never even considered that have an ego or chimp. His emphasis and I paraphrase here on "all data goes via the chimp first" really resonated with me. His focus on befriending the chimp and keeping the chimp active but in a healthier way reminds me of something I'm going to post below in a minute.

@Identity Love your attitude. I also love the input @skywords has. Adds another dimension.

It is for me. Is it authentic? Yes, I think so. I've not heard many people arguing there is no suffering. It is worthwhile? Hell yeh! Because it's my view that not only do we suffer, but we pass that suffering on, knowingly or not, I think we do. BUT............ I would change the term "escape suffering" to "reduce suffering", as can suffering be escaped? Not sure on that one.....

I think it really depends on your end game, your overall goal. For me, I am here more for good old fashioned self-development within a spiritual context. Who or what God is, is not top of my list of things to sort out. I am not interested (currently) in specific non-dual content. My overall goal is the reduction of fear and angst, with a view to making me more useful to myself and others. I'm chasing increased peace of mind. I make my life too hard. I'm not sure what others are going to post in repsonse to you, but I couldn't possibly (accurately) give you YOUR reasons why, but if I had to give it a stab I would guess the question "why bother?" leads to an answer of to reduce your suffering? There is massive suffering in life, that much we know and is pretty much undisputed. There are also ways to alleviate suffering. In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh There is suffering Understand your suffering Know that recovery is possible Follow the path to recovery and also from him Make the Truth available Practice the Truth

This is about the normal time I come in and make a comment about beliefs and direct experience, but I'm going to give everyone a much needed break from that, but I do want to add.... I love what you've written here. @mike1111 And with this.... @Serotoninluv That's actually my favourite song of all time. U2. Do you think the song has meaning with regards your post? Genuine question, never thought about it before.

@skywords Well I'm going to drop content about beliefs for now. He's not the first person who didn't appreciate it, another forum user also didn't like it, although he (Comandent) gave a good, more detailed, critique about it. Although I did get a nice PM from someone who thought one of my posts around beliefs & direct experience was powerful, he even called it profound. That still leaves me 2-1 down if we counting! So i'll quit while I am behind. I will just use my journal for dialogue on beliefs for now, and have a think on it, but leave the issue dormant and focus on other stuff for the main forum.

@TrynaBeTurquoise Oh come on man, there is no need for it to descend to this. You sound like you are speaking on behalf of the whole forum. If my stuff is false, it shouldn't matter too much to you as long it's not offensive or against forum rules. And if I am not teachable in some way, again it shouldn't really bother you. And I really wouldn't spend any time wondering how I ended up here

I am with you on that! Beliefs are not truths. Take your belief about what my mind is doing for example. You believe you know what my mind is doing! We can't help ourselves but to do this, you included my friend @TrynaBeTurquoise

@skywords I back Leo and moderators on all decisions I've ever seen as I think they have a good balance of letting people post freely but also to maintain good standards. But I for one like your content and I hope you and the team can live in (mostly) harmony here. I hope we don't lose you.

I love his way teaching in that clip. No fluff. Every word counts. Reminds me of Albert Ellis and his style.

Great post. For me, I want to discipline monkey mind and to concentrate/contemplate.

@TrynaBeTurquoise That's fine man! We all have our own ideas, views and beliefs on things. You are asking some good "why" questions, but neither of us have the answer to those questions!

That's a good explanation. Makes sense.

David Hawkins Letting Go Everything by Don Miguel Ruiz Alcoholics anonymous text book 4th edition Marcus Aurelius meditations Dr Phil self matters and life strategies Osho the buddha said

@Nak Khid I admire anyone that can pull off wearing a wig like that on YouTube.

@Preety_India although disclaimer: not accusing witches of being dangerous! Me and him might be more risky to the witches than vice versa lol.

Let me know if you find anything as I'm in London as well and we could go on a double date just to be safe bro.

Yes. This I vote for. Same runs true for "direct experience". Direct experience is only as reliable as the interpretation your mind makes of your "direct experience". You can't run from your own self-bias, although I'd imagine some people can reduce this self-bias to an extremely low level such as Adyashanti or similar, but must take years of training.

First thing is to realise porn is not the real problem. Masturbating is not the real problem. You have a spiritual malady. In fact, it may even be pointless working directly on the porn as it will just be replaced with something equally as problematic for you until the spiritual malady is addressed. And you can definitely still work on actualization and development while battling the porn issue, do don't give yourself that excuse that all your progress is ground to a halt and you are are at the complete mercy of your addiction. That's you (I do it as well) giving yourself a nice Get Out of Jail Free card as a reason to not work on other areas of your life. You have the desire to quit but the desire doesn't have the required power to materialise.

You are hitting the mental masturbation hard at the moment. I hope you have a happy ending. EDIT: Sorry dude, that is virtually trolling you. Don't mean to be nasty. Perhaps you need to know these things and I don't.

@skywords I really enjoy your content and the focus on the harmonious relationship between head and heart. I think I have a view that differs in a way, but the central theme is similar? For me the heart is an organ with a purely mechanical purpose. From the neck down I have no spirituality, it's just a body. But in my mind, there is a "heart" perhaps. It is part of my brain that is my spiritual centre or perhaps you could call it my soul? A place that lies pretty dormant unless intentionally activated and well fed with spiritual nourishment.

Well this one cannot be anything but true Enlightenment is just in your head

The illusion is the illusion which means there is actually no illusion to begin with, so drink up and do the work but drop the mental masturbatuon

So it turns out to be human after all. The search continues I guess!

Maybe the book already exists but in an alias? This will be his 67th book when it does come out. Just banter Leo. Seriously I wonder if it's now too late for Leo to write a more basic self help book? However the market is saturated with that and I imagine he wants to go more for a niche option and can't blame him. I'm sure he wants to bring out something that's trailblazing to a degree. I wonder if it will include about psychedelics? I guess so? Or would that potentially turn off a big group of potential buyers?