aurum

You're definitely getting it. Except if consciousness is "dreaming" all this up, what does that say about YOU? Who are you? You're not the character in the dream. You're the dreamer. You're God. Reality is neither physical nor real. But I don't mean "not real" in the convention sense. In duality, you have "real" and "imaginary". Those are CONCEPTS, both still part of the dream. I'm saying reality is beyond all concepts. But the best I can do in describing it is to say that it's "not real", at least not in the way people think. Because real is a concept.

I understand the point of the question, I'd say the first. But this dichotomy doesn't exist in real life. Yes, chasing happiness via success is like chasing your own tail. But that doesn't mean there's no point in pursuing success. This is the nuance I feel like most people miss. Pursuing success can actually contribute to your happiness greatly. You're contributing to the world, sharing your gifts. You're doing what you love. You're CHALLENGING your ability to remain detached from outcome, in a state of gratitude and present when shit hits the fan. Because if you NEED to essentially do nothing in order to remain mindful, how mindful are you really? It's a similar philosophy as those intense monks Leo talks about. They do shit like try and be mindful for days in a row because they're trying to PUSH THEMSELVES. The spiritual purification is not about passivity and laziness. It's extremely challenging and requires HARD WORK and ACTION. And there's no one right way to do it because there's nothing that isn't spiritual. So I view pursuing success and the spiritual journey as complimentary. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe one day I'll decide I was totally confused and move into a cave. But that's not likely.

Depends on what you want really. Some entrepreneurs would say you're crazy just for going into something because you love it. That without a solid strategy to generate cash flow, your business will die. I'm more of the "fuck it, dive in and figure it out along the way" type. I'm not saying that's the best way to do business. But I'm such a stubborn artist that I couldn't do it any other way. So it depends on what you want. Are you okay with struggling monetarily maybe for years if it means you get to work on your passion?

Okay, good. In my experience with relationships, this is pretty common. Things are exciting at first, then you settle down and things get "serious". While that's good, at the same time "serious" isn't always that exciting and sometimes people start craving that again. It can happen with men or women, but I've just seen it more with women. You start resenting your partner. So congratulations, you're very average . If you're intent on making this relationship work, then I'd say look into different ways of trying to spark the fire again. It may or may not be able to be done, I don't know. But I'd say chew it over and see what you think. For me, I know something simple that helps in my relationship is that I always try and remind my girlfriend that I think she's sexy. How badly I want her. How much I love when she's sexual. Granted, we don't have a kid and have only been for a short period of time. But I've seen relationships fizzle in shorter.

Check out Martin Ball This is the Enlightened guy Leo did an interview with about 5-Me0. He's likely enlightened...and makes pretty cool music.

So things were better when you first met? What do you believe changed?

Existentially, yes. Follow the pixel example to it's natural conclusion. If that's true about pixels, what about your cat? What about your house? You and I? Aren't these all just arbitrary labels the mind has made up? Think of a Globe. On the globe, everything is divided and we say this or that country exists. But the deeper reality is that there are no divisions on the Globe. We made them up. The Globe is just One Thing without division or boundary. That's your field of awareness. You're talking to yourself, and so am I. We're the same. There is nothing I'm saying that Leo isn't saying in his videos. We may just be using different words or explanations, but we're trying to say the same thing. It's all one, only nothing exists.

In a practical sense, yes. Of course. I'm saying let's go deeper. I'm saying the concepts of "I", "pixel", "seeing", "them" don't have any real existence. They're MODELS of reality, not reality itself. Can you see the significance of this? If you really grasp what I'm saying, you'll see it's the other way around. If we didn't dissect it, it wouldn't exist. Well I've had one of those enlightenment experiences. Here is what it's like and what I found true: .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ...nothing Again, in a practical sense of course you could say there's "something". It's not like wherever you were standing disappears and you're floating in like a giant black hole or anything. But on a deeper level, without ANY thoughts, there's no interpretation of any kind. That's what existence (and non-existence) is: an interpretation in the mind. So you're not "experiencing" anything. It's just a blank. Step into their shoes of someone who is having that experience. Honestly explain to me what someone is experiencing when they're not thinking AT ALL. Can you do it?

It can be uncomfortable to look at, but are you attracted to your husband? I'm not trying to make any assumptions but it does happen. Sometimes the passion goes away. Assuming that's not the case, I'd say you identified the problem well. You've got some subconscious beliefs about sex that are making you feel ashamed, probably from your upbringing / general social influence. You can't resist anything that's repressed, that's why it's repressed in the first place. Keys here are awareness and acceptance. You could try Leo's self-acceptance exercise, get a therapist or look up how to do Shadow Work for starters.

Question that belief, don't just brush it off as trivial. On what basis do they exist? Because someone said so? You've admitted that everything is just arbitrary labels. Existentially, not in terms of "USEFULNESS", what makes anything real then? Show me something real. Better yet, show yourself. If you never had a single thought, there would be nothing. You wouldn't even have the concept of existence or non-existence. There would be no you, no God, no science, no philosophy, no morals, no ideas about spirituality, no mind, no universe, no enlightenment, no ideas about realness, no ideas about nothingness, NO BELIEFS OF ANY KIND. There'd only be ............................... We can't describe it. But we do think. And THINKING is what makes us feel like there are things happening, and that somethings are true and some are false. That somethings are "real" and somethings aren't. That there's anything at all, happening anywhere at any time. Absent of thinking of thinking, it's just fucking nothing. So yes, everything that we say "exists" is just an idea. We created it in our "minds", and it has NO REALITY outside our own minds. There are no "people" or "places" or "things" or anything OUT THERE.

Your answer is in your question. Thoughts or thinking of any kind only occurs in the mind. Therefore it's just ideas. No. Realize that what you're reading right now has no meaning unless your mind creates it. If I wrote this in Spanish, unless you spoke Spanish it would be complete gibberish to you. Therefore there is not "inherent" meaning, only the meaning the mind creates. Prove to me that "pixels" aren't just a label people created to describe a certain set of phenomena. It's not complicated. In fact, it's stupidly simple what I'm trying to say. Everything you "know' about reality only exists in your mind. But people don't ACTUALLY live their life this way, even if they grasp it intellectually. Intellect is just more mind stuff when it comes to this.

A lot of meditation and contemplation about the nature of reality. Bodyweight exercises to stay in shape. A lot of writing, creative and otherwise. Vblog. Maybe come up with some business plans too, although they'd probably be obsolete after a year .

Yes, that's what I'm trying to say. Practically, of course you have a phenomenal field. But that doesn't mean it isn't an illusion. The idea of a phenomenal field is just an idea. In the same way that money or morality doesn't actually exist, we just all agree upon it for practical purposes. EVERYTHING, I mean everything you can think of, is just an idea. Even what I'm saying. It has no existence in actual reality. What is left if everything has no actual existence? What is still True?

In the dream, yes. People have different subjective experiences and we can use all our rules as we normally would, Existentially, no. The only "thing" that "exists" is no thing at all. There isn't even a phenomenal field, or "your" phenomenal field. There aren't any phenomenal fields.

Can you snort like a pig

There's not much to be said about a direct experience itself. In fact, saying anything about it no longer makes it a direct experience. Later. when you "come back", you can say something like "oh, I was infinity" or something like that. But when it's happening, it's not like that. It's not "like" anything really. This is important though. When you come back, because the mind is still running, it's going to try and MAKE SENSE of what just happened. It's going to try and take the unexplainable and explain it. Depending on your conceptual model of the world, this can be disastrous. The mind is going to make all these interpretations that can potentially lead to depression or who knows what else. You HAVE to balance seeking direct experience with conceptual growing. I made this mistake of abandoning learning for awhile and it cost me. Inquire, inquire, inquire, but also read, read, read. Why do you think I have a book review blog? Do I just "love books" and reading that much? Hell no. I just know that without learning, your life is basically a trainwreck waiting to happen. Books just happen to be something that resonates with me.

Detachment is the necessary first step towards getting an amazing relationship. And that's because for so many people, the default is co-dependency. When you're detached like Leo is talking about in that video, he's essentially bringing you to stage two. Stage two is being independent. Being independent is great. You've got your life handled in such a way that it doesn't feel like much is missing. You've gotten to a place where you can truly appreciate being single. Many people get stuck here as well. They've seen through the game of co-dependency and declare independence superior. If you don't get stuck here though, that's when stage three kicks in. Stage three is being detached, but still desiring to be with someone. This is when things really change. I know for me, I look at my current relationship and I'm sometimes just in shock. Everything is different from my old relationships and it's amazing. Of course, we still argue and there's still bullshit to deal with. Anyone who ever tells you that stops forever is selling you something they can't promise. But it's still way better.

Whenever I go through some bullshit and feel resistance, I try to look at it like it's a message telling me to detach. Easier said than done. But this simple reframe can definitely help in tough situations.

For a small minority of guys, no it is not intimidating. Some guys can just approach anyone no problem. And I think that's great. But for the vast majority of guys, not only it is intimating to talk to a hot woman, it's intimating to go talk to any woman. It's hilarious to me that pick up is portrayed as this thing that only people with extreme social anxiety need. As if every guy can approach women without fear. In reality, 99% of guys are afraid to talk to women. But it's usually only the guys who have the hardest time that end up getting enough emotional leverage to actually go out and change it. The rest will be just as afraid, but do nothing about it. I see it all the time when guys come into my group. The amount of rationalizing guys do when it comes to approaching women in order to protect their ego is incredible. Destroy one rationalization and another one just pops up. It's like playing whack-a-mole. The reason most girls don't understand this is that they get a skewed bias. What guys are they going to meet when they go out? Only guys that are already comfortable approaching. You're not seeing all the guys who wanted to approach but never did. They're in their room playing video games. So let me answer your question. Given this is true, how can girls be more approachable? The truth is a lot of it is out of your hands. Guys have their own issues they have to work through. And nothing you will do will change that. At the same time, there are some things you can do to swing the odds in your favor. 1) If you're a girl who usually seems very serious, try smiling more and having fun. It's nice when the girl doesn't look like she'll rip off your head. 2) Don't stand with packs of guys. I know it's silly but a lot of guys will see this and assume these guys will kick their ass if they go talk to you. 3) I don't want to say you can't dance, but many guys will see a girl dancing and feel like they're "interrupting" if they go talk to her. Just take that for whatever it's worth. So that's it. Hope this clarified somethings.

From the sound of it, If a 5-Me0 trip isn't "enough" for you then you're probably doing something wrong. My guess is most people can't even handle that.

Yes, hold the fuck on cause you're about to go on a wild ride. Hit it hard. Half-assing is not going to get you anywhere and will probably only frustrate you. Go out like a mad man, but also study the theory and breakdown your nights like a complete nerd. Never underestimate the power of logistics and a solid strategy over "game". Do whatever you can to place yourself around the highest quality girls you can find. If you're not leaning into your fears, you're doing it wrong.

There's no reason why you couldn't contribute to the world in the video game industry. If that's a passion of yours, go for it.

Enginnering might be an easy switch for you. Alternatively, you might be able to use your technical knowledge to invent some sort of product. If you want to go into entrepreneurship the possibilities are endless.

This hit home for me so hard. The journey can pull you into some of your deepest lows. I can honestly say I've never had such deep periods of depression in my life since I really got deep into Enlightenment. But then you hit this point where you've been through so much shit, you just give up. You just want to enjoy your life and help others do the same. In the past, if I was forced into some sort activity I didn't enjoy, I'd just resist it. But now all I want to do is slip into the present and have gratitude for what is. I'm not perfect with it. I still have periods of resistance. From reading your report, I'd say you're way further along than I am, so congrats. But there has been a definite shift. Keep up the amazing work man.

Could. If it does, that means your desire was based more on unhealthy neediness than actual caring.