Roy

I'm not sure the connection between material happenstance and free will? Those unlucky people also don't have free will. Yes I'm sad for all living things pretty much all the time, it's draining actually. I'm tired and want to know when I get to go home...

From my biased personal perspective wired in my ego brain I'm special, even though day to day I don't think I am. From the unbiased perspective of the universe I'm a tiny part of it that's no more special than the rest.

I discovered there was no free will some years ago. Has it really changed anything about the way I've lived my life after that revelation? Not really. It's kind of just an interesting thought experiment I wouldn't worry about it too much. Or worry if you want, it's not like you have a choice anyways LOL

I'm going to assume you're being a little sarcastic here but that's one of the biggest social myths that pisses me off Just because you're old it doesn't automatically count for anything. - First off. EVERYONE ages, unless you die early. So it's not a special quality whatsoever. - Second. You could have gone through your entire life being a complete moron, never having learned from your mistakes. - Third. There are countless old people who aren't wise about anything. They don't develop themselves at all. They exclusively focus on fulfilling 100% selfish values like getting a ton of money, a house, and a family. They spend zero resources outside of their very limited expansion of concern. Anyways I'm ranting a little bit for fun at this point, it's just a pet peeve of mine.

Boomers are Buddhas?

I mean I posted that for some comedic affect, but in my life it's been overwhemingly anecdotally clear that it's only really older people that are racist. I've hardily ever run into anyone below 45 in my country that I could discern was a genuine racist. It simply won't be socially sustainable to have that kind of hatred with the way demographics projections are going. On my recent travels going out West across my country I've noticed even smaller rural towns are getting filled with Asian/Indian immigrants. Which is great. The faster it happens the better. I'm willing to bet in 25 years there won't even be a need for movements like BLM anymore because most of the heavy lifting will already have been done. Of course with the internet the way it is there will always be small pockets of hidden cancer, as long as they stay there and don't gain traction again that's good enough.

This problem will solve itself, just be patient and wait for all the boomers to die.

Any time spent in front of a computer screen reading articles, discussing on forums, or watching videos........... is zero time spent outside, interacting with the other sex, helping you build relationships and get laid. As much as there are definite factors with technology and society, the brutal truth is this is a 100% personal issue that is solving by simply taking action. Of course the young men suffering won't want to admit this, they'll have a list of limiting beliefs and a victim identity they want to maintain without even knowing it.

Imagine if public education actually taught young people how to form healthy relationships (sexual or otherwise), instead of learning what will be ultimately useless math formulas for 98% of people, or taught how to become good memorizers for tests that will teach you no skills for working a job in the real world. Instead they leave this domain to a completely vapid and broken culture, where parents are literally too busy working to teach their kids anything, so young boys end up absorbing an utterly toxic mindset towards women from hip-hop culture, and young girls end up buying into the delusional and fantastical expectations that modern feminism instills in them. I remember the only thing I learned that was even slightly relevant to this was from my Gym classes in high school where the only thing they said to us was, "Wear a condom if you're going to have sex." and "Don't catch any STDs because they're bad mmkay???" Combine this with hilariously unregulated technology and social media and it's exactly no surprise when some incel goes to shoot up some school because he couldn't get his dick wet.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with killing anything, for any reason. Where exactly in the universe does it say we shouldn't, or it cares if we do or don't? It's completely relative. If you are the one killing and it benefits your survival, from your POV it's good and great! From the others that suffer, it's evil and bad! Put yourself in the perspective of the Nazis by pretending to be them, I mean REALLY imagine it. How do you think they were able to do what they did? Precisely because they thought what they were doing was good, because it benefits them and their ability to survive. What we call traditional "morality" is nothing more than a collective social consensus that we all imagine and choose to agree on and participate in. If your survival agenda operates outside of this then it literally doesn't exist for you, you simply have your own consensus. In an absurd hypothetical if we all collectively agreed 100% as a society tomorrow that it would be ethical and better for humanity to euthanize all mentally or physically handicapped people, it would literally become good. There is no exterior higher authority or arbiter that says we shouldn't or can't (unless you imagine one of course). From the universes POV it makes no difference what happens.

He is just the most cunning and ruthless power hungry ego that rushed in to turn Russia into a kleptocratic oil mafia after the USSR collapsed. If he actually had any shred of empathy he would use his extreme competence and political capabilities to help the Russian people, not let the country devolve into the 3rd world ****hole that it is now. His face should be plastered beside the word Corruption in the dictionary.

The idea of self improvement kind of emerges at Orange so it makes sense there is a lot of that here, which is fine. Gotta start somewhere.

I completely sympathize with the question, but isn't it kind of obvious in a way that it's utterly arbitrary? Like no matter what "way" it is, or could have been, you'd still be standing there (or not ), wondering if there is some underlying meaning or reason for it. So if the question always persists no matter the contents of it, does it really matter to have an answer? Maybe consider the experience of the wondering itself is the answer?

At a very young age when I first developed what we could call a traditional consciousness (around age 4 or 5), I remember having extremely vivid experiences of dreams and nightmares that I could swear to this day were absolute reality. One of them even taking me sleepwalking outside at 3 in the morning at age 4 haha. I recall a vague feeling of everyday life seeming magical. My imagination felt so limitless and enjoyable to explore, and almost felt like a superpower. I asked a stupid amount of questions all the time, much to the annoyance of my mom in particular Then over time as I started having curiosities satisfied, and started slowing down on the questions, day to day life became less magical. I realized I was slowly getting grinded down by the culture I was in, but I didn't go up in arms about it too much as I've always been a generally mellow person and didn't want to make life harder for myself. However I still felt a rebellious curiosity inside. Fast forward to now almost knocking on the door of 30, I feel "ok" feeling I have reality mostly "figured out" like a lot of people, but I definitely have a melancholy and nostalgic yearning to go back to what it felt like being a kid. I can slowly feel myself leaning back there after years of work, but it takes an extraordinary amount of effort. Sometimes I'll stumble across something whether it's a personal experience or listening to something like Leo's videos that give me a "hit" of that, but it feels like it's passed and gone. Frankly as open minded and exploratory as I am (probably in the 99th percentile), existence NOW at this age feels ridiculously fucking boring compared to what it was like to be 5 years old. I'm just curious as to why the human experience seems to start like LITERAL liquid magic and imagination, and then feels like it's all gelled together into something solid by constant pounding from the forces of everyday "reality" as we grow up and become adults? What is going on here, and why the hell aren't more people concerned about this in society??? Just posing this generally but more interested in a meta-physical explanation, answer how you feel. Would like to hear your thoughts @Leo Gura Cheers

Yea I get that, but I want to go back to that magical place without dropping too many of the useful things I "know" I want my cake and to eat it too. Only done Salvia. I have some other ones on my list I want to experiment with eventually. Probably because we're fed materialism through our culture, if we were all born a thousand years ago where everyone except an extreme minority worshipped a religion there wouldn't be a place for nihilism. If you're a believer in the lie there is an afterlife so you don't have to worry. Besides my imagination bringing up the pages of stories I wrote to life, no. I do recall controlling the direction of the breeze with my hand though when I was lying in the grass at age 10

Dinner is great for a second date, it's not too forward or intense, and you get a lot of time to talk face to face and build connection. It's only trying too hard if you book reservations at the fanciest place in town, just find somewhere decent with a fun vibe where you can sit down and order food. At the end of the night when you have to pay, suggest casually that you split the bill in half or pay for your own meals. If she is cool about it and doesn't suggest that you pay for everything, she's probably a keeper. Think of it like a shit test. Personally I don't continue dating a girl if she expects me to pay, it usually says a lot about what they'll be like in the future if they have that expectation that quickly. Speaking from experience Have fun!

Existence is already spooky enough as it is, I guess if you're genuinely curious about it just for the sake of curiosity, then do it. But don't come crying to anyone when you see stuff you don't like. Otherwise I'm not sure any other reason would be valid, it's like creating a form of suffering for no reason at all. It seems the point of the work here (vaguely) and the general point of emergent consciousnesses the universe itself is to move in the opposite direction of suffering. At least that's the intuition I get. I'm not sure I've come to a personal conclusion about this yet but it's kind of like how @Leo Gura has said there is the lower duality of (g)ood vs (e)vil, but there is an absolute (G)ood or (L)ove that is higher than both, but no opposing (E)vil or (S)uffering.

I answered as honest as I thought I could, I guess I'm pretty balanced?

Never trip by yourself no matter what drug or dosage you're taking, that's irresponsible as fuck. It's no wonder psychedelics get a bad name. If we want them to be taken seriously sooner rather than later we need to adhere to a strict code of conduct.

Notice how I haven't said anything about if veganism is good or bad or not, and you are still locking down your position by finding another piece of confirmation bias, not just any piece but appealing to the ultimate authority of the person who literally runs the forum we are chatting in

A nonchalant answer for fun, probably doing Salvia. You know it's a really weird thing to have lived 99.999999% of my life as a human being, and then having the full blown experience of being a couch and a TV for a short time.

Nobody can tell you that answer to that. I guess you'll have to figure that out for yourself, if you're curious enough which you seem to be. What's the worst that can happen from hearing some of their perspective? Maybe it can give you that slight advantage you need

Yes, that's true. Besides being responsible for COVID, are the things that might be stopping you from getting that interaction right now insurmountable? Notice and dissect the contents of the statement, "I can't live the rest of my life alone". You are referring to it as if it's something that's already a reality, and one that cannot change. Not just that but you ascribe "sadness" on top of it, but you are probably aware that people are able to be alone and be happy right? Not that I'm advocating you do so, just trying to get you to consider it's possible. The consciousness work is great, but don't be so eager to climb uphill with a boulder on your back. Suffering is a part of existence, because existence is everything of course. Do you see how you might be creating even more suffering by trying to remove it? Obviously it's preferred to minimize it, or avoid it if it's unnecessary, but to try and "remove" part of reality won't work, and it's actually a form of selfishness. If you mean something different by the word remove, I'll listen. Do you know or do you feel that goal oriented or material stuff won't make you happy? Who is to judge that what makes @levani happy is a bad thing or "shit", besides @levani? I don't mean to overstep here, but I do want to challenge you a bit because I sense you've accepted some sort of limitations that anything that isn't this consciousness work or higher value spiritual labor is a waste of time. Consider that might be relative for what you actually need right now. Remember you said yourself you want to be a complete human being, so wouldn't it be wise to have some more patience and not skip over stuff?

That's incredible, you know it's actually learning about that story of the monk that finally put the nail in the coffin and exposed the limitations of my previous materialist/scientific worldview some handful of years ago. I always had a general sense that there was "something more" to life and that although I simply couldn't understand it at that time, my intuition was pulling me towards opening my mind no matter what. Do you still recall your first significant moment like that?

Is this how this monk was able to self immolate in protest of the Vietnam war, because he did enough consciousness work to destroy his ego to the point where he could burn to death without flinching?