blankisomeone

@Parththakkar12 Jordan Peterson is against rationalism. He believes human beings are deeply irrational beings, and that's true. And I think you agree with that, too, right? Rationality has its limits and Jordan is aware of that. Read the beginning of chapter 6 (Rule 6) of his 12 Rules for Life book. That's his critique of rationalism. The ego loves rationality, and the ego thinks its conclusions are always right, and it often leads to horrible acts. Jordan Peterson does a good job in opening people's eyes to the stupidity of the ego, he just doesn't use spiritual words, he uses psychology. He's a damn great psychologist. Although sometimes he does refer to spiritual language to get his message across.

I don’t get it either, and I refuse to blindly believe in it. Something inside me tells me its true, but I can’t really fully grasp it. When we feel the pain of others, for example, that tells me there’s a connection. I mean, how is it possible for me to feel the pain of others? The other day I was driving my car and I saw a guy walking, and then a bus drove by him on a puddle of water and almost splashed water all over the poor guy, and I startled and stepped on the brakes. Lol it was funny because for a moment it was like I was that guy, and I was about to get splashed with water!! I just thought it funny how I felt for him... I don’t know, that might be a little hint that we might in fact be one. But, yeah, like I said, I can’t really understand it, like you.

You can’t read other people’s minds because you’re not other people

I don’t know hahahaha

The illusion of water is real. Not the actual water, though, I get that. But the illusion was there. The illusion was real. Hate it when I’m feeling bad and someone tells me my feeling isn’t real. I mean... IT IS.

Because I’m the one reading it over here, you typed it over there.

It exists therefore it is real.

Stop trying to understand it. Just look what’s happening around you, that’s it. A or B, whatever. That’s just confusing. Spirituality is supposed to make things simple. Also, if you’ve ever heard spiritual teachers saying things like “all is one” or “you don’t even exist at all”, dude don’t even believe those things... Don’t just go around regurgitating those statements that you don’t even know for sure to be true. Work with what you have. You OBVIOUSLY exist, and the people around you OBVIOUSLY exist. Just the mere fact that I’m here typing this and you’re over there reading what I’m typing, that’s more than enough proof that we exist and we are not the same. Now just look around and observe. Just observe and then you’ll understand things. Maybe you’ll reach the conclusion that we are in fact one. But that’s a conclusion you gotta reach on your own. Also, get off this forum, it’s an echo chamber; it’s full of people that don’t know what they’re talking about. Don’t make things harder than it is. Have you watched Leo’s last video? That was his ego throwing its last tantrum lol

Must be so peaceful inside her head

@DocHoliday Yeah haha. The title I came up with for this post doesn’t make much sense. It’s just that I’ve been so identified with my inner voice that when I manage to quiet it down through meditation, it feels like I’ve attained something so wonderful. But that’s just one part of myself that I briefly detached from, not that I’ve become enlightened or something. The girl in this video seems to use her mind in much more efficient ways, I’d say. Most of my days are spent in fantasy land getting lost inside my own head. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’ve heard that MOST people actually DON’T have an internal dialogue, and that it’s us that do that are the crazy ones in this story haha

@electroBeam Yeah man. Internal dialogue is literal insanity. Internal dialogue goes on in my head nonstop. And I can hear my thoughts almost like I can hear sounds. Like, thoughts can distract me like actual sounds can distract me, sometimes even more than sounds. (AND I THOUGHT LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING ON THIS PLANET WAS LIKE THAT?) But after I started practicing meditation, I understand the uselessness of these internal dialogues. The internal dialogues still happen in my head a lot and they still rob a lot of energy from me, but I don’t take them too seriously anymore. But if they just disappeared for good, like it seems to be for you and the girl in the video, that’d be awesome hahah

Love this

okay father haha

No matter how much I complain that something is hard, that something will continue to be hard, unless I change myself, not the thing. The difficulty of the thing cannot be changed through my incessant complaning and suffering. But my skills and my understanding of the thing can be changed through my actions, then maybe, just maybe, the thing that I once thought was hard will become easy. But then again, it's not actually the thing that becomes easy, but rather it's me that become stronger. But sitting back, complaining, crying and worrying? Well, that won't change shit. If you think something is hard, you have two options: 1) you give up, and that's fine, go do something else or 2) you take a step back and you keep trying. You try different solutions. You become stronger. You grow. You overcome the problem. Whatever option you choose is fine Just don't suffer with either of them, as suffering won't change anything. Be in peace with whatever you choose. No pressure

As fucked up as what I’m gonna say sounds, it’s true that many egos actually ENJOY suffering and are NOT WILLING to do anything about it. Vicitm mentality. I used to have that Suffering is beneficial when it happens like this: bad thing happens -> I suffer (sadness, anxiety, frustration, irritability) -> I do something about it Suffering is detrimental when it happens like this: bad thing happens -> I suffer -> I suffer -> I feel bad because I’m suffering -> I hate sffering -> I hate life -> life is unfair -> why did that bad thing happen?? Why why? -> ug, life is so hard... or bad thing might happen in the future -> I feel anxiety, I worry and worry and worry -> oh no that thing might jappen what do i do -> aah im overwhelmed, im powerless idk what to do -> bad thing ends up NOT HAPPENING -> the suffering was for nothing... OR -> the bad thing DOES happen -> the suffering was still for nothing

@MrDmitriiV But some people wallow in suffering not doing anything. I was thinking about my past and there’s many situations where I suffered because something bad happened to me, but that didn’t change the fact that the bad thing happened. I wasted a lot of energy FOCUSING on the bad feeling. Also worry. Worrying didn’t prevent something bad from happening. There’s many occasions in my life where I worried a lot that something bad would happen that I was paralyzed with just worrying and didn’t take any action to at least try to do something to change the outcome, and the bad thing ended up happening. I worried for nothing. Suffering isn’t wrong. It’s part of being human, like you said. And a healthy amount of suffering can actually be beneficial, I agree. But very quickly suffering can become detrimental. I’ve reached these conclusions by analyzing stuff that happened in my life.

Are they just complete bullshit or is there some value in them by trying to categorize your personality somehow? I wanna say they're bullshit. If they aren't, how so? Could they be valuable somehow?

One of my spiritual insights happened through self-inquiry. I just started with the basic foundation: do I exist? Yes. I exist. Obviously. How do I know that I exist? Well, because here I am. How do I know for sure that I exist, though? Because, look. This moment right now is proof that I exist. This feeling of being here. This overall sensation of experiencing the world around me. Nothing can deny the fact that here I am. No amount of explanation can say otherwise. No amount of denying will make me just vanish. I just know for a fact that I exist and no further explanation must be given. Ok, I exist. I keep saying I exist. That's a fact. But who am I that exists? Who is existing here? After getting that out of the way, I started to analyse everything available to me in the present moment and tried to grab on to who I am. I know very well that I exist because just sitting here and doing this analysis is more than enough to prove it. But who am I? Ok, so working with what I have I started to try to see who I am. Am I that chair? Obviously not. I look at the chair. If I look at the chair, then I'm not the chair. If I close my eyes, the sight of the chair isn't there anymore, but I am. I'm still here. So that proves that I'm not it. Am I that table? By the same logic, no. I'm not that table. I look at it. Am I the ceiling? By the same logic, no. -> Therefore I'm certain that I can't possibly be the things I look at. Whatever I look at, I'm not that. Simple and obvious. Then, I did the same thing with the things I hear. Becoming as conscious as I could about the fact that I'm not what I hear. Same thing with feelings. Then, the same thing with thoughts. When I got to analyzing the THOUGHTS, that's when it hit me. Because I had been running my whole life thinking I was this voice inside my head, but now it's pretty obvious that I'm not that, although most of the times it takes hold of me. For a minute or two, I started walking around my room and looking at stuff and everything was so bright... Everything was still existing without my mind labeling the things... It was very peaceful and I wanted to stay in that state forever! But yeah it didn't last long, because thoughts came rushing back in ;P --- Right now, I'm still very attached to my body. I know conceptually that I'm not my body, because if I feel my body, if I move my body, if I see my body, then I'm obviously not my body, I'm not the thing that I feel, I'm not the thing that I move. Following literally the same logic as for objects, feelings, sounds and thoughts. I know conceptually that I'm not my body, but don't know it yet for a fact. I hope you understand what I mean.

@Raptorsin7 dude I used to be very shy, and I used to try all the time not to be. And you know how that changed litereally overnight? When I had my first alcohol Lol I got drunk and became very social at a party. I didn't get crazy drunk, just the right amount. The next day I realized I didn't have to be shy anymore... thats an example of an "altered state of consciousness" that helped me in my normal life. If used right, obviously. I mean, maybe the same thing can happen to me through psychadelics concerning the spiritual, idk. But I also have heavy stage blue anti drug conditioning

@StarStruck I study computer science and want to get into web development. I think it’s great because I can work on my creativity through design, I can work on my cognitive abilities through coding (also in order not to feel stressed with bugs on your code you must be calm, patient, you must have good communication skills etc. those are things that I can work on that can improve my life on every area, not only professional), and social skills through working with a team. You must work on your endurance and perseverance, as coding takes time to learn. You must also always keep your brain healthy, so exercise and healthy diet is essential, also emotional intelligence is a must not to freak out with the softwares. Also, this kind of jobs are great for working for something that’s bigger than yourself, being part of something bigger than yourself. Say someone has an idea of a great business or something, you will be the actual person that will help bring that idea to life. just telling u a bit about my career choice Also it’s amazing to see how solutions to problems usually will pop up in my head naturally as though sent to me by god. It’s quite remarkable actually

I feel like crying right now out of relief. I thought something was wrong with me from getting these side effects from my meditation practices. But now I guess they're normal and are to be expected after watching Leo's video on the dark side of meditation. The ones that are in bold are the ones that I've experienced. Have you experienced any sort of bad side effects from meditation? Please share them with me so I won't feel alone in this ;P I've been meditating for a year and a half now. (On and off, because when the these bad things happen to me, I get scared and stop meditating. But then I come back.) Of course the first months of meditating for the first time in my life, things were amazing. I've experienced and am currently experiencing many things from the list below, but the BIG ONES for me right now are: crankiness, loneliness, weird thoughts and spiritual arrogance. THE DARK SIDE OF MEDITATION taken from Leo's video (like I said, the ones in bold are the one's I've experienced): 1. Expect higher annoyance and crankiness. Hyperannoyance from little things. Actually, it's been pretty normal for as long as I can remember in my life to be more of an irritable and fearful person. I'm not gonna get into the details of why that might be because it has to do with my own life's history and maybe the depression I went through in a very young age due to drastic changes in my life. But since I started meditating, in the beginning everything was perfect but then the hyperannoyance came. People's voices started to annoy me. Flies started to annoy me more than ever before! Oh god I can't even describe to you how annoying I find insects. It's an out of this world annoyance that I can't even describe haha. Music I don't like annoy me like never before. My parents voices annoy me. Social media annoys me. Happy-go-lucky, energetic, smiling people annoy the hell out of me, even though I myself act like that sometimes... ANYWAYS, things annoy me to the extreme now after I started meditating. Even bad feelings themselves annoy me. For example, before meditating, when I felt sad, ok I just felt sad, it sucked but I felt the sadness and let it hurt. Now after meditating, whenever a feeling comes to me, like sadness, I feel irritated by the sadness, now not only am I sad but also irritated on top of that. That mainly stems from my wrong preconceived idea that since I'm meditating, theforefore I must always be at peace. I also feel irritated for feeling irritated. LOL It's just a crazy spiral of irritation and negative feelings. After I started meditating I realized I get into these weird spirals a lot. I tend to be more of a neurotic person since I can remember (the potential reasons why I tend to be this way is out of the scope of this post), but it seems to have amplified from meditation... Crazy, right? 2. Hyperjudgmentalism. 3. Wild mood swings. 4. Loneliness. Disgust. Anger. Frustration. 5. Crying. This usually comes when I feel too overwhelmed with a negative feelings, but when something clicks and I realize they're bullshit, I get such a wave of relief that is translated to crying. Or when I get a quick glimpse into the infinite love that life is, I cry. Or when I think about the bad things that happned in my past, I cry. 6. Insomnia. 7. Depression. If you meditate for longer than a year, you will be hit by serious spells of depression. 8. Meaninglessness. You will think your job is meaningless, family is meaningless, even meditation itself is meaningless. 9. Interference with work and career. 10. Interference with relationships. 11. Suicidal thoughts. Do not take them seriously. Any kind of thoughts. 12. Freak out moments. You get into arguments for no good reason. 13. Ego backlash. Turn back to old habits that you thought you had gotten over. 14. Hyper horniness. 15. Old, repressed memories start coming up. 16. Crazy monkey mind. 17. Waves of insanity and madness. 18. Self doubt. 19. Nightmares. 20. The most weird thoughts ever, like you're having sex with your mother or killing people. (I experienced having thoughts of killing people in the most brutal of ways. I was honestly so scared of those thoughts and I couldn't even believe my mind was capable of coming up with such thoughts because, hey, I'm such a good person. I thought meditation was turning me into some kind of monster. I started to hate my parents in such strong ways and my mind came up with things like "you know, you actually could just kill them..." Like, what the fuck?? Am I some killer? Lol Of course not, so these kinds of thoughts are easy for me to ignore and not give them my attention, so they fade away as quickly and as effortlessly as they come. But still, it was a quite a shock for me that meditation was making these kinds of thoughts come up. And now I realize how dangerous the mind can be when you identify with it. I realize how dangerous the mind can become. Thank God, thank my consciousness, I don't act on these thoughts and I don't identify with them in the slightest as they'd create so much unnecesary suffering and bad consequences) "I gotta quit my job, get a divorce, drop my family and children, move to a cave in India." -> This fantasy usually will pass in a few days. I've had that kinda thought. Almost failed at university because of this. I saw no point in building a career. 21. Spiritual arrogance. "Yeah, I've been meditating, watching Leo's videos, reading books, being productive, exercising, trying to be my best self. And look at all these other people around me, look how unconcious they are. I'm clearly superior to them and being around them is such a waste of my time and they're actually a hindrance to my development." -> Lol, look how this train of thought can actually end up with rationalizing killing people so they won't be in my way anymore. The devil is so sneaky. Or it could make you wanna go around preaching to people: "you should meditate more. You should do what I do." ---- second part of the list VERY VERY WEIRD SHIT THAT HAPPENS: (I haven't experienced any of these but one, and to be honest with you, they scare the fuck outta me. They almost make me feel like dropping meditation altogether) : 22. Tingling. Jerking. Shaking. Pain throughout your body. 23. Seeing lights and auras. 24. Vivid sexual fantasies. 25. You might start to behave like an animal (like crawling or howling or scratching yourself like a monkey) 26. Paranormal phenomena. 27. Samadhi state (merging with objects) 28. Kundalini awakening. 29. A total blackout. 30. Ego death (I experienced this, but for a very short time. It was beautiful, but scary, so ego came back immediately after) 31. Dark night of the soul. 32. Depersonalization disorder. ---- HOW TO GET OVER THIS STUFF: You are not going to encounter all of these, so don't go searching for it. Don't get triggered by them and make rationalized moves. Do not act too quickly. Treat these as temporary phases. Just relax and realize it's normal. Don't get distracted by this stuff. Keep meditating. When you stop your meditation habits, that's when you know the ego has really won. Real growth doesn't always feel pretty they way you imagine. Trust your original motivations. Treat yourself with love and kindness. Don't argue with yourself inside your head. Don't create partitions in your head: the good part and the bad part, where the good disciplines the bad and a never-ending internal dialogue is created. Love yourself. If you really need to stop meditating for a while, make a strategic move to take a break for a short time but always with the intention of coming back. Read spiritual books. Don't despair. Stay on track. The positive side of meditation becomes true in the long run! (Happiness, calmness, conscientiousness, fluidity, ability of long and sustained concentration) You're not fully purified after a week of meditation. You're fully purified after a decade of meditation.

What is it what is the importance of it how to go about doing it practical exercises

Feeling compassion isn’t bad. Compassion is evidence that we’re connected. We feel the pain of others which makes us want to help them. The problem is feeling “sorry”. Most people mistake feeling sorry/pity and feeling compassion. JP says it’s not helpful to feel sorry or pity for someone else, because it’s like you’re belittling the person and denying that they’re strong enough. Feeling COMPASSION is a different story, though. I don’t think JP lacks compassion as it seems like he’s genuinely trying to help people. He doesn’t feel sorry or pities anyone, and I think that’s a good thing. When I’m going through tough times I’d rather have someone tell me I’m strong enough than someone who will feel “sorry” for me and add fuel to my sorrow. I don’t agree with everything JP says. I’ve read his book “12 rules for life” and there’s many things I don’t agree with, but also many things I do agree with. I’m even thinking of posting something here with all the valuable spiritual points JP makes in his book. and I think there’s healthier ways that JP could express himself... I mean, I’m far from being a JP fanboy (although I once was), but now I can see through many things he says... But, then again, I wouldn’t throw away everything he says because some things are valuable.

When you spend a lot of time alone it can be brutal because you start to think that you can’t be loved And you lose interest in things and you don’t see the point in doing anything anymore, because why would you? I think that’s why friends and family are important, because we keep reminding one another that we are loved and what we think isn’t true. That’s why I think everyone needs someone to remind them of that truth, that they matter somehow But it’s very easy to love someone when they are what you think a good person should be. For example, it’s very easy to love your parents when they act in ways that benefit you. It’s very easy to love your partner when they’re loyal to you. But when your partner cheats on you or when your parents do something wrong, then it becomes more difficult to love them. And ultimately it’s very difficult to love yourself because you got a front row seat to all your insecurities, all your weaknesses and fragility. That’s why I think everyone deserves love. Literally everyone. Even “bad” people. Even someone who is all alone deserves love. But where would they get it? Is it possible to feel loved ALL BY YOURSELF? It’s not so easy Like, if I didn’t have my friends, if I didn’t have my parents, if I didn’t have ANYONE. Could I still love myself enough to the point where my insecurities, difficulties, weaknesses and fragility wouldn’t matter? If a person killed your mom would you be able to look them in the eyes and forgive them? And love them? Boy, would that be difficult... even though love is what they need most... Such love may seem impossible. Such love is rare... I feel like we’d be blinded by such love. Time alone is brutal. Your weaknesses get louder. Your thoughts get louder. Your judgements about yourself get louder. And love seems impossible at this point. Then... when you go out and someone treats you well, when someone is nice to you, when someone tells you they love you... you almost can’t believe it :’( Also, when you go out and someone is mean to you, when someone reinforces something negative about you that you’re already very familiar with, that you already beat yourself up for... oh man... That’s tough... Love. What the heck is love anyways? It’s when you accept something for what it is. It’s when you look at life and say: “yeah. Despite everything, life is good, life is worth it.” Despite what? Despite death. Despite hate. Despite war. Despite diseases. Despite everything. Well, in that case, Love sounds like a superpower, impossible for humans. If you love such things you’ll be labeled crazy. And for a good reason. Idk where I’m going with this. I just really wish I could talk about this with people around me. But they wouldn’t understand in a million years. Even I don’t understand

I am. Everyone is. I just get sad whenever I think there’s people that don’t see it, because most people need another person to tell them they love them... And sometimes when I’m alone I’m flooded with thoughts that say “see, no one loves you, otherwise you wouldn’t be alone now” I know those thoughts aren’t real, but I know that they’re not real because I have people in my life that care for me, that love me. What about people that don’t have that? They will believe such thoughts ;’(