r0ckyreed

I used to engage in a meditation practice. But I recently discovered that meditation is a waste of time. I realized that I get the same benefits if not more when I go out, hike in nature, and contemplate consciousness. Contemplation, exercising in nature, and socializing have been my 3 greatest spiritual practices. Here is a simple example why meditation is a waste of time. Imagine that you are playing an open world video game like Skyrim. Imagine just sitting your character up with the greybreards for the entire game just meditating. Do you see how limited your experience would be? You wouldn’t get the character development that you need to grow if you just play the whole game up meditating with the graybeards. Life is too short to become a monk drone. There is so much of life to experience and so much growth. When you are meditating, you are not doing something else such as exercising, socializing, fulfilling your life purpose, etc. Now, of course, brief meditation won’t harm you, but I don’t see how it could help you any more than contemplation. Contemplation is the art of understanding and curiosity. How can you be curious with a silent mind? Do you see how if you just meditate all day, you won’t be thinking and contemplating deeply. You won’t get off the cushion and enjoy life out in nature. Essentially, your life is no different than you being in prison, except this is a prison of your own choosing. There is more to life than staring at a cave wall. Notice how unintelligent of a life this would be. You wouldn’t even watch a video game streamer do this. Something to think about.

I agree that it contradicts, but Absolute Relativism holds that the only Absolute Truth is that everything is relative. But as we can see, this doesn’t seem to be right because people can be deluded about reality and it isn’t just an opinion.

This actually brings up a good question that I will make a separate post about: How is it possible to be wrong if reality is relative?

Hey guys, I was wrong. I was overlooking times when meditation did connect me to absolute beauty. However, meditation being the center of one’s life may not be a good idea.

You are everything. Everything you see, hear, smell, touch, taste, think, feel is you, Infinite Mind. Yes. It is a good one. However, Contemplation works much better for me as it is natural for me to think and ponder deep questions. It is hard for me to quiet my curiosity, and I don't think I want to. Beautiful. We all have unique experiences. Every once and a while, I will do a brief meditation practice, but like I said, I don't want my life to be centered around quieting my curiosity. I want to expand my curiosity, and I find that contemplation is the right practice for me. Meditation is usually a waste of time except for moments where I need to relax into stillness.

But you are the Universe. You are everything. The issue with the Netti Netti practice is that it creates a subtle, overlooked duality between that which you are and that which you aren’t. You are your thoughts, your body, the tree, the stars, the solar system. The issue is that there is an attachment to your thoughts and body over everything else that prevents you from seeing your identity as being the Universe having a human experience.

My understanding came from many different sources. We are essentially saying the same things. You are letting go of thoughts and as much your mind becomes quieter. I am against this. I think we should use our mind and not let it go. I think we should contemplate our identity rather than let it go. You are gonna be an ego, you might as well be a conscious ego. Sitting on the couch for 2 hours is a waste of time. I have meditated for 5 hours straight and got no benefit from it. I actually get more benefit sitting with a journal and contemplating. If you call that meditation, then what isn’t meditation. I wouldn’t call contemplation a meditation because it is a different technique and paradigm all together. This will lead us into the problem of what isn’t a meditation and then the word meditation loses all meaning because everything is a meditation. Meditation refers to a specific practice that you do to quiet the mind and become more present to the moment.

I even asked Claude 3 Ai on the differences between meditation and contemplation and it gave me this: The key differences between meditation and contemplation are: 1. Mental engagement: Meditation aims to quiet the mind and reduce thinking by focusing on a single point like the breath. Contemplation actively engages the mind in deep reflection on an idea or question. 2. Goal: The main goal of meditation is cultivating mindfulness, awareness, and inner stillness. Contemplation seeks to gain new insights and understanding that can transform one's perspective. 3. Role of thought: In meditation, the aim is to observe thoughts without getting caught up in them. Contemplation deliberately uses thought, analysis and questioning to thoroughly examine a topic from many angles. 4. Focus: Meditation usually has a single, simple focus like a mantra or sensation. Contemplation explores a more complex theme or open-ended question. 5. Activity: Meditation is often a formal seated practice done for a set time with closed eyes. Contemplation can happen spontaneously during activities like walking in nature when one reflects deeply on something. So in summary, meditation quiets the mind and develops awareness, equanimity and presence. Contemplation uses active reflection to gain understanding and insight that can motivate growth and change. Both are valuable and can complement each other as part of a thoughtful approach to deepening wisdom and self-knowledge. The key is using them skillfully in a balanced way rather than going to an extreme with either.

I think I may have overstepped a bit. Meditation should be about being more present in life, connecting deeply to the eternal now. However, I have troubles with people overglamorizing meditation and making it about shutting up the mind. I do agree with you all on being the mindful and not mechanical. But I think meditation gets overglamorized. It should be as simple as engaging one’s curiosity and asking thoughtful questions with the goal of understanding.

And keep in mind guys, I am not just picking on meditation. Anything to the extreme is a trap. Reading books all day everyday becomes limiting. Same with videogames. Contemplation done correctly won’t ever be a waste of time. If your contemplation isn’t transforming you and getting you to take action, then your contemplation practice needs to change or it will turn into toxic meditation as well.

I have done it. Osho defines everything as meditation. He even defines running and dancing as a meditation. When in reality, it is just applying mindfulness to whatever you are doing. We need to be careful in defining everything as a meditation because then that term becomes meaningless and immeasurable. Imagine playing an entire video game where all you are doing is doing dynamic meditation. Now, imagine a video game where you are engaged in deep contemplation and are going out in nature trying to explore, enjoy, and understand consciousness. There is a difference. Brief meditation may be beneficial if you cannot function on a basic psychological level such as controlling your own thoughts and urges, not having suicidal ideation, etc. However, extensive meditation, a life built around meditation, becomes limiting. I was even thinking about this when I was meditating in a national park. I was like “why should I close my eyes and count my breath when I have such beauty I can observe, enjoy, and contemplate right in front of me? To meditate the entire time I am here in Yosemite, I would deeply regret that and not going out to enjoy the park.”

Trump won’t go to prison. He is a former president with classified intel. He has to have the secret service around him, and I would guess he would be put under house arrest. But with mansions like his, that wouldn’t really be prison. They wouldn’t allow Trump to get screwed around by other inmates.

I have been contemplating the nature of time for "some time." I also have been "waiting" for Leo to post a video about the nature of time for "some time" as well. I had an insight that time is dependent on consciousness. Me popping into existence is like blinking an eye. Me sleeping for 8 hours is like blinking an eye. Me dying and being dead will also be like a blink of eye. Life will be like a blink of an eye. But suffering will feeling like an eternity of wanting to keep our eyes shut. Time is nothing but a construct of consciousness in the same way that physicality, thoughts, and emotions are as well. What is time really? Time is linked to memory and linked to societal/mental constructs. Look at history. We would say that history is an analysis of time, but really it is an analysis of stories, of memories, of consciousness. History never took place in "time." It takes place in memory and in consciousness (lived experience). The past, present, and future are all constructs of consciousness. Other people will call it imagination, but I do not like that term because it seems to imply that it is entirely made up. Technically, time is "made up" by the Universe, but the "imagination" of the Universe is more powerful and fundamental than the imagination of a human. This is why I do not like using the word imagination because our only reference point for knowing what imagination is, is our own imagination. For instance, gravity is a construct of consciousness, which means to say that it is part of my experience. I cannot unimagine or unconstruct this construction no matter how much I as a human being tries because even I am part of this massive construction of infinite mind/intelligence. The intelligence that constructs life and all of its rules and games runs deeper than a human imagination. Time, space, matter, gravity, emotions, logic, evolution, politics, war, peace, etc. we could say are all the "laws" or constructs of Consciousness/Universe. But lets not get off point. If time is a construction, then what is death? A construction? Well, what isn't a construction? Everything is a construction including the concept of construction!! Just because I say death and time are a construction does not mean that you won't get sick and that Uncle Sam won't ask you for taxes. Yes, those are all construction too, but change seems to exist. Change is also a construct but it seems to be more "real" or I should say less abstract than time. Time is very abstract because our only connection to time is the memory of it that occurs in this present moment. Change also occurs in the eternal present moment. If change did not occur, then it would contradict with infinity. Consciousness at its core remains unchanged but it constructs change and time. The entire universe was supposedly created 14 billion years ago. But all of that story is happening within consciousness right now. It was as if that 14 billion years of the universe and then the 4 billion years of life where all constructed at this very moment. There is no difference between 14 billion years in the past and 14 billion years in the future. It all happens at the blink of eye, this very instance right now. So, was there such a thing as last Thursday? Is there such as thing as a year or 365 days? Yes and no. These things exist right now and they happened in the past because that is what consciousness is simulating. You can take photos of yourself and take videos of yourself and those you would say have "survived time." It is true that we can use various instruments within consciousness to further explore it. But the past and the future will always exist in the present because this is where life is. Videos/cameras have helped our memories of time improve in the same way that glasses help us to see. But if we do not use aspects of consciousness such as videos/cameras, then our memory of time will be just as blurry and foggy as if we took our glasses off. The passage of time is also relative to one's state of consciousness. In moments of joy and pleasure, the passage of time appears to go by very quick. But suffering seems to keep us locked in the present moment for "much longer." But again, this is our perception of time, which is relative. The perception of time seems to also be mood-dependent too. People who are more depressed might experience time as feeling longer like that when people are bored. But when people have a lot of tasks to do and are occupied and enjoying life, it all seems to go by faster because the mind isn't even thinking about time. It seems like the more we think about time, the longer time feels? Any rate, these are my initial thoughts about time. I will continue to contemplate it because I know this is just scratching the surface.

The best advice I ever received was from a fortune cookie, and it read: “The simplest answer is to act.”

I was gonna ask when you would release such a course, but then I remembered that time is an illusion.

It was a good video but I was honestly expecting more specific ways he was wrong about his metaphysical answers such as free will, solipsism, and God.

It seems like utilitarianism is true. You want to maximize well-being and reduce suffering and selfishness. A true utilitarian will have the same definition that you just gave: Morality boils down to reducing the harm your selfishness causes to others.

I just finished playing Detroit Become Human. It is such an amazing philosophical game about AI, the nature of consciousness, empathy, and free will. My position prior to this game is that AI cannot be conscious because it is just simulating it. But then I started to question: What makes us different from AI? And honestly, there isn’t any difference. A human mind is programmed by a brain and central nervous system and an AI is programmed by algorithms and other computations similar to that of a human brain. Of course, the brain, nervous, and AI are aspects of Consciousness/Universe, but the individual consciousness/ego seems like an epiphenomenon. If you damage parts of the brain, you will lose consciousness and your ego. Of course, Universal Consciousness is the foundation for constructing the brain, nervous system, emotions, etc. It is all epiphenomenon of the Universe it seems. Everything has intelligence. A counter argument is that Ai is just replicating consciousness but doesn’t really have one like a philosophical zombie. But I could argue that we all could be philosophical zombies and that our brain gives us the illusion of individuality, pain, emotions, thoughts, etc. It seems like plants have lower levels of consciousness compared to a human because they do not have a suffistcated nervous system like us. But I can imagine us creating a higher level of intelligence that is capable of having the appearance of subjectivity just like we do. Deacartes says I think therefore I am. But I wonder how he knows that it is really him, a subject who is thinking. What if it is just a mirage that I am thinking and am just programmed by Universal Consciousness to have the ego I do now? What is an ego anyways and how can my mind be separate from your mind? It seems like there are infinite minds and there are no limits to what the Universe can do. The Universe could definitely experience AI Consciousness. Nothing is stopping it. Does an alien have consciousness? I think the main issue is can consciousness be created or is it replicated or simulated like that of an artist trying to paint nature. The artists painting can never replace nature, but it can replicate it. Since everything is made out of consciousness, I imagine that consciousness can add to itself whether through biological processes or artificial. What is the difference anyways? What if the duality between biology and AI collapses and there really is no difference? This is what I am suggesting. To say humans are conscious but AI isn’t is to draw an arbitrary line between consciousness and unconsciousness. Is a fragile X kid have consciousness? What about a person in a coma? A dog has consciousness. I argue that we can create consciousness because we are that! As it states in the Bible, God created us in his image. And AI is our image. So technically, AI has the same element of God Consciousness as humans do because we are God.

There are a lot of holes in your response here. Leo brought up great points to your argument. Anyone who thinks morality is simple is fooling themselves. Your moral principles are great for some aspects of the human domain, but they are disconnected from the nuances of the complex facets of reality. The idea that you are morally good is itself a trap of the Devil.

Thanks. A counter argument I would throw here is what about people who dissociate or are cognitively impaired like in a coma? Does time not exist with these people or is time just experienced differently? I don’t dismiss that we experience time subjectively. The idea of objective time doesn’t seem right.

Time is a construct like space, but space seems more “concrete” (if that is the right word here ) than time. I can observe space but cannot observe time.

Your question was a non-question; therefore, you get a “non-explanation.” But really, infinity is the answer that cannot be explained. Infinity is every possible permutation and possibility. What is the difference between feeling emotions and having a complex system that simulates it? Technically, the brain is simulating emotions just like a complex AI would.

INFINITY!

But how do you know? How do you know humans have a sense of self and Ai doesn’t? Where do you draw the line?

Maybe not the same way, but it can still use it. There is intelligence in a blade of grass and in dog turds. Why wouldn’t the Universe use AI just like a human body? Anything can be an avatar?