r0ckyreed

Could running a marathon a day for the next 30 days be considered a running meditation? I think sitting meditation can be okay, but Jedis are trained to be active and passive with the Force. Sitting down all day long does nothing for personal growth. The point of life is to grow into the best versions of ourselves and to maximize our potential in life. On our deathbed, we will be confronted by at least two main things, which are whether (1)we lived up to our potential and used every ounce of ourselves to the Universe, and if we also (2) enjoyed life and actually had fun and were playful with life. So could running a marathon a day be a spiritual meditation practice that could combine both potential and playfulness? I believe what Rocky Balboa was doing was a spiritual practice. He found a reason to keep going and staying in the Ring of Life even though he could have easily laid down, stayed at home watching TV. What do you think?

Tests are bullshit and don’t let them define you. The real tests in life is how you handle suffering and failure. They are inevitable. Intelligence cannot be measured through a test. Failing or passing a human test is meaningless. Focus on acing the test of life. Most people fail that test. Don’t let results dismantle you. Stay in the Now, and focus on using your time to the fullest. If you give it your all, then there is nothing to worry about. Be invested in the process but remain unattached from outcomes.

I am current a therapist-in-training and am studying to be a therapist. I find that a lot of my clients could benefit so much more if they were dedicated to the process and implement what was discussed into their actual lives. I give my clients tasks to do but a lot of them fail to follow through. I tell them that “expecting results from coming to therapy once a week for an hour is the same as Kevin Durant expecting to win NBA championships by just going to the team practices.” It is important that people realize that therapy is much more on you than it is the therapist. It’s about what you do between sessions. But it is important to have a therapist that supports and also challenges you to grow. I am existential therapist, which means I focus on the existential domains of an individual and how they cope with the inevitabilities of life (death, isolation, freedom, meaninglessness, and suffering). A lot of therapists don’t go deep into existential domains cause I feel like they themselves have not went that far in their own growth. If you do not know what you want to “work on,” then it is really hard for any therapist to support you. My way of doing therapy is that I am like a philosophical guide/companion that tries to help you to understand yourself, your strengths, and your areas of further development. Some therapists have other therapists to help them with vicarious trauma. But some therapists have not went far enough into themselves into the existential domains. I believe that we don’t truly know ourselves until we have the balls to dive deep into the ocean. But first, one must go through the kiddy pool, then adult pool, then ponds, lakes, and then oceans if I were to put that analogously. But a lot of people I work with are not ready to go to ocean, so you have to meet them where they are at and assess where they want to go with therapy.

Good point. I was over-generalizing there, and I realize that now. Yeah. I see it now. Both can be powerful. My biases are that running a marathon would be more challenging, but I guess the same could be said about sitting and doing nothing! Lol! I just don’t think sitting for a long time is healthy for body and will not grow the body, but it may grow the mind. With running, I see it as growing both but I may do an update post after trying both. Many people already are sitting on their asses all day doing something, but very few can sit all day doing nothing. The reason I choose running is because our bodies were designed to be active, and I heard that sitting down for long periods of time can lead to blood clots and other joint issues down the road. I guess the same could be said for running in a way, but at least it builds cardiovascular system and immune systems and is overall very healthy for body. But like anything, too much is too bad. That’s a good point. Trust our feelings and all. I need to work on following my intuition more. I typically just follow my highest passions and excitements and look for challenges I can do. Challenge is essence of growth. My highest excitement and goal is to be able to do a month marathon, but I realize that I need to build up to it. My heart tells me that I need to do more with my life besides sitting down all day at work helping clients and then coming home and winding down just to detox, self-care, and prepare for next day. My whole thing is “get busy living or get busy dying.” All we have to do is become an embodied of our loved potential. When I die, I want to realize that I gave it my all. Most of the gravestones I see sadden me because most have not lived their potential. @Gesundheit2 what has helped you follow your intuition? All I do is follow that enjoyment and excitement. I want to make my grinds enjoyable and not grind through grinds.

It’s a paradox. No properties can be aware because anything you name is already couched within awareness. This is the solipsism problem of how can I differentiate between inanimate objects and animate ones or ones with consciousness and awareness or not. It is generally assumed that when you look at human bodies walking around that there is another mind there who is aware. When you look at a plant or rock, it is generally assumed that it isn’t a self. The headless void of the Watcher is your answer, which cannot be named or put into words.

Oh wow! Wonderful post mate! I am no longer sitting on my ass. Get off the ass and hit the dirt. Real spirituality is in the discomfort. Hedonism is in the comfort. Keep going like Forrest Gump and Rocky Balboa!

I will keep looking for it on booklist.

True dat. I would also agree that progress and potential are illusions just like everything else. Life is an illusion, and I want to play this illusion to the fullest before it is over. I only get one shot at life and whether it is real, virtual, fiction or whatever does not matter to me because there is no alternative to beingness here and now that I am exposed to. I am the only judge and the only one that matters on deathbed if I even have one. I think it is important to balance enjoyment and potential. If we are not growing and having fun, then what are we living for? Right on brotha. Keep living now, and it is also important to plan and use concepts as long as we still focus on the present. Make the most of Now. There is no tomorrow. That’s what I am saying. I realize that running and meditation and spirituality are all one.

So could sitting all day as well. I heard of research that suggested that we should only be sitting for less than 3 hours per day as it is bad for joints. Sitting for long periods of time could be unhealthy. I will probably build up to 30 day marathon. None that stood out to me. If there was a book like that, I would be surprised that I did not see it. I will check booklist again to see.

You are the book.

What has helped me is waking up at 5am and writing at least 3 crappy pages. The goal is to write down all my insights and to let the ideas flow through me. It helps with contemplation practice. @JosephKnecht I see that your book Who We Are is on audible. I will definitely check it out! I do not have audible yet. But I plan on getting Audible plus for $8 per month, which seems like a damn good deal for all the books it has on there. How do you get your book onto audible? By the way, do you have any other tips for formatting and how to organize writing. I tend to connect all of ideas together and it is hard for me to separate them at times. Do you plan on getting your other books onto audible? How is that process? Thank you!@JosephKnecht

Get pissed off and disgusted by what you are doing to your body, finances, future, health, etc. If that does not wake you up, I don’t know what will. You can do it. Small steps in the end are big steps.

@JosephKnecht Wow! Thank you for sharing! Your book seems interesting! I will consider buying it and reading it. I am also wanting to write a book too. I think the challenge for me is what main theme I want to write about in my book. I could literally write about many things, but I think its a good idea to have different stages of the book to organize it. How do you publish a book once it is completed? @JosephKnecht I am a noob at writing books, and I would really appreciate any feedback on this. Thank you @LastThursday for starting this thread!

Thank you so much @Consilience! I think the main reason why I find contemplation more fun and natural is because I am Westerner, and that paradigm emphasizes the importance of contemplation as a way of finding answers such as Socrates, Descartes, Hume, Kant, etc. Whereas Easterners place more emphasis on surrendering one’s self and desire for answers, to clear one’s mind which allows that no-mind to discover the answers. It’s like seeing one’s reflection in a clear pond vs. one that is noisy by thoughts. I personally agree to a good extent with both paradigms. I do side more with Westerner’s paradigm, but I think both paradigms are correct to a good point. My concern with Eastern thought is the stigma I have seen against thinking. Meditation can help gain more awareness and clarity in thinking, but if contemplation is neglected, then a world other world of understanding thought, mind, and reality is neglected. I think it’s important to know how to think in a way that helps live an examined life. So in a way, I think the best practice is when contemplation and meditation merge as one. Thank you for book recommendations!

@Consilience What is your go-to meditation practice? I usually combine meditation and contemplation by looking at my hands and trying to look for my head. I do a contemplative practice just to contemplate life purpose and stuff. But I do satisfaction meditation every day along with productive meditation or contemplation. I have read Mind Illuminated about halfway. I need to reread it again because I forgot a lot of it. I prefer contemplation over meditation. I do like 10 minute meditation and an hour of contemplation a day. I am a natural contemplator. In my experience, I have experienced greater insights and understanding through contemplation, but I also noticed that meditation has made me more peaceful and present. I use to be future-oriented, but meditation taught me that Now is what matters. Future and past are hallucinations. What books on meditation do you recommend? What is your go-to practice? Thanks. Nice video btw!

Wonderful post! I totally agree! Psychedelics are a cop out for grooving fully with the present moment. Psychedelics is this forums new hamster wheel where they are a rat in a maze chasing cheese after cheese. Chasing trip after trip after trip, while ignorantly failing to realize that the real psychedelic experience is right here and now. You don’t need a chemical to connect with God. If you aren’t high on life, and you need a drug to be high, then something is wrong. You gotta meditate and contemplate why you want drugs. It’s another cheese you are chasing the same way Trump chases women and money.

A lot has been said about free will and its illusory nature. But the flip side of determinism has been neglected severely. In fact, the illusion of determinism I would argue is so prevailing that most people take determinism for reality without ever questioning the assumptions of the claim and determinism itself. I want you to notice how free will is always talked about, and I wonder if there is some reason that determinism isn't? Is it because the ego-mind is too afraid to frame to look under the rug of determinism and free will is more comforting, or is there some deeper metaphysical assumptions of determinism and physics that ground our reality? If time is conceptual, illusory, and relative, then what does that say about the nature of determinism? What are your thoughts about determinism and why it isn't questioned? My guess is because determinism is the essential theory that constructs our materialistic reality. Determinism is the theory that grounds all of our understanding because we assume that cause and effect, past and future, are real things. Let's unpack the myth of determinism for we cannot really understand free will without it. Determinism is what makes "free will" possible.

I like it. Even destiny though needs to be deconstructed. It’s still another layer in the illusion.

Not as nearly as much as free will. People deconstruct free will but very few deconstruct determinism.

After reading about human development, object permanence, and contemplating external reality, actuality, and imagination, I am unconvinced that external reality is just imagination. Sure, it is imaginary from my perspective, but there are other perceptual bubbles even beyond my imagination. I mean, it is egotistical, solipsistic, and stupid to say that other people on this forum don't exist. They are imaginary from my point of view, but that does not mean that they don't exist. That's like a child who has not learned object permanence to say that their mother ceases to exist when she closes her eyes. I mean from a certain point of view, all we have of reality is our sensations which includes thoughts and imagination. But without a world for these sensations, then what are we sensing? My trouble is where does my bubble end and your bubble begin? I can look at other objects and their bubbles are imaginary. Other humans appear as objects from my point of view, and I appear to be the headless space from which they are being held in consciousness. But there is more to reality than just my bubble. If this is true, then how can my bubble be absolutely true if there is a world that occurs beyond my bubble? I mean right now, COVID exists, people are being molested, and some people are having sex right now. Of course, I am imagining it all right now, but that does not mean that it does not exist beyond my imagination. I mean there are actual perceptual bubbles in this universe that believe that COVID is not real and that racism and police brutality don't exist. I mean I could even stop imagining racism right now, but that does not stop it from existing. There are other bubbles who are also imagining crap up and I am also imagining them up, but the issue I am having is that I realize that the Universe includes all of the perceptual bubbles, but where are all of these bubbles occurring? I am imagining them right now in this moment, but that is just my finite point of view. From your perspective, I am imaginary and you are imaginary to me, but the question is, where is this shared dream and world occurring? What is this shared world that we are experiencing together? Now, from God's or the Universe's point of view, reality could be all a mental construction or dream, but from the human point of view, the Dream Universe is the same as physical external reality. What I am talking about is not some abstract God point of view, I am talking about this moment right here and now. We all have self-deceptions, and how do we know that we are not deceiving ourselves when we say that external reality doesn't exist. It exists as imagination, but external reality is the world in which we share that exists apart from our perceptions of it. What would we be perceiving if there was not a world to perceive? How could we trip on a psychedelic if a psychedelic doesn't exist? You see the problem? Psychedelics are imaginary right now from my point of view, but that does not mean that they don't exist somewhere out in the external world that I am imagining. Hence, there is more to reality than my imagination. My imagination and perceptions are limited, and the same is true for a Trump supporter or for an ant. Based off of that point: How can an island of perception become conscious of the entire perceptual ocean? How can a sponge bubble become conscious of the entire sponge? The problem is that if you are incarnated as an island or if you are incarnated as a human being, you cannot really say that other islands, oceans, or humans don't have any bubble apart from your own. I mean all other islands are you because all islands are one with the ocean. The island of you is one with the Ocean, which makes you the entire ocean. Now, from this analogy, as God or as the Ocean, there are no other oceans only the ones we imagine such as the pacific, atlantic, etc. They are all one Ocean, and there are many islands that are all part of the same Ocean. The same is true for us in that Consciousness or Reality is the Ocean that created all of the different perspectives of the islands, which are like different parts or pieces of the Absolute. No part has the whole reality. You can grasp that you are the Universe or the entire Ocean in this case from the point of view of being a human or island, but your knowledge of the Ocean and of Consciousness cannot leave your island until your island dies. Ohh!! Shit!! I think I may have realized my error above! If we are all islands, but we are all one with the Ocean, then the way we realize we are all one is by dissolving our islands! Oh!! So that means that when our island dissolves and becomes one with Ocean, we realize that from the Oceans point of view, there are no others because you are everything and all islands from this point of view are no different from the Ocean. I think I got that now! So basically Consciousness or the Ocean is the External Reality that exists for all islands to experience it. Part of what makes reality a reality is by mistaking ourselves from who we are! We mistake ourselves for being an island, when in fact we are the Ocean. All other people on this forum and even Leo has a consciousness of their own, but it is no different from my own perceptual bubble from the Oceans point of view. I think I got it now. I just think Leo makes it confusing when he does not specify that other perceptual bubbles exist from the ego point of view, but not from the point of view from God. I also think Leo makes it confusing when he says that our island bubble of perception is the Absolute Truth. But our island perceptual bubble is relative. The Absolute Truth is the Ocean that allows for islands of relativity to exist. All we have of the Ocean is our direct experiences of it. Experiences are relative and the Ocean is the Absolute. Please give me feedback on this explorative contemplation I did. I think I answered my own question!

Where is experience located? Whenever I look at a rock for instance, I assume there is no experience for a rock, but when I look at a human (notice the distinction), then I assume that the object human I am looking at experiences and thinks. It is interesting how the mind makes these distinctions that moving objects like ants, snakes, dogs, and humans have experiences but non-moving objects like rocks and plants don’t. Where does “my” awareness end and “your” awareness begin? When I look at a human, where is there experience occurring? Most people would assume that the seat of their experience is behind their eyes and in their head/brain. When I look at a human, I honestly think there experience of me is behind their skull, which is my appearance of them. When I look for my head, all I see is the world. This makes me wonder how we each perceive reality differently. For instance, someone else can spot something that I overlooked. Does that mean that it didn’t exist and that I imagined another person who I imagine saw what I didn’t imagine? What about the apparent differences in qualia? Two people can experience colors differently and other people can have extra sensory experiences. How do we explain this?

@GreenWoods Thank you so much man! I sincerely appreciate it!

Looking for any resources on how to have consistent lucid dreams and becoming a psychic and enhancing psychic gifts. Thanks.

It’s a damn good dream. I dreamed up external reality therefore it exists in the dream. I feel like though that if I did, then the life will still go on, but where would it be going on if all my sensations are gone? What the Universe is to me is based off my sensations, thoughts, stories, and experiences. Absent of these, the Universe dies from my point of view, but from other egos, it doesn’t. I feel like there is nothing for God to do other than experience itself through us, limited partial perspectives. The process of death seems like the process of sleep and waking up is like being born again each day, and our dreams are the afterlife. What is the Universe while we are asleep? Nothing, and when we wake up, it is as if sleep never happens, and when we sleep it’s as if waking up never happened. It’s a big paradoxical mess lol.

What about the one writing? Writer and reader is a duality that collapses and is one way God communicates to itself.