r0ckyreed

I didn’t ask where you can afford to live. I asked you where do YOU WANT to live in the USA. There’s a big difference. I know I want to live near a coast with an abundance of outdoor adventure opportunities as well as not too far from a vibrant city life. I am thinking either Massachusetts or Oregon.

What I’m really asking is why would you choose to sit on your ass for 10 days when you could instead be hiking in the forest? Why would you confine yourself to sitting to meditate if hiking is also a meditation? I hope you can understand my question. This is one of my main thoughts that holds me back from doing a 10 day meditation retreat. After all, I think I would get more out of a 10 day hike in Yosemite than a 10 day sit in my room. The longest I ever meditated was 5 hours and didn’t feel like I gained much from it. Compare that to a 5 hour hike in Yosemite, and I got so much more out of that. I had a stillness and gratitude like no other, and I got in some exercise. I think I would have regrets of wasting my time if I did sitting meditation for 10 days. Imagine 10 days of hiking. That would be quite the adventure. Adventure is a deep value of mine. I see limitations of sitting meditation. It’s not good for your back or for your mind long term because your spirit will long for adventure. If you just sat in one place and meditated, it would be as if you were already dead.

I see it opposite. I see it as if you aren’t able to meditate off your ass, then your meditation isn’t that powerful. Sitting meditation is “easy,”but integrating meditation into your daily life is the real challenge and real practice. It is easy to meditate when you are calm and peaceful sitting down. Much harder when you get out of the cave because life isn’t always gonna give you the best environments for easy calm and peace.

I like how Owen Cook says it. He says that you can love yourself so much that you can sit and stare at a cave wall for many hours, and you can also love yourself so much that you don’t have to do that to prove anything either. He says that if you loved yourself fully, you wouldn’t confine yourself to such a limited state. He says you can meditate while working on your life purpose and doing chores.

Thats crazy.

This question is pointless. The earth being round or flat doesn’t matter. The ultimate question that matters is what is god, what is existence, what is consciousness. So many red herrings that distract us from the questions that really matter. Edit: I apologize for my directness.

Thanks guys for your responses. I see that there is a benefit for sitting meditation. I think I am just too active for it. I value being active. Life is short and I don’t want to spend it sitting in one place forever. That’s what prison is for. I want to see the world. I want to hike the Himalayas and go to England. I want to get into rock climbing and get into fit shape. I hardly ever do sitting meditation. I used to do it 20 minutes a day. But lately, I am lucky to do 5 minutes. I got stuff to do.

This is ridiculous. My whole point is that you shouldn’t need any meditation cushion or go to a cave or go ride on a bull to meditate. But it runs into a paradox of that if everything is a meditation then nothing is meditation.

Thanks for your answer. Couldn’t marathon running meditation be a serious form of meditation that could lead to genuine insight? If sitting meditation is for serious meditators who want to go all the way, then is eyes closed meditation for those who go all the way vs eyes opened meditators? You see where I’m going with this? If I can stand and meditate vs sit and meditate, and if I can have eyes open vs eyes closed, then what really is meditation? If I can meditate while I run, walk, and go shopping, then the concept seems to lose meaning. When someone says meditation, I think of a monk sitting cross legged with eyes closed. What I’m asking is why is that the automatic picture or most common conception of meditation? If you asked 10,000 people to draw a person meditating, they will draw a person sitting cross legged with eyes closed. But you could also draw them running or working out, and that could be meditation as well? Osho says everything is a meditation because meditation is all about witnessing.

I think I made a good point. It makes no sense sitting for 10 days straight when you can travel the world, hike through a forest, or run a marathon for 10 days. I don’t understand why the modern conception of meditation is sitting. Afterall, there is walking meditation. Why is walking meditation not as popular as sitting meditation? Walking is so much healthier than sitting.

I wonder if he would say the same about suicide.

Sounds like your girlfriend is part of your life purpose; otherwise, you would have no problem leaving her. If a relationship isn’t your life purpose, then why do you have a girlfriend? To distract yourself? To have a dopamine hit and some sex? No. You said it yourself, you are considering marriage. There is no problem with you doing spirituality with your girlfriend. Hell, sex is one of the best meditations there is. It gets you so in the moment and out of ego. I heard that a monk even got enlightened when he gave up meditation and had sex.

@Leo Gura I wish Leo would just play normal chess. He is playing this bizarre form of chess where the pieces are set up randomly and not how they are suppose to. I would like to see him play a regular chess game so that we can see how familiar he is with openings and traps. Also I would like to add feedback on considering playing against humans rather than bots. These bots are a waste of time.

A colleague of mine is a therapist at Betterhelp. I wouldn’t generalize to call the whole thing a scam. But I agree, in-person is better. But some people don’t even have a car. For some, it’s a platform that works for them. You can always call a place to see if they can be seen virtually.

I would recommend OP to try Betterhelp or find a local therapist that you feel compatible with. I know it costs money, but it will be money well spent. 988 is also available until you can see a therapist. In person is better.

The man can call 988. There are mental health professionals on the line 24/7. OP obviously has some desire to live; otherwise, he wouldn’t be on here asking for help. Use that same desire OP to change your life one day at a time.

I have been thinking about my use of ChatGPT and my previous criticisms of it. One of the things I value in life is sovereignty over my mind, and the issue I have found with using ChatGPT is that I implicitly give sovereignty of mind away to this one source. Whereas, the ideal is to look through different sources and not heavily rely on ChatGPT. When I am writing, I just write and not use GPT for help. When I have a question, I contemplate it before asking it for a definition. These are certain examples. But my concern is that if I have fallen into the trap of relying more on GPT, then I am not alone. How can you have sovereignty of mind when you are using GPT to do all your thinking? The ideal is to contemplate first and then consider using GPT and other sources to refine. But I don’t think you can have sovereignty of mind even when you use AI after because you will be influenced by the social matrix. Don’t forget that AI GPT is part of the social matrix! Remember when Leo talked about how doctors are influenced by pharmaceutical companies in his social matrix video and that all the research goes back into the social matrix? Well, that applies to GPT. GPT does not know what awakening is. It will never be more intelligent than me because all of its coding and responses are based off of the social matrix. AI cannot think outside of it. I am going on a month AI fast, where I stop using GPT and Claude to assist me in contemplation. I notice that even though it is helpful and useful, it ultimately goes against my goals of sovereignty of mind. I would encourage Leo and others to consider the impact of AI on their work. It might make it better, but you will give your mind to the Devil. Don’t forget that the Devil invented AI.

Everything is part of the social matrix, but my goal is to limit it. I could live off the grid or in a cave and I would be free from the social matrix, but I would not consider myself free. The social matrix allows me to live a meaningful life but can also destroy me. I now am aware of the toxic ways I used social media and GPT and now I just use them less and use other resources more.

Glock 19 is a badass gun. Anybody else got one?

That’s why I’m off social media. I only post. I don’t consume. But I do see myself using ChatGPT more than any source. This makes my research biased. That’s all I’m saying.

I got Glock 19 Gen 3 for $525. The previous owner only fired 20 rounds in it. I fired it the other day and it is badass. It has a good recoil.

Which Glock do you recommend?

Lower the bar mate. If reading 30 minutes a day is a challenge, just focus on reading 5 pages a day. Then, at least you would be picking up a book and reading.

You were being productive. It is good to overthink because the default is underthinking, like you said with tv. Now, just add some books and outdoor adventures to that and you’ll be solid.

Which type of gun do you like best out of all your guns?