Someone here

@something_else I've been forcing myself to talk to strangers (not just women)for quite sometime now. strangers all the time in various locations. I think my first problem is using the language of pick-up artists by calling a “conversation” an “opener.” It’s not, it’s a conversation. Leo told me the best way to talk to women, is as if they are "normal people" like anyone else. Never lead with anything that you see as complimentary or certainly anything sexual .. huge red flag. Does she give signs that she doesn’t want to be talked to? Because most women when I approach them give me the impression that they are not in a good mood and they don't want to be approached.

I Will try to explain what did Rene Descartes mean by that phrase .... What can you doubt? Well, you can doubt that an external world exists, that an evil deceiver might be magically making the world seem outside of you, or perhaps you are a brain in a vat, manipulated by computers to gain experience. You can doubt the truths of mathematics. Perhaps an evil deceiver just makes it seem like 2+2=4 when it actually equals 5. So what is it that you can’t doubt? Well, that you are doubting. In order to doubt, you must be a person doubting. Similarly, when you’re thinking, you can’t really doubt that you are thinking. You can’t be imagining that you are thinking and you can’t be imagining you are doubting. Therefore, it seems to Descartes, it’s clear that whenever you are thinking, you must exist. What it is to be you, however, doesn’t have to be what you think. You could be a brain in a vat, and not a human being. But at the very least you are a subject who thinks, at least while you are thinking. Now note that Descartes’s argument assumes that things we know with complete certainty are those that we cannot doubt. Also note that this argument at the moment doesn’t guarantee that you exist when you are not thinking. So when you’re sleeping, you might no longer exist. Furthermore, this is a very present-moment argument. Whenever I am thinking, I know I exist. I do not know that I used to exist and I do not know that I will exist in the future. All of that is subject to doubt.

Very excellent. I wrote something similar in my journal few months ago when I was having similar realization... I am nothing: This is not a philosophy or a theory or speculation.. This is a direct consciousness of what is actually the case.. The truth about what I am in direct experience. When I ask myself who am I? Or what am I? The first answer that comes to mind is obviously "I am the body.. This body right here.. What else would I be?". But who is aware of the body.? . If I am aware of the body.. Then the body is an object of perception just like the rest of the external world.. It is not the subject or the experiencer but rather another experience."maybe I am this or that".. I can't be anything I think of.. Because all thoughts.. Ideas and concepts are again more objects.. What is the subject.. The subject can't be located or named or identified because it is not an object.. If it can be named or located or identified it becomes an object and not the subject.. To be the subject it can't perceive itself.. It can't be an object of perception. I am pure awareness of the present moment.. I am not a person.. My name is not me.. I am not a male or female.. Not even joking lol.. I have no personality (so give me a break you idiots who say you know me very well.. There ain't no me lol).. I am not good or bad.. I am not sane or insane.. I have no characteristics.. I am not the doer of deeds or sayer of sayings.. I am the pure awareness of all these things. Inside of me.. There is an infinite regress of infinite regresses.. All my actions are 100 % unpredictable.. Everything about me is false.. I am nothing objective.. I am a mystery.

I don’t think it matters, however I do think it’s important to remember the difference in history and knowledge between times. For example, a medieval philosopher will have very different ideas than Plato, since Plato was Greek (and believed in the Greek gods), and a medieval philosopher will have his philosophy based more around Christianity. A modern philosopher will think more like a scientist, basing his ideas on science (or, of course, religion and earlier philosophers)

I just start a conversation based on whatever is currently happening. If I like a piece of her clothing for example, i just say something about it, then ask some more questions like name (and give mine as well), what are they doing/going, can I walk/talk with you a while? But I'm not getting the desired results. It comes off as boring openers. I want something flashy that can catch her attention immediately and get her attracted to me instantly. is it best to have some humor, i realized that making a funny comment or observation is almost always better than a simple compliment.

@Galyna which post exactly? Can you link it ? So I can read it and tell you what i think about it.

What do you mean by existing as nothing?

I understand that you are coming at this from emotional perspective . But if you dared to contemplate it for a few minutes,you will immediately understand it . Here is A little thought experiment: You don't experience time when you are sleeping. Hours pass and to you it feels like nothing. What If you slept for 5000 years or died during that time and then woke up.. From your pov it will be as a blink of an eye. No time have passed from our pov. Yet 5000 years have passed on earth. Even an eternity can pass on earth and the entire world might end.. Yet from your pov it will be as a blink of an eye. This means time has no existence and no relevance without you. Without an observer that feels time. That's why when you die the whole world will die with you. Because the whole of eternity will happen in a blink of an eye.

@Galyna Do you deny your own ever-presence? Do you deny your own existence? Who is typing these words and thinks in highly abstract concepts like what you are doing here ? One conclusion Descartes argued for is that beings cannot rationally deny their own existence. We may question the reality of almost anything as potentially being figments of our imagination. However, to be able to ask the question "do I exist?", logically you must indeed exist. You might be wrong about the nature of your existence, but the existence itself is a logical prerequisite of self-analyzing thought. I can say that Descartes is not real, or that you are not real, but I think, therefore I must exist The question that leads to this kind of philosophy is some variant of the brain-in-a-jar problem. How do you know that anything is real? You have to appreciate the depth of this problem. Are you actually sitting on a chair, or are you being deceived? Are you just a brain in a jar, being fed electrical impulses that make you think all these things are real? Basically, are you Neo in the first part of The Matrix? Descartes figured out that at the very least, here's what I know: I am a being that can think. Maybe I am just a brain in a jar, maybe nobody else exists in the whole world, maybe the cake is a lie, but I, as a thinking being, do exist. And this self-evident and undeniable.

When you die ,the whole world will die with you .

Are you falling into the neo-advaita trap or it seems like it ?? Because this whole emphasis on the illusion of self. The self is an illusion as a separate self .but all that exists (all of reality basically ) is the Self with Capital S. I like to distinguish between the false ego self and the true Self. The ego self is a construction of mind. Even the tree you see is a construction of mind so it is not so far fetched that this elaborate mind construction of a self is nothing more than delusion. It is however very necessary and useful . Without a sense of self you wouldn't know who's shoes to put on in the morning, as Alan Watts puts it lol. Descartes' reasoning is that if he is doubting his own existence, then he must exist in order to do the doubting, therefore he exists.

@Yarco thanks for the info. @Alta In answering your question..flow state happens when you engage in something you deeply enjoy or passionate about .so pick a hobby that inspires you and just keep practicing it night and day until you become good at it .

@Leo Gura @Galyna guys..you misunderstood the post. I'm not talking about thoughts in terms of mind activities. Or the content of any particular thought like the "i" thought. I'm talking about the mere fact that thoughts arise .whether there is a thinker or not . Descartes in his work, he goes about destroying the assumptions that most people had in philosophy before him. Many people would say, "ah well I see the sun, or I feel the grass, so therefore it exists". Descartes basically said, "ok, but what if your brain is in a jar, and you are just dreaming all of this?" Philosophy is based on axioms. Axioms are self-evident facets of reason that allow you to construct the rest of philosophy on them. Descartes basically argued that all of the axioms that had previously been used were wrong because they were not self-evident. In the same sense that you don't know you are in a dream when you are dreaming, how do you know that anything around you is as it truly is? So he started his philosophy with doubting EVERYTHING. At first, he couldn't figure out where to go from there. How are you supposed to know anything if you doubt everything? Eventually, he discovers his first axiom: I think therefore I am. In order for him to doubt everything, HE must exist. He can't assume anything about who or what he really is but he can safely assume that he exists, otherwise, he would not be thinking about the fact that he exists.

@NoSelfSelf thats a good idea ?.

If a tree falls in the woods .....

@Alta I just googled it. Its paid . Is there anything similar for free ?

@Alta how do you create music? What apps do you use ?

You are anthropomorphizing God with this question. As if God is some Father figure living up in the clouds somewhere. Actually..God IS every creature. So he cares about the suffering of them to the point he Actually lives it and experience it.

I just got rid of 5 packs of marlboro white cigarettes. Along with my vape . This was emotionally difficult to do .I've been smoking for a decade now .and I realized I can't continue like this .I'm raping my health..smoking half a pack a day is insane and suicidal. I have made the decision to stop cold turkey and never ever again put a cigarette in my mouth. Please guys wish me luck and share any piece of advice that can help me in my quest. I'm making a bold life decision that is gonna change the trajectory of my life. Especially when it comes to health and well-being. I tried to quit several times in the past but I always fail .May God give me the strength to finally quit for good this time .

Not necessarily . When you have a dream at night..it is you who is creating the entire dream world..and you also have fooled yourself that you can't alter how the dream unfolds . Unless you become lucid in the dream .which is analogous to awakening in real life .

@BipolarGrowth thanks brother. And congrats for the gains ?

@TheOneReborn try this meditation technique that I discovered. You wil feel better so quickly after practicing it .it's super simple and effective at the same time .

Do you meditate daily ?

@Thought Art @Shiva99 thank you guys for the support . unfortunately though . I just bought a new pack but I didn't smoke yet .I should just get rid of it immediately, right?

For me, this is kinda funny. I've had many suicidal thoughts, and i think i'm more scared of living than dying. Furthermore, i have never experienced "non-being" all i ever know is "being" so i can't really believe, that death means "non-existence" like materialists say. Like, you are here, right? If you were born once, why not a second time? And then third time? Why not infinite times?