Tim R

@Preety_India Don't you think that falling in love is actually some sort of criteria selection, too? I don't mean like in a "checklist" sort of way selection, but an intuitive feeling about whether the person suits your criteria?

Right. @DefinitelyNotARobot And when do you expect that is going to happen, hm?

You still can set boundaries but you don't cling to them

That's right, therefore there is no Karma, no illusion of doing, no birth (the wave doesn't believe itself to be a wave, "waving" along) and hence no death. Can you see how there aren't any "waves"? We aren't waves, we are the ocean believeng itself to be a wave. Consequence and cause are also just illusions (albeit very, very tricky ones); Dogen says it in his "Shōbōgenzō": "Spring doesn't become summer. There is spring, and then there is summer." Which is exactly correct of course. Look at the sky: are the clouds leaving a trail? No. Are the birds leaving a trail? No. Look at wood, burning: does it leave a trail? No, there is wood and then there is ashes, but the wood doesn't become the ashes. Why not? Because the past doesn't exist (and neither does the future). Now look at yourself in the same way: you aren't the consequence of who you were, what you really are is who you are now! But if you think that you are somehow a consequence from the past and a cause for the future, you are under illusion; that is your Karma. To think that you are the consequence of your past is your birth (= cause), and to think that you are the cause of your future is your death (=consequence), you see? That's Samsara. (since all consequence is also a cause, birth and death are of course identical) Whereas in reality, you only exist now! And now is neither birth nor death because you as a separate self don't exist and therefore were never born and are never going to die!! That's Nirvana! btw if you're into Zen/Buddhism in general, I highly recommend you read Dogens "Shōbōgenzō". It might be a difficult book, but definitely worth giving a shot!

In some sermons he says/does something crazy and then laughs about it for a second like "holy moly I can't believe these suckers buy into this performance, man we gonna make some good money today!!" @Leo Gura Take a look at what I mean (and at 0:47); he can't contain it, it's like he's trying to cover it up. Why is he laughing then?

@machinegun Karma is just an idea. There isn't any actual Karma being collected or cleared. Karma means "action" or "deed". Ok, so what does that mean? It means, that if you think "you" act, then there is Karma. It means that there is still an identification with thought, because you think that behind every "doing/deed" there is a "do-er"; somebody, who is doing certain things. The "do-er" however is itself just a thought; there isn't any individual self exerting control. So, to "lose" Karma means to see though the illusion of a separate self. This is connected to the idea of Samsara: if you think that you as a separate self exist, "you" were born. And as long as you think that you were born, you will also have to think that you're going to die because birth implies death (life is not the opposite of death, it's birth).

Ironically enough I just had this idea in the shower: let's open a Shower Thoughts Mega-Thread Where we share odd, creative, funny and useful ideas which came to us during routine tasks like showering or things like that. Most threads are either questions or problems, only some of them share new information/ideas, most of which are not their own (which isn't a problem). What do you think? This could turn out to be a pretty decent source of inspiration.

That wold be the simplest explanation and thus the preferable

This shit doesn't even seem real. Is he actually weeping or just another con artist like Copeland?

And if the world isn't actually ending?

@Ibgdrgnxxv Are you offering constructive critique? Or what exactly is your intention? Because quite frankly I don't think that this: is prevalent on this forum. That's quite an accusation, you know.. So, could you elaborate please?

@Edward95 I guess that's due to his health situation

That's nostalgia. Nobody perceives the sensory impressions that affect him unfiltered. We involuntarily filter what we see and hear into important and unimportant things (our memories) and since people constantly rearrange and reinterpret their memories throughout their lives, some memories become more important than others. Beautiful and pleasant events seem to be more permanent than sad or boring ones. I guess that's because people are constantly trying to reshape their memories to generate the most successful and happy biography possible. I mean, who would pretend to have led a meaningless life full of failures and embarrassments? On the other hand, sad events can also be permanent (perhaps even more permanent than events that one perceived as beautiful or pleasant) due to their intensity, since it's important whether such an event shaped and changed your life or whether it was decisive in some way. Also you could think of Nostalgia as a mechanism to balance your psychic state, especially during rough times (like this whole damn year). Sort of an emotional escape door. Basking in pleasant memories to temporarily forget the shit of today In German there's a word called "Ostalgie", which refers to nostalgia towards the DDR (eastern part of Germany). And the DDR wasn't exactly a nice place, and it was certainly not a nice place compared with western Germany, especially not nowadays, which is why "Ostalgie" is such a strange phenomenon.

Meta is relative. In a sense, you're always meta in some regard.

I have no clue what that could be. You might want to see a doctor to check for physical symptoms.

Yeah ok, uhm.. Don't?? Did you do high doses? Did you combine them with something else? Might be something like HPPD (I'm not saying that it is HPPD, just maybe something like it) Just lay off the mushrooms and other psychedelics for a couple of months, see how it goes. Could you elaborate a bit more? Why do you think you're gonna die?

@Hotaka How exactly did she die "for him"?

So many people on this forum regard the ego as their foe, as some psychological aberration, like a tumor, like a mistake, like their worst enemy. And yes, I know. selfishness/egoism is the source of all devilry and evil and so forth, we've heard it ad nauseam. But to treat the ego as some horrible thing/idea that we must get rid of is 1. not going to work 2. egoistic in and of itself The ego is just as much part of the divine as anything else. Accept it, treat it as you would treat your pet, love it, nurture it - and before you raise out of your chair, appalled at this statement: to nurture your pet is not the same as fattening it. But to keep it healthy and always in check. Jung says in his book "Modern Man in Search of a Soul": "We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses."

@DecemberFlower You are confusing love as an emotion with Love as existence. Fear is Love, though it might not necessarily be love.

That's not how survival works tho Survival = maintaining some particular form/identity Fear = emotional response to threat to that particular form/identity Haha, but that's still our ego fighting to survive, only in a cooperative manner

@Javfly33 I'm sorry to hear that and wish you great strength. Reminds me of Spira's screen-analogy to consciousness. In that analogy your father would be like a character in a movie. In reality he is of course the screen, pretending to be some particular character and when this character dies, then his consciousness doesn't go anywhere (because it was nowhere to begin with). The screen (consciousness) is nowhere and therefore can't go anywhere. @Javfly33 Concerning reincarnation: to be (re)born or to die is to identify with a certain pattern/form. Let's look at a river. "The river" as such doesn't exist, it is a constant flux (hence it's true nature is emptiness/shunyata). As the ancient philosopher Heraklit said "Pantha Rhei" - "everything flows". The moment you identify this pattern as "the river", it is born. But because it ("the river") is always changing, it is also in a constant process of dying. This is the eternal cycle of (re)birth and death: Samsara. Birth and death are identical, because the moment you say "there it is!" - it's gone. Here's another example. Look at the flame of a candle. We say "there is the flame!", whereas in reality, there is no flame, only a hot stream of burning wax. "The flame" as a pattern/form that you could identify as such is of course an illusion - therefore Samsara is just an illusion. And as our last example, let's look at the ocean: there aren't any waves, appearing and disappearing. There's just the Ocean - Nirvana! playing and pretending to be Samsara.

Smells like Zen

@Nahm Enlighten us, what is ego if not thought?

No. But you can alleviate narcissism in general, that's what I meant. (at least as far I know, maybe I'm wrong)