No Self

It's kind of ridiculous how much trouble is caused by the idea that 'something needs to happen'.

@Javfly33 28th March, 1935 Questioner: How to know the ‘Real I’ as distinct from the ‘false I’. Ramana: Is there anyone who is not aware of himself? Each one knows, but yet does not know, the Self. A strange paradox. The Master added later, “If the enquiry is made whether mind exists, it will be found that mind does not exist. That is control of mind. Otherwise, if the mind is taken to exist and one seeks to control it, it amounts to mind controlling the mind, just like a thief turning out to be a policeman to catch the thief, i.e., himself. Mind persists in that way alone, but eludes itself.”

This is true. Ramana Maharshi once likened the spiritual seeker to a police officer searching for a criminal, when the officer himself is the criminal. Once it is exposed that you are not that, the cat can stop chasing its tail.

I believe India also has the world's largest conventional PV solar farm. I wish Australia would compete, though hard when we have a fossil fuel lobbyist for prime minister.

I think this is the basis for the alt-right movement in general. It is a modernisation of racist rhetoric that was previously associated with toothless rednecks, now slickly presented with business suits and semi-intellectual discourse. Lipstick on a pig.

We should not be fighting one another. We should be fighting the tech companies who make billions from fucking with our brains, and know very well what they are doing.

They are censoring groups that they themselves created via their pro-extremism brain-hacking algorithms. Well-meaning people on all sides of politics are the victims here.

@BipolarGrowth Very, very likely indeed. The only difference was that prehistoric peoples other animals never bothered posting any YouTube videos about their experiences.

@Sempiternity That's a good point. Only problem is that every ingroup is convinced that every outgroup is Nazism. And they're probably right.

Sounds like she lacks an adequate community and social network and has fallen into a pattern of depression. It isn't clear if the situation can be helped, but remember the importance of focusing on your own level of consciousness first and foremost.

Definitely one problem we have had in recent years is 'not enough Donald Trump'.

Best to eliminate any chaos in your inner world, as that's in your control. I've singled out the environment as the biggest issue and have done a whole bunch of stuff, investing in renewables, etc. The fossil fuel lobby is my nemesis. I'll keep doing what I'm doing. But if peace is needed, question that same 'I' and let it vanish.

Tech will always be weaponised first - as happened with aeroplanes, nuclear, internet and even social media (propaganda). The prospect for vertical farming at home and food/water independence is enticing, though not sure what I'll see in my lifetime.

The main lesson to learn is this: people use relationships to cover up underlying feelings of depression or unfulfillment. A relationship brings an initial euphoria of salvation, before the underlying pain starts to bubble up again. It then appears that your partner is to blame for making you unhappy and fighting ensues, then either the demise of the relationship (so the cycle can repeat again with another partner) or leading to some sort of love-hate pattern of dysfunction. If you do not want to suffer, tackling depression with a relationship will unfortunately only cause you more pain. Consider being 100% truthful with any high quality family/friends already in your life, or seek like-minded communities where you can experience this openness. When you don't need a relationship, the relationship that comes will be far higher quality. (Think 'secure attachment' in attachment theory.)

This is the message that must be repeated over and over until it is truly heard. Thank you.

Yes, sounds like the demise of hopes of social mobility for the lower classes. Some sort of substantial change is inevitable over the next century.

None of this would have happened without Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. There were always extremists, but never an algorithm to radicalise the majority of the population (including Trump-supporter cultists and anti-Trump-supporter cultists).

A good point. This is why I try hard to use gender-neutral terminology when discussing these issues. What's the difference between the hardships experienced by, say, a very overweight woman or a very underconfident man? None that I can see. Everyone is just struggling to fulfil the infinite cravings of the body-mind.

Nothing lasts forever. Human systems seem to last for a few years, decades, centuries or millennia. In geologic time, even a million years is not very long. In a more practical sense, there is a lot of not-nice things in the Catholic Church, and it has sustained for 1,700 years and counting. Yet the most dysfunctional political movements of the 20th century - Maoist China, Stalinism, etc. - all lasted decades at most.

Questioning the limiting beliefs and being conscious of them is a big first step. The mind always wants to recreate what is familiar from the past, even if it is dysfunctional. It is terrified of the unknown. Neale Donald Walsch once suggested that you act before you think, rather than thinking before you act. Do what you need to do before you have a chance to think about it, as the mind will only sell you a story of unworthiness that will lead to inaction.

If he were treated as a talented psychologist rather than a dubious messiah, his incomplete development would not be considered a problem.

Best to pursue your own direct experience. There's no point trying to satisfy the mind's curiosity with more ideas and beliefs. Leo's insight mirrors that of many masters of bygone centuries.

The speed of light is the limit of any object travelling through space. Indeed, any object with mass would require an infinite amount of energy to reach the speed of light, though some can come quite close. The speed of light varies depending on the medium it is passing through, though people usually refer to a vacuum when discussing the speed of light. The universe itself does not have any such speed limit, so the rate of expansion of the universe is much faster than the speed of light, and it is accelerating due to the unknown force of dark energy. It's long-term fate is unclear. Current scientific thinking predicts a 'heat death' where all energy is expended and all life ceases. Some spiritual texts predict that at some point the universe will begin a collapse before bouncing back as a new universe, like a very large lung breathing. There's no such thing as close to infinity. Something is either infinite or it's finite.

G'day all, When I was studying, my teacher mentioned a study which claimed that the happiest age of a human lifetime is 4. But in trying to find a citation, I instead came up with studies showing happiness peaks mid-teens to early 20s, then reaches a low point at 47, before gradually rebounding to what may be an all-time high between about 65-79. (I presume some of this research excludes the early childhood group.) One factor is that juvenile and senior citizen age groups both involve ample quality time with friends. This point is also raised in deathbed studies, where one of the most common regrets of people at the end of their lifetimes is working too much, rather than spending more quality time with loved ones. Jordan Peterson has cited research suggesting that people are less happy after having children (though goes on to argue everyone should have children anyway, using confounding logic). Similarly, bills, boring careers, stress, financial pressures, material pursuits and so on help explain the low point of middle-aged misery. There's also the loss of youthful beauty that most people get attached to, without the carefree mindset that the elderly eventually obtain. Keeping life simple seems to be important, as well as time with friends and the absence of worrying about survival (yes, easier said than done). What western psychologists call 'mindfulness' is mentioned as a solution also. No doubt spiritual realisation would turn this entire paradigm on its head, but it is still worth keeping this research in mind when planning for practical purposes.