_Archangel_

@Blackhawk 1) A state sovereigny is thretened if its sphere of influence is at risk, cause' it means they could be the next to be swallen by someone else's sphere. 2) Leaders reason in decades. an atlantic Ukraine would be the perfect "buffer state" regardless if they join NATO or not. They were a russian bufferstate as much as Belarus is now. ------------ I woud say it's rather naive to think that a tiny state can "chose" where to stand. If negotiation bigin russians would only consider to sit down with the americans.

@OldManCorcoran your definition of everything includes the concept of time in it, because as you can't have "images passing by" without time/change. The problem with this definition though, is that time/change is a construct that can be deconstructed, too.

I can't explain it. It's just something I know from my own Awakenings. Sounds convincing

@Leo Gura @Inliytened1 lol. how isn't reality centerless? --------- You guys are so harsh on buddhism for basically no reason other then dogma.

@MisterNobody You miss exacly that point: he wasn't talking in absolute terms, but relatively. On the relative level, in general, conservative poeple tend to be more close-minded, resulting in a resistence in passing progressive laws. There are differnet levels of being biased. Leo's certainly less biased than most poeple on the planet. Every one has biases or tendencies, even enlightened poeple. Without tendencies you wouldn't be incarnated in a meat suit right now.

@amanen To say that God cannot be conceptualized simply means that meaning and signifier will always be separate. direct experience and the explenation of that experience are 2 different things.

@Ninja_pig If you speak in these terms you are nowhere near Awakening. You are confusing Awakening with a Spiritual High. And you are having the classic reaction to it. Notice that you have adopted a belief around your sopposed experience and reacting (badly) to it. It's like if a prisoner, once liberated, would want the prison back around him. Spiritual experiences are just glimpces of this liberation. If you truly awaken, you would instead start to appreciate the immense freedom that this new condition brings. Think about it: if everything is immaginations, that means that you can mould the landscape anyway you want (within certain limits)

I.S. doesn't mean that there is only an identity with a mind that is imagining everything, but that there is only 1 Mind that is imagining all possible narratives: notice that you thinking about "miltiple scopes and bodies" is a narrative created by this 1 Mind. This Mind is the only perspective, imagining that there exist multiple perspective. There isn't another perspective indipendent of it.

@StarStruckyour post made me think of Vagabond

@r0ckyreed i can see your couriosity. I will just say then - investigating the nature of a sensations IS deeply questioning reality. The only difference is that with contemplation, you start with a mental idea or concept. Both these paths though, if practiced correctly, bring the seeker to transcend thinking. In other words, with meditation you concetrate on the senses to transcend thinking, with contemplation you use thinking to transcend thinking. Yet again, Meditation has many nuances. When you say "Meditation isn't enough to understand reality to its fullest" it depends on what you mean, cause it is more then enough to liberate your Self, understanding the Grand Scheme of Things. Meditation might not be appropriate if you want to understand if you're better off buying a house or go on rent. So all my tips here boils down to buying a thick meditation manual because there is much more to Buddhism then you simplistic notions. Your main delusion is that you think you can't derive a world insights from the miniscule sensation of touching of you index finger on the knee. The object you are observing, wether it being a sensation or a concept, doesn't matter all that much, is your attitude and what you search in it that's far more important. To close, even though i don't exclude the possibility in some poeple of losing some thinking power, i provided you with evidance that Creativity and hardcore meditation can coexist. Some more? Search up Daniel Ingram on youtube.

@r0ckyreed *facepalm* Did you even read what i wrote? You still believe serius meditators just "sit and do nothing" which, i repeat, is WROOOOONG. You have NO idea what meditation is. You have No idea what buddhism is and you show it by boiling it down to No Self and Cessations. You can be humble and curious and try to learn or continue to feed you preconcieved biases how mush you want. Up to you.

@gettoefl Thats the base, but then so much stuff is built on it, the book is 500p + for a reason hehe. Just mindlessly returning to the breath is not enough to achieve insight. If you have 10 hours a day to dedicate to meditation chances are that writing a book isn't even a priority, and all you care is awakening. i don't think a monk would want to be the new NY best seller, otherwise it wouldn't be a monk. And even so, to desprove your logic, just look at the Sutras: Those monks who wrote the must have practiced religiously for hours, and yet came up with those highly cerebral works theory/practice/poetry. For all the householder cases, even 2-3 hours a day can co-exist with a creative life. Look at Frank Yang's arc for example, but there are many more.

@r0ckyreed i reiterate what i wrote. you have a wrong idea of what anapanasati is. The technique done right expecially in the beginning is very mind consuming because of the many precautions you need to mantain. Again, wrong. based on nothing. Search on google how many creative people practice a form of meditation and it helps them with creation. An exemple:

@tuku747 if you imagine something "breathing" is certainly not pure infinity True dat.

@tuku747 Infinity cannot expand, how could it? . Also, Empty and Full are ultimately the same thing.

@Chives99 ultimately, yes.

@r0ckyreed if meditation made you lose lucidity and memeory chanches are that YOU are doing it wrong. the opposite is more likely to happen with good practice. don't be so quick to extend you personal challenges to a universal standard That's exacly the problem! Meditation if done wright IS observation and contemplation. Buddhist Meditation isn't passivity. The "letting go part" should come way down the line. Get a copy of the The Mind Illuminated and see for yourself.

@Holykael Nobody is guilty of anything, crime is just a relative term depending on the culture, but we still need a justice system

@Someone here I guess the general answer is to become an entraprenuer and design a brand based on a service and/or a product to sell. Watch some Dan Koe on YT. How much time will it take to become financially indipendent depends on how much you are needed on the market. Chances are that to built something stable is a slow process, expecially when you have little time.

@Bruins8000 Infact that "story" is just being told to someone starting the path. Down the line if you do things right you realize, as you said, that there is no story other then "this just being this, for no reason". Every possible reason made up by mind is a step into delusion.

@Wisebaxter This happens because even though you intellectually or even experiencially "get it" there are still old programs (Samskaras) that make you behave a certain way. So: 1) whenever something like this happens again, remind your self of your nature, and, if the insights you have been having are powerful enough, you will witness a sort of release, like "i comprehend and let go and don't give a fuck". Comprehend that's just the Ego reacting to a sting. The more you do it the more the release will become automatic, unraveling the programs. 2) Deepen you insights. These reactions are the clearest signs that attachment is still there and deeper layers of the matrix need to be seen through. 3) Enjoy the fact that you "see" your reactions. Use them as a tool to progress.

@DIVINATOR Search on yt for "AcademyMRA". Most of his content is in italian, but he does speak english from time to time. You can find some of his english content on his site https://www.academymra.com/category/english/ They have free and paid content + different courses. I'm in one program and trust me that the stuff they teach you CRAZY.

@Schizophonia Notice that the limit between what is alive and what isnt is made by the mind. Everyting is a construct - a system, with limits. Humans just tend to be more complex systems than a PC.

A guy i listen to on youtube (Master of the oldest esoteric order in Europe) says that most masonic orders right now have little to do with spirtituality and have been exploited for lobbying ecc.. The only legit one, (always according to him) is The Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm. Probably some enlightened folks in there. Fun fact about the symbol: one interpretation is this- The lower block represents normal poeple. The top triangle represents the handful of poeple who controls the world. Inbetween there is a void. That stands of evey association tha has the task to mediate between the 2. So The State, crimanal organizations, religious institutions, corrupted Masonery ecc.

@Holykael Therefore, God never needed to be ready to let go in the first place, 'cause it knows it all already