Consept

Lucky in that i didn't grow up religious at all or with any particularly strong beliefs, in fact I kinda wanted to be religious because they always seemed so happy and to have purpose and understanding, which I craved but I couldn't lie to myself I didn't believe it. So had to work everything out by myself which is impossible if you haven't got a clue. Eventually tried mushrooms didn't know what they would do, didn't know what to expect, gave me a glimpse of something else. Started getting into different materials, information, power of now was a big one, sadhuguru, mooji, Paul Hedderman, meditation, and now I wouldn't be able to close the door if I tried

I came across these 'Street Epistemology' videos that i found quite interesting (ive attached on below), its really interesting how ingrained beliefs are in people to the point where they come across as irrational. I also find it scary and frustrating because the fact that people can be so brainwashed obviously has led to or played a part in probably all major large scale tragedies in human history. But what do you think the limitations of Epistemology are? Can it be used to look at the non-dual perspective?

I mean it's a balance, if you don't care at all about results it won't push you and if you care too much it becomes obsessional and pointless. Unconditional happiness might be a good way to put it as you said, again going with my personal chess example, I used to get frustrated when I wasn't playing well and then get desperate to win, which makes you play worse and you don't enjoy it. If you set the target of wanting to win but being OK with it if you don't and just learning the lessons needed and enjoying the game regardless, then you come out with a lot even though you lose. Now even if I lose but play well I'm happy with it

I agree with @CreamCat here, to advance or to master something it's inevitable that you would need competition. The disclaimer is you shouldn't necessarily compare yourself to someone else and you should understand that you're on your own path, but we can't deny that competition makes you better. Think of all the great sporting rivalries, when you come accross someone that is difficult to beat it makes you push yourself more, mentally it makes you redefine what is possible. Before Roger banister break the record for running the mile no one had ever done it before, then after, as people had something to strive for, lots of people broke it. Look at Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, they both broke all kinds of records in football, is it a coincidence that both of them came at the same time or are they pushing each other constantly? From personal experience I play chess and I signed up to a site where you get your rating based how you play against other players, so I'm around 1500 to 1600, when I play someone that's 2000 say they kick my ass but I learn much more than if I play someone not as good, so I improve and it also let's me know what I have to do to get to that level. As long as you can take the ego out of it I think competition is the greatest tool you can have for mastery.

Nice, I'll give the video a watch, I probably watched it before but I don't think it hit me as hard as seeing it in action in the street epistemology vid

That's good advice

Getting into a flow state is an amazing experience and I believe we should look to get into this state as much as we can. However, observing myself, my ego comes in claiming the flow state as soon as the activity is done, esp if I've done well or at least perceived myself to have done well in said activity. There's a few things that get me into a flow mainly sport (previously football/soccer now boxing), chess and dating/pick up (although dont really do that atm). If you notice in all of them you achieve something or 'win'. So what happens if it's been successful and I've performed well, at the time I barely think just flow but then after I can't stop thinking about how great it was and how well I did and the ego kicks in hard, which also can mess you up as next time you do the activity you work from ego and its never as good. So is this the case for you? Will this always be a factor but has to be transcended?

Nothing but it can take you out of flow, i guess its more the attachment to ego that could be a problem not necessarily the ego itself

Are you always in flow? Would you say you have no ego?

The thing is if you genuinely didn't need it, say because of your personality type or whatever then you could transcend it, but the fact that you're worried about it leads me to think that close relationships and belonging is something you want but you're fearful that you won't get it as you haven't yet. If the motivation is fearful then youre trying to avoid rather than transcend which means you will push it down but it will still be within you. Think about if you did this with most of the pyramid, would you say you've ascended to self-actualization or have you just avoided a lot of stuff you needed to really address? This thing is a journey and it isn't always fun facing fears but it is rewarding once you start to see progress. My advice would be to look at why you want to skip the steps that you do, is it self-belief? Can you challenge it? Make steps to develop closer relationships, embrace that challenge, if it doesn't work for whatever reason and you know you've truly put effort into it, then it will be easier to transcend anyway, so it's win-win

What needs did you want to skip, if you don't mind my asking?

My opinion is go for the money, if that's what will motivate you right now then you should do that. I know intellectually you know it won't bring you fulfillment but you will need to experience that for yourself first hand. Also if you go down the road of making money other things might materialise, the important thing is to just start going down a road otherwise you'll think yourself into non-action

Hey everyone, so heres the situation - Ive been doing entrepreneur type stuff to make a living for around 6 years now, in that time ive not had any jobs apart from working for myself. Mostly its been ecommerce so selling on Amazon, ebay etc, i built it up to a really good level where basically i barely worried about money and was even teaching others how to make money (see my podcast). However being comfortable led to me being a bit lazy and not pushing myself and also even though i knew this wasnt my life purpose or something i really loved i only did this, so i didnt do other things that wouldve brought about more fulfillment or were more important to me. Now things arent going as well, sales are slowing down, taxes are higher because i was selling a lot so my margins are squeezed and im not making as much as before and it seems to be getting worse. Having said that ive also started some smaller ways to get money and thanks to those im keeping my head a float money wise, just about. So now im thinking i really need to push myself to do something more meaningful, as solely making money didnt really bring me fulfilment it only really brought comfort which is ok but either way i need to get on my life purpose. I still want to have businesses but i want something else to be at the forefront even if it doesnt make as much money or even any money but i want to use this opportunity of pressure to push myself and live a life more about purpose, which i know ive been holding back on. The problem i want to help with is low self esteem, as i believe this is a core problem that has so many ramifications for people and society, i believe it to be the cause of a lot of crime, addiction, mental health etc etc. I think i could help in this sphere, i started a youtube channel a few years ago and at first i talked more about consciousness and topics similar to Leo, but i just felt that i wasnt clear of my own issues let alone talking about something like this, I also found it a harder sell than other topics as less people are interested in it, but i have to say Leo has done amazing with the popularity of his channel. The other topic i was looking at was a channel around OCD which ive done a few videos about in the last couple months, i have a lot of experience with the topic having had it since childhood and i think there are a lot of solutions for it within the consciousness realm. So what im asking is should i do a channel and then possibly a business around OCD, anxiety etc? Should i do a channel that just includes those topics but talks about other things? (i do want to talk about other topics as well) Do you think its a viable life purpose? Should i do some kind of training? Finally i would love if you could take a look at my channel and let me know any positives and negatives about the videos, if you look at earlier videos the topics are a bit different so let me know what you think works and honestly your opinion on if this is even something i should do - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2xa0ziGzezDVGpaDT-GIEg?view_as=subscriber

No it wouldn't be a primary income, at least not initially and tbh I'm not necessarily doing it for the money, it's just I feel like there's something biting at me to do something purposeful, mainly because I've been really up with the money in the past and it was cool but actually led to me getting comfortable and not really doing much. I think @Elisabeth s idea was great I'm just thinking of how to do it and keep people safe but then not having to over moderate, for example I don't necessarily want people to advise on medicine as theyre not doctors, so tricky but do able I reckon. Although it wouldn't be my primary income I would love for it to make some money, but it wouldn't so much be from the channel, it would more be from one on one sessions I do or might do a patreon account. So it doesn't need to get millions of subscribers. I do want to talk about other topics but worried that might put ocd people off, not sure the best way to do it. Ideally I'd want to do ocd plus consciousness, self-help, society topics etc, but not sure how that would work. Apart from arbitrage, I've just started car rental with a company called getaround, so I've bought a car and it gets rented out on an app, with the intention to get more if it works. I also do matched betting which I would recommend if you're in a country that allows online betting. So money wise its OK, could be better, but for me I really need to do the purpose thing

Actually that's a really good idea, there a lot of people on Facebook groups for example who need people to talk to and others that want to help, so might be good to get them together in a more formal way, could even match specific types of OCD to each other. I'm going to look into it, thanks a lot for the suggestion

Hi @Elisabeth, thanks for the reply, yes i was thinking to have a youtube channel, what other ways of actualising my purpose were you thinking of? I have some ideas, one on one counselling, motivational talks, online course, writing a book etc, but not sure exactly what route to go down. Sorry to hear you found it strenuous, I do have a slightly distinctive London accent, I have toned it down a little but i still want to be authentic when i talk. But are you saying the content is hard to follow or does it literally come down to the accent? Just so i know what to work on. Thanks for taking the time to watch though x

Any advice? Lol

I think you're conscious but hyper focused to the point where your ego can't think about what is going on. For example if I play chess and I'm playing a really good game I'm completely focused on that and all other inputs are ignored. Thoughts come in but unless they're directly about chess they're ignored. If I'm playing really well I don't even think I'm playing well I'm just lost in that moment. So to answer your question I believe you're more conscious but just of that particular thing and in that you lose your' self', which seems like a loss of consciousness but is actually a loss of ego

Positive thinking is fine and necessary in way, however it can drift into delusion and a repression of natural feelings or thoughts which can be bad. For example you may feel you never want to hear any criticism

Its a tough one because on the one hand you want Leo and those like him to get into debates and argue points but on the other hand its essentially pointless arguing with those that have already made theyre minds up or are talking from a completely different paradigm. Consider all the so called enlightened masters, Mooji, Adyshanti etc none of them appear on mainstream outlets and if they do they have to severely water themselves down. The only one you might get is Sadhguru but mainly in India and mainly because Hinduism is the mainstream religion and it fits with his message. So the reason i believe is that to experience this knowledge you have to sincerely seek and not go into it just strengthen whatever pre conceived notions you have. What that can lead to is what we're seeing with the Mooji thread on this forum. So a materialist v non duality debate is as pointless as a materialist v creationist debate in both cases everyone has made theyre mind up, its just that the non dual perspective is a dropping of all paradigms

Yeah but you are the ego trying to manipulate yourself, who is the you that wants enlightenment?

It would be great if saying a couple sentences over and over would eventually make you make you enlightened, but what you need to question is who is the one that wants to make these statements to get enlightened? Is it the deeper you ie consciousness or is it the ego you? If its the deeper you it wouldnt need to ask anything, it could just be as it is. If its the ego you then it cant be enlightened it can only give up and let the deeper you do its thing. So you see theres no way to 'become' enlightened, you can only give up and get out of the way

You've become disillusioned with finding your life purpose, which is great because it is one less illusion in the way

Pedophile ocd is really messed up because bottom line they're not pedophiles it's just they're so scared of the idea that they could be it makes them ruminate about it and seem like it's a massive problem. I've heard of a teacher losing his job because he admitted he had this ocd which is obviously not right but I do understand why the school would do that, it's just a messed up situation. The conversation about actual pedophiles is an interesting one as well, obviously goes without saying its wrong to groom and abuse children. But if someone never acts on those impulses are they wrong for being attracted to kids if it is a genetic thing or even if they were abused and then became like that? Tricky subject not one for the mainstream

Well scientists say that theres a part of your brain which gives a fear response, i think its the amegdyla, so people with an 'ocd brain' have an overactive amegdyla, which means their brain can get caught in a loop where they try and sort out a perceived 'problem' but really there is no solution except for to accept the uncertainty, so the more they try and work it out the worse the problem seems. But i also think its like most habits, so say for example i said dont look at your phone for 24 hours that would not be easy and in fact youd probably think about it, so ocd is similar to an addiction or a bad habit in that it really feels like you have to do the certain action. It is horrible and causes a lot of distress to people