Vercingetorix

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About Vercingetorix

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  • Birthday 04/28/1987

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  1. Man up or gtfo
    Man up or gtfo
    In Non-violent communication, we would teach not to use blaming language, but to confidently speak your emotional experience. "When you leave wrappers laying around, and when you leave dishes in the sink, I am overcome with anxiety and annoyance.  I need a clean living environment in order to feel at ease, happy, and respected.  Can you please help me come up with a solution so that resentment doesn't build over this?"
    Try your hardest to avoid calling him a leech, but do tell him what behaviors are creating you so much distress.

  2. Has Anyone Here Overcome Social Anxiety?
    Has Anyone Here Overcome Social Anxiety?
    I had severe social anxiety and depression for years until I dug deep and realized a lot of things about how the mind works. This technique helped me greatly so please read this post carefully if you suffer with social anxiety or depression.
    A big realization I've had with anxiety is the situation doesn't generate the anxiety, the situation is what brings anxiety which was already within you to the surface of your mind.
    When you go into a situation which surges your anxiety, your mind isn't producing anything, it's really just bringing stored anxiety to the surface of your mind! This is extremely important because the key to stopping anxiety(or any emotion) is to dissolve the energy which is stored within you. Depending on how much is stored it may take years to fully dissolve.
    It is important to know how anxiety gets stored in the first place. In the past, if you had anxiety and tried to suppress it, it gets stored in your body and mind. When anxiety is stored it doesn't matter how conscious and present you are, you will still feel that emotion the next time you get into a similar situation, and if you keep avoiding the emotion, it keeps building up.
    What you need to do is anytime you feel anxiety, feel the raw sensation of it without allowing it to produce thoughts. The anxiety wants to take over your thought process and grow. Do your best to observe the anxiety completely, without judgement. Notice where the anxiety arises in your body, what it feels like, etc. Doing this slowly dissolves the emotion. It can be hard, if not almost impossible if you have really bad anxiety. I recommend starting a meditation and concentration practice to get good at holding your attention on one thing, this is what you are doing with the emotion, holding your attention on it.
    Another way of doing this is to visualize situations that cause your anxiety. Visualize yourself in first person and try to make it feel as real as possible. When you visualize an anxiety provoking situation, it should give you a feeling of anxiety. Do the same thing, feel the raw emotion without allowing it to produce thoughts. Keep your concentration on it and notice how the feeling changes. Keep visualizing the situation over and over until you no longer get the anxiety response and you feel relaxed. Try doing visualization of different anxiety provoking situations regularly. 
    Eckhart Tolle calls what I am describing the "pain body". He describes the pain body as old emotional pain which is carried around inside a person. This goes for feelings of anxiety, depression, anger, etc. The techniques I described above work for any of these emotions. If you're like me you will have times where the emotion is almost unbearable, but this is when the most healing is happening.
    Keep persistent with this practice, the more you do it the quicker your social anxiety will be gone. It is possible to get rid of anxiety completely, I know it doesn't seem like it but trust me. I hope this works for you!

  3. Need Learning Resources
    Need Learning Resources
    Oooh I remember how frustrating it was at first! 
    What happens there is that mind maps is another form of structuring thoughts.
    Regular text-based learning makes your thoughts structure in a linear way. One idea conects only to the next, making your thoughts only have one direction. Also it is more word-based.
    And mind maps make you train what is called radiant thinking, which is thinking in networks of ideas. One idea conects to multiple ideas, making your brain relate ideas more easily. Also it is more image-and-color-based. 
    Its clearly frustrating to the linear mind trying to learn radiant thinking, its a new structure. But with practice the brain will LOVE it because it is more congruent with its nature, neurons also work as multi-directional networks. 
    I remember a story from the book that was about a man who could remember EVERYTHING because his brain was hyper connected, he could access any idea he seen in the past super quickly, he was very smart of course but it was overwhelming, his brain worked at excess speed and he could not rest. So what they did is train him by writing his thoughts in a linear way, in sentences and paragraphs. Slowly his brain became more linear and slow, his ideas not connecting at a high speed, so it stopped being overwhelming. 
    I love this topic I could talk about it all day hahah

  4. Non-toxic marketing & b usiness books
    Non-toxic marketing & b usiness books
    @Michael569 So you’re essentially trying to get 1-1 clients to fix their health? 
     
    And mainly looking for men 30-60 looking to sort their shit out in a nutshell. 
     
    So, will it be working with the client once a week and offering resources and advice and action plans, accountability etc? 
     
    Once you define what you’re actually selling and to who, it becomes a lot easier. 
     
    I guess you’re doing this online, so how much will you cHarge by the hour? Then you can work out how many clients you need from there. 
     
    Freelancing/ consulting is only finite in scale though, you may want some other products/ services that aren’t time bound. 
     
    Have you considered building an audience via YouTube and an email list? 
     
    you could give something away in return for their emails, and then email health tips and what not most days for men 30-60, and always link back to your 1-1 coaching/ consulting. 
     
    Eventually, you could also set up a paid newsletter.

  5. Thoughts on Culadasa (John Yates) - My Practice Method
    Thoughts on Culadasa (John Yates) - My Practice Method
    Hi everyone. Here is my current practice method. I wanted to share with you one of the most useful mindfulness manuals I've ever read. 'The Mind Illuminated' by Culadasa.
    For me, his training method was so effective that I've experienced a lot of exponential growth in a relatively short amount of time. More people need to know about this guy.
    For anyone who has read his book, I'm currently working on stages 7-8-9 holistically. After stabilizing the attention to the breath, I start an investigation towards the sense of being an individual self and awareness practices in no-mind.
    I do this not only in sitting sessions but also in daily life. For instance, today my awareness of external sensations were so acute that when I was meditating in the subway train, the sound of the door closing (+ the engine of the train) was so loud that if I hadn't cultivated equanimity so much, I definitely would have gotten startled. It was so intense.
    I'm currently trying to master effortless stability of attention to the breath sensations at the nostrils in stage 7 and once I do access such levels of concentration, I expand my awareness of external sounds and bodily sensations while maintaining stable, bright and continuous attention to the breath. Making sure to have introspective awareness (aka. inner awareness of thought and feel space) for potential distractions and dullness.
    From this foundation of samadhi, I start the self-inquiry process where I try to pinpoint and investigate the sense of being a self. I separate the three fundamental aspects of being a self: see, hear and feel modalities. 
    Then I inquire if there is anything more. A locus of consciousness. The experiencer/doer addition to these 3 modalities. Once I do this inquiry, my mind slows even more. Thoughts go away. Emotions cool out. And sensations of external sound, visual and touch modalities get amplified and I start to feel like my sense of self starts to melt away merging and blurring out because of the awareness of external sensations.
    I continue from here and try to access deeper and deeper aspects of no mind while maintaining the stability of attention to the breath.
    This is my current practice and I get TONS of growth out of it on a daily basis.
    Also, I'm doing 90 to 120 mins of SDS sits in the cross-legged posture with these techniques on a daily basis as well. So that also adds a lot of spiritual weights and stable foundation as I start my day.
    I hope this gives you guys some motivation and an idea of how to move forward in your practice if you feel stuck. 
    For more information, read Culadasa's fantastic book 'The Mind Illuminated'. Here is the special Reddit forum of the book if you are interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMindIlluminated/
    Let me know your thoughts on Culadasa and his methods. Have you tried them? If so, what are your experiences? What do you struggle with? 
    I'd love to hear your thoughts and give guidance as much as I can

  6. Thoughts on Culadasa (John Yates) - My Practice Method
    Thoughts on Culadasa (John Yates) - My Practice Method
    Basically, I use Culadasa's breath techniques to develop samadhi and then use Shinzen Young's silent noting (not labeling) technique to investigate see, hear, feel modalities clearly with added self-inquiry to get a permanent insight into no-self, impermanence and suffering.
    It is a very strategic and intense schedule to follow on a daily basis. I recommend it to everyone.

  7. relationship
    Top Relationship Resources
    Hey there,
    Today I was reading Ken Wilber's The Religion of Tomorrow book and I was struck with so much gratitude for you @Leo Gura... it's just a gift that I'm even able to understand almost everything that this book says. You have given me so much and I just felt like sharing some love with you. 
    I noticed that I have never shared many precious gifts that I have found along my path with y'all, in an area that I think the actualized.org crew is needing lots of resources, which is relationships (my life's purpose is to teach people how to have conscious, authentic, healthy relationships - I'm a therapist). 
    So here we go, the best resources I have found after years of pursuing this relationship path:
    Best teachers + books + seminars (stage yellow/turquoise)
    https://www.learningloveinstitute.com/
    https://www.learningloveinstitute.com/portfolio/books-2/
    OTHER HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BOOKS: https://www.learningloveinstitute.com/books-we-recommend/ (great books on sexuality and tantric practices - life-transforming)
    I have tears in my eyes just thinking about these two teachers: Krishnananda & Amana... this is love at its purest. I hope some of you have the opportunity of meeting these teachers, they are the most loving human beings I have ever met. Their teachings are deeply rooted in non duality (they lived with Osho for many many years - they have a very interesting life's story). Even though they call Osho their master, they are the 1st ones to say "Osho was full of shit in many situations".
    I recommend to start by reading their book: Face to Face with Fear – Transforming Fear Into Love or Stepping out of Fear – Breaking Free of Pain and Suffering.
    They try to communicate in a very simple way and give people very simple models for healing. 
    You can solve ANY relationship problem you have in a therapy session with either of them, which costs something around $170. Another amazing thing about them is how their business doesn't revolve around money, their seminars and sessions are fairly cheap compared to most teachers.
    I cannot recommend this work enough. THIS IS GOLD!
    Best way to practice authentic relating based on meditation and find a community of people that you can feel deeply connected to
    https://integralcentered.com/aletheia/ + https://integralcentered.com/ken-wilber-on-authentic-relating/ (Ken Wilber's take on authentic relating)
    https://www.circlinginstitute.com/circling/what-is-circling/
    https://www.circlingeurope.com/what-is-circling
    https://circleanywhere.com/
    I highly recommend circling. It's an amazing way to see your relational blind spots, to feel absurdly connected to other human beings, learn communication tools and etc. It has it's some pitfalls, like not exploring trauma and how to heal wounds, but it's an amazing tool to growth.
    A good introductory book on circling: Circling and authentic relating - Marc Beneteau (even though the author is fairly undeveloped).
    Most big cities have a live circling group these days that you can attend.
    Other good resources
    Podcasts (yellowish): https://relationshipschool.com/podcast/ and https://www.neilsattin.com/relationshipalive/  (there are some false teachings in these podcasts, but many useful teachings and resources).
    Relationship courses + trainings: https://relationshipschool.com/dpir/ - I have been studying with this teacher for the last 2 years. I have spent $25k on his courses and I find them to be a very good base for a healthy relational life. He's mostly yellow, but he's still very stuck in some orange toxicity IMO - he can be very manipulative, greedy and etc. I have done trainings with him because the most recommended teachers - learningloveinstitute - don't offer programs as he does. I still highly recommend this material (especially if you are still in orange or green), but you should know that some of the stuff that he teaches is based on falsehood IMO. I'm leaving this teacher soon and completely focusing on the Learning Love Institute one's.
    Another downside is that it's very expensive.
    Other interesting authors and books:
    Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the path of liberation - Bruce Tift (yellow+turquoise)
    Mindsight - Daniel J Siegel
    Gabor Maté
    ...
    There are many more that I could list here, but I actually think it's best for all of you to focus on the ones that I have already mentioned (too much information can be distracting). All the people that these 2 podcasts interview can be good resources.
     
    @Leo Gura if you are open for feedback: I think that the relationship books in your list are pretty bad lol , which makes sense because you were mostly on stage orange when you created this list (I think).
    The way of the superior man: this book can be very shaming in my opinion and is male chauvinist (even though I loved it when I read it years ago and it has some beautiful insights). My perception today is that it has very poor relationship teachings. Chapters like: Don't force the feminine to make decisions, Praise her, What she wants is not what she says, Her complaint is content-free, She wants to relax in the demonstration of your direction and etc are pretty bad (very blue/orange). Real relational teachings teach you to be with your wounds and emotions, there's very little of that here. I think Deida is a case of someone that maybe has done lots of waking up (maybe not even that), but hasn't done much growing up.
    The 5 Love languages: IMO this is stage blue relationship garbage... the 5 love languages are actually feeding people's egos/shame in most situations. Even though it has a "positive effect" in the short-run, it feeds falsehood in the long run. Example: someone's love language is Words of Affirmation - if you go deep enough, you'll see that the person was traumatized into thinking that he/she is only worthy, lovable when receiving compliments from other people. It's like telling a model that she's beautiful, she'll feel good about it, but it's feeding her shame instead of dealing with it.
    Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus / The 7 Principles That Make Marriage Work / He's Just Not That Into You - these books are very orange and don't give actual tools for people to heal their relational wounds and move towards healthy relationships.
    Let me know how this lands for you! 
     
    If anyone has questions or wants more suggestions and advice, let me know!
    Relationships are such an incredible way to deal with our shadows, especially long term partnerships. And of course, such an important part of life that cannot be avoided. I hope this helps some of you to grow up in the relational area of your lives. 
    Lots of love fellow seekers,
    Gabriel. 
     
     
     

  8. book recommendations against science
    I want to show people the limitations of science, but there is a problem
    Most psychologists have no idea what they're doing. They may have expertise, but this expertise won't help somebody for which the mind itself is the problem. People don't understand that the contents of the mind aren't the problem, but the identfication with mind itself is the problem. So trying to work on your personal mental issues isn't going to work if you're not reaching for something beyond it. If you're trying to play the game of "problem-solution", you're in the end only gonna find more problems with every solution you're going to come up with. That's just how to mind works. The mind itself is the problem; Most people don't understand that. Or maybe not the mind itself is necessarily the problem, but the identification with the mind in which the mind is in control of you instead of the other way around. And the way to dissolve this identification is to stop trying to think in terms of needing to have solutions and strategies for everything.
    Psychologists may be good for helping someone who is less intelligent than them. In that case a psychologist may help his evolution a little bit further. If the psychologist is less intelligent than the client (which is not the same as being more knowledgeable), then the psychologist will only hold the person back.
    Most psychologists today don't even understand or appreciate the value of the feminine and the passive. Usually, a psychologist is trying to activate you, to motivate you, to get you to be a more active participant in society. This can possibly be good for someone who is in the phase in his/her life where this person is in or near the springtime of his life, where such motivations are potentially helpful and applicable. And then only potentially... Because with many psychologists I question if they're really doing any good whatsoever.
    However, if someone is in or near the autumn-season of his/her life, this kind of emphasis on trying to activate people can actually be very detrimental and damaging. It can create a lot of guilt in a person. The person is often quite helpless, really, as he is fighting against the natural current of life. You can't stop the autumn from happening, and the winter from coming. If you do try, you will waste a lot of energy, struggle a lot with yourself, and in the end not only fail but make things so much more difficult for yourself than it ever had to be.
    Rarely I see someone encouraging just dropping it all and allow themselves to be or do nobody/nothing useful in particular. But if you do allow that for yourself for that to happen with your full permission and devotion to it, winter-time will turn out to be a very valuable phase in your life.
    Hmmm... how did I suddenly come to talk about the seasons of life when I was just trying to talk about psychologists? 
    Ah well...
     
    I've found two good books you guys could use if you want to sharpen your capacity for argumentation against a dogmatic materialistic scientific position, if that's what you're going for.
    Rupert Sheldrake has a pretty good book called either "The Science delusion" or "Science set free" (depending on whether it's in the USA or not). He talks about the limitations of science from the perspective of a scientist. But not only the limitations, but also the corruption, the hypocrisy, the hidden agendas, the biases and unquestioned assumptions... So he is a scientist himself, but at the same time not tied to materialism and rationalism, and very skeptical towards the integrity of the way science is operating in this day and age.
    Osho has a juicy book called "intuition" which I'm reading right now, in which he is also clear about the limitations of not only science, but knowledge altogether. So he comes at it from the perspective from the mystic. Very good logic for logic transcending itself, as far as that's possible.
     

  9. series
    High consciousness tv shows?
    If you haven’t seem them yet, I would highly recommend: The Cosmos Series with Neil Degrasse Tyson, One Strange Rock, and on YouTube, the three part BBC series The Atom. These are all documentaries, which, if you watch all three, you’ll understand more about the universe than the vast majority of people with a university education (unfortunately). I recommend these to spiritual seekers, because they all inspire a sense of AWE of the manifest universe. It’s occurred to me that the emotion of awe is in short supply in humanity, because people are too self-absorbed, or genuinely overwhelmed with problems. Spiritual awakening brings a big increase in the sense of awe.

  10. Rumi about love
    Rumi on Love
    I posted this in my own journal on this site, but I thought I'd repost it in the case that someone else would appreciate it here. It's a compilation of Rumi's poems specifically related to love, in that intersection between the divine and personal.
     

  11. motivation for spiritual work
    Is realizing God the most 'valuable' thing I can do?
    @kev014 Sounds like your soul already knows the answer.
    The soul only has one function and desire: full realization and embodiment of God. That's all it wants and the only thing it is after. Everything else is scenery along the way.
    This is all that life is about. There is nothing else.
    It's not just about joy, there is literally nothing else to do but stall it out and deny it, or do it.
    It takes a lot of vision and wisdom to actually do it though. Talking about it is all too easy. You have to get very clear that this is what you want.

  12. Most deeply enlightened teachers
    Most deeply enlightened teachers
    Ralston has a decent amount of subconsious opus arrogance that shows on his face. He has a ways to go.
    In modernity. Ramana is rather advanced, Sheng Yen who is a Taiwanese monk is good, and there is a Sri Lankan monk that I believe is the most advanced person in recent history whose name is wanaraka thero.
    None of the people I mentioned I believe were fully enlightened, however, in fact I’m positive. The only person who showed signs of full enlightenment was the historical Buddha.

  13. Wise words about death
    Death Is An Emotion And Fear Is Misunderstanding
    Death is a human emotion. 
    What do you feel when you think about death? Doesn't it bring up an intense feeling? An intense fear, sadness, feeling of destruction?
     
    We tend to view death as a one-time event in our life.
    But it's constantly with us, it's an human that you carry deep inside you, and the proof is that you can recall it at any moment.
    Just think about dying and you will feel the emotion. 

    We are emotional beings. And I think death is the emotional translation of the valley between your spiritual identity and your human identity. 
    You are an immortal eternal being. There's no death. There's merely a space between truth and illusion. 
    Referring to this space, fear. 
    Fear, I think is the emotional translation of misunderstanding. 
    We view misunderstanding as an objective failure, a result of ignorance or lack of knowledge.
    We don't really view misunderstanding in an emotional way. 
    But it is. Fear is literally misunderstanding. You fear, because you're not understanding something, you're not understand the truth behind what you fear. 
    You fear death because you don't understand it. You fear the other because you don't understand the other. You fear the future because you don't understand what will happen in it. 
    Misunderstanding is literally an emotion that hurts us, that feels horrible. 
    I can testify that as soon as you actual understanding things, as you start gaining higher knowledge fear disappears. 
    And I'm starting to get I was never ''afraid''..how can an immortal being be afraid?
    Fear is merely the signal button that is telling you that you're misunderstanding something. 
    Feel fear towards something? you're not understanding that something. be open-minded to gaining a new insight about that specific something.

    Be ready to drop the idea that you think that you actually understand it and that fear is rational approach to it. 
    Fear is never a rational approach as a result of an objective conclusion. 
    Fear is misunderstanding. 
    You don't need fear to know you're in danger and to move out of the way.
    you don't need fear to grow spiritually,shortly put, never believe your fears

  14. Strategy for Enlightenment:
    Strategy for Enlightenment:
    I think the best strategy for Enlightenment is as follows:
    (1) Do some roles work and shadow work.
    (2) Watch all Leo's videos on Enlightenment (multiple times).
    (3) Meditate for 1 hour daily.
    (4) Set up a weekly LSD trip schedule.
    (5) Journal like a mofo on the Forum.  Listen to feedback from peers.
    (6) Do life purpose work.
    (7) Contemplate like a wise man (or woman).  Learn the Socratic Method.
    (8) Give back by helping someone with an insight.
    (9) Study and read a lot, especially about things that authentically interest you.
    (10) Travel.  Get some contrast to your life.
    Videos on point to watch:
     
     

  15. Leo's Practical Guide To Enlightenment
    Leo's Practical Guide To Enlightenment
    It's not about verbal answers so much as about your ACTUAL identification.
    Here... let's make it very simple:
    1) You believe you exist, right?
    2) Okay, so then WHAT are you? What is it that you think you are?
    A body? What is that? And how can you be sure you're a body? Why aren't you the coffee table? If you're the body, then what is everything else? How can you be a body when the body is actually just a set of perceptions? Are you saying you're a perception? What about in deep sleep? There's no perceptions or body in deep sleep. So what are you then? What were you before you were born?
    Don't try to come up with logical answers. Instead, try to realize that you actually don't know what you are. And then just wonder, What could I be?
    Don't forget... maybe you don't exist!

  16. How can "no self" and reincarnation not be a contradiction?
    How can "no self" and reincarnation not be a contradiction?
    There could be a meta-self which persists across indvidual lifetimes. This meta-self might purposefully stay hidden during the present lifetime so as not to interfere with the lessons that this lifetime is supposed to teach.
    Sorta like how you can go to a movie theater and watch several movies back to back. But each movie stands on its own as a self-consistent world. But you can still think about all 3 movies and draw lessons from all 3 of them combined in a sort of meta-analysis.
    This meta-self could even be responsible for deciding which world/life it will inhabit next in order to gain the necessary lessons. For example, your meta-self might decide to become a crippled child or the next Hitler. So it could learn the joys and struggles of that.
    Just a theory.
    I suspect the universe might have a higher purpose of self-understanding which surpasses anything the human mind can conceive of. After all, if you were God, your #1 priority would probably be to understand yourself. But this is a tricky problem for God because God is infinite. So God is then in a sort of prepetual struggle of self-understanding.
    I have become conscious of certain things which fit with that vein. For example, I've become conscious of why everything is happening as it is. Or why humans are as they are. But it is such a multi-parallel understanding that it cannot be articulated or even thought. I can't even think it to myself let alone explain it.
    Imagine for example a mind which is 1 billion times more powerful than a human's, and what kinds of things it might understand. The possibilites are quite radical.
    It helps if you start thinking of human understanding of the universe as ant-like.

  17. What rituals (if any) do you do before a trip?
    What rituals (if any) do you do before a trip?
    Over time, as my tripping technique has refined, I've found that the only thing really necessary is:
    Totally quiet & safe setting, zero obligations, empty stomach, courage, and after you take the substance: sit perfectly still, concentrate on the present moment, and surrender.
    Always start each new substance at a lose dose.
    Meditating before-hand helps to prepare the mind. You want to get all your personal stuff out of the way so you can go deep into existential questioning.
    If the trip starts to get hairy, just remind yourself to surrender and get more curious about reality rather than your petty personal issues or feelings.

  18. "We don't know where thoughts come from"? srsly??!
    "We don't know where thoughts come from"? srsly??!
    This is a topic that needs to be very seriously contemplated, and not debated or discussed.
    You have to sit down and force yourself to contemplate your rock-bottom assumptions about reality:
    Why do I assume reality exist? How can I be sure reality is real? What does "real" really mean, anyway? What is existence? Could I be deceiving myself? Does consciousness exist in a brain? Or is "the brain" existing within consciousness? If the brain is inside the universe, how can the universe be inside the brain? Etc. This contemplation must be done extremely carefully, avoiding all personal self-biases and cultural assumptions.
    Very few people do this kind of contemplation seriously. And discussing it with people will not help you, but only distract you. It works like doing a mathematical proof. You have to trace through the logic of it to see how the materialist paradigm contradicts itself.
    And it definitely DOES contradict itself.
    I can tell you right now, having spent years doing this contemplation, and experiencing the Absolute many times now, there is no such thing as reality. But believing me is totally useless. You need to go through the proof yourself. I'm just telling you what you will discover in the ultimate end. Don't be surprised if this process kills you. That's precisely the point. You are deeply involved in this process. The misunderstanding of reality runs straight through you. Which is why it's so difficult to correct. But it's doable for those who are really serious about life.
    Good luck and have faith that it will be worth the effort. You will be pleasantly surprised if you succeed

  19. How Do You (as Awareness) Know That You Are Self-aware?
    How Do You (as Awareness) Know That You Are Self-aware?
    The infinite is always here. There's no method to "access it".
    If you're aware of this, you're enlightened.
    Strictly-speaking, there is no method for enlightenment. Enlightenment is beyond all methods. There's nothing you can do to reach it because it's already here, right now.
    It is effective, but if you want to get enlightened, 1 hour per day is generally not nearly enough. You should be doing week-long retreats.
    You're not serious about this work unless you've spent at least 100 hours straight doing nothing but meditating, eating, and sleeping.
    You should be doing at least 1 or 2 week-long retreats per year.
    The daily 1-hour of meditation is basically maintenance work. Although it's still WAY better than having no practice at all.

  20. Enlightenment Strategies Here
    Enlightenment Strategies Here
    I met a guy who was employed as a merchant sailor in the Northwest, Seattle area. Requires zero experience to start. Their union trains you. Pays very well for a manual labor job, good promotion opportunities, you get to travel the world, and you get 90 days off the ship several times per year.
    A great gig for those who are solitary.
    It's also nice in that is gives you an escape from the numerous distractions and enticements of modern American society.
    Make the ship your monastery as you save up dough.
    $50,000 - $70,000 per year salary is possible within just a few years of work. Most sailors blow it on booze and hookers in Thailand, but you can be smarter than that (I hope )