UpperMaster

@Swarnim Does it stay?

sure Competition against yourself is very important. Competition against others is also important in the social context for resources, however I do acknowledge that although competing with others can push you, competing with others can also limit you in a way. So yea I agree. good lad

The prevalent issue of competition. In our culture, it is embraced. School is competition, Career is competition...Survival is competition. I find that Spiritual masters fail to address the current implication of competition in our "orange" world and instead brush it off as low consciousness, ego mind activity. Instead many spiritual masters suggest using your time expressing yourself through "truth", through "love". I, and many people on this forum support this message. However, I soon realized that I was taking in this wisdom like dogma, and that fundamentally there is some gap in my understanding that doesn't allow me to leave this stage "orange" train of thought. Additionally, I realized this pattern in other people on this forum. Sure you can appreciate wisdom from great guru's and spiritual teachers, but you still massively compete in the social matrix everyday. You still have an idea of how you are valued in society or your group. I remember seeing several posts in a span of a few months where people complained about feeling humiliated because they were viewed worse than others. This gap in understanding is clearly not exclusive to me. The fundamental problem that I and multiple other people have, is that I can't imagine how winning could make your life worse. I can't imagine how being on top of the social hierarchy is not a good thing. The better you are at competing, the more resources society gives you because society rewards winners and results makers. The more resources you have the overall more possibilities you have to explore life. The more power you have, the more you can use this power for good. I don't understand how competition is petty bullshit, when your required to compete in order to survive. Another post I read on the forum is how AI might jeopardize the user's art career. The gist of it was that artists couldn't compete with AI art any longer, meaning they can't profit from their art. Even @Leo Gura suggested to still continue making art just for the sake of it. But how is this good advice? If you can't even make a living, I don't think exploring life will be any of your concern. I don't want to act as if I transcended "competition" "social hierarchy" when I haven't. So basically it comes down to two questions 1. How does one transcend competition and social hierarchy without sacrificing one's survival? 2. What is the healthiest view on competition as a whole? I've thought about this a whole lot, so I will rebuttal arguments which I feel have gaps in them.

I agree. I think becoming too involved with it could be problematic, however ignoring social hierarchy all together is also problematic.

Yes. However, it is apparent to me that whether you consider yourself spiritual or not, you virtually have to partake in the rat race if you want to live in modern society. On your note on problems when your successful. I think that there are ways to compete, and in order to compete effectively you must be able to manage yourself efficiently. I remember when I was younger that although I used to be competitive, I also was too hard on myself and that actually stopped me from being competence. Although I am not perfect yet, I think I have a healthier view on competition and understand that in order to succeed one must not take things too personally. Yes, exactly, but you can use your logic for absolutely everything. You can take a bunch of psychedelics learn a lot about reality but then what? Also, I don't simply mean travel and live a life full of degeneracy. If you have 500 million in your bank, a phone full of connections and good health, you can aim to solve many problems that the planet faces today. You have freedom to revolutionize the education system, combat illness in third world countries. You can do so much more than if you are in your dead end job. If you transcend your "ego" (the little "i"), there's a possibility that you will see that the you in your life was never truly there. Therefore, you can attain success in the social hierarchy in a manner that is playful to you, genuine and you don't take it so personal (because YOU are a fiction) It's essentially a game and you know you will be "alright", no mental anxiety. However, there is also a possibility if you "wake up" that you could do away with the whole success thing and become like a farmer or a surfer or a monk or something. Something simple. Can you live with that possibility? Would being a 'nobody' to your friends and family and society as a whole, scare you? You bring up a pretty important subject, in my opinion. While letting rid of your ego may enable you to live a happier life, you will likely stop caring as much about success as you once did. Transcending your ego however is not an easy task, and quiet frankly I don't understand how it works yet.

I think this is great. You should do what you want to do. I just wanted to understand why people have an issue with it considering it is such a core part of our survival in this era. I'll be blunt and admit that yes I want to be the best at my field because in my view, it don't seem to have many drawbacks. It is a core part of survival and being good in competition does award you in many ways. Thanks for sharing

@NoSelfSelf Yes agree, well said.

There's a book called Mastery by Robert Greene. He touches on this. He claims that there are two ways to become a master. Either compete in an already existing field, or create a completely new field. He gives many examples and isn't biased towards either. I think having a unique value is great however I think if you inspire to get into a field where you will have to compete like a NBA basketball player, then you should still work towards your goal. I don't think it's wrong to compete whatsoever.

I don't understand, to what extent should I use intuition? How can life be both counter intuitive and also intuitive, I mean I can imagine it being both but then whats the purpose of even saying one or the other?

I mean, Leo isn't too condescending. He is sometimes but it's barely anything compared some people I know. On your thought about "loving condescension", I disagree. I mean sure, you do you, but it is incredibly hard to learn from someone that shows extreme superiority all the time, dismissing your questions as just dumb.

I have a very extreme obsession with status, and I think it's hurting me. When I was younger I was often bullied a lot for my skin color, and I think I was always seen as "lower status" through-out my life. I've recognized that I was a codependent with a narcissist, and that scarred me pretty bad. He end up beating me tf up too lmao. My reputation in school has been fucked for a while now (because of narcissist manipulation. The thing is, now I feel like I really want higher status. I just want to feel it. I've want to feel how it be to be respected, to be feared. I want to take revenge for everyone that went against me. I want to be able to defend myself when someone tries to socially put me at my place. I'm so tired of this. Why am I so bad, why am I so low value. There are so many incidents, I can't tell you cuz I don't want to relive them I'd love to progress into spirituality but this desire seems really inestiguishable. I hate everyone that looks down on me, I see it in their eyes, I hate that. I don't know what to do please help. I used to cry myself to sleep everyday for few years. It got better when I avoided everyone except my friends. But now I'm socially anxious, I don't know how to talk to girls and my status is fucked. Idk what to do, brruuuh I'm struggling to be consistent with anything, idk help bro, I just humiliated myself again I can't... All my friends bareley into self improvement but improve way more than me, why am I so bad. Idk help, like really...

Tf is AP and LD?

@Leo Gura Do you think that the existing culture is good? How so? I'm not asking whether transgenderism in our culture could cause negative consequences, but rather just generally, should our current culture and gender roles be kept the same?

@Danioover9000 Mostly learning and accomplishing my goals. Originally I believed that it is absolutely necessary to take an absurd amount of time to learn and accomplish anything to create "quality work". This seemed to be a sort of self deception technique to stay complacent. I'm not saying sacrifice all quality and speed-run through life. I'm saying have a strong sense of urgency, try to do things relatively well but be fast, focus on actually completing the task. Example: Lets say you selling products online Scenario A: 1. Research best ways to sell product 2. Design website for 2 weeks 3. Design logo for a week 4. Ask friends and family if design and logo good 5. Get stock 6. Legal papers to make things "official" 7. Create Instagram and post some good pictures of product 8. Advertise Basically you spent a huge amount of money and time for something that you wont even know will succeed or not. Instead if you cut the bs, just do things quickly. Scenario B: 1. Research best ways to sell product 2. Simple yet effective website that implements all researched techniques 4. Organize stock via droppings 5. Advertise Here, yes the quality is "lower" but you will know if your idea would actually work or not without spending so much money. Even if you get a small profit, profit will be reinvested and you can improve quality fast. You will have more actual useful experience, and learn faster. I hope you get my point

I'm familiar with the advice, "don't rush things" and "build a good base", but recently I've tried doing the opposite. I approach everything very much in the mindset of how fast can I do this. I can't even say if I produce work with decreased quality, in fact I think I create the same if not better quality work because I skip all the extra bullshit I used to do when completing a task. Intelligent people are rewarded because they learn things and achieve things faster. To what extent can I take this mindset? Are there any huge limitations? How important is it to approach things with speed and urgency?

@flowboy Really good advice. Thanks.

Yes. That's what I'm doing much better using the strategy/mindset shift

Well yea I can definitely imagine situations where I should takes things slowly. I think what you outlined here will be my approach

The title says it all. I've been completely addicted to porn for almost a decade. I don't know how to stop, I've been trying so damn hard. The most I went without porn is for a week, and in the height of my addiction I was jerking off on average six times a day (I was twelve). There have even been times when I have jerked off more than ten times. Two years ago, my addiction caught up to me, and as a result, after masturbating, I constantly feel like peeing. This heavily effected my sleep, because I just kept feeling like pissing, although my bladder was empty. I visited the doctor and had a urine test done, but it turns out I didn't have a urine infection. My symptoms have decreased, but still not gone. The symptoms did improve when I cut back on masturbating, but because of my severe addiction, this issue hasn't been resolved. YES, I've tried progressively jerking off to less porn, however I am unable to push myself after week 1 (If I am lucky to get there lol). YES, I've tried "forgetting about it and stop tracking", this does work best, but whenever I do get reminded I relapse immediate. Can someone please give me some advice here: What steps should I take to beat my addiction? Does anyone else have the same urination issue I do? Will it go away once I stop masturbating?

I can imagine this working but I am resisting cuz it has backfired on me. Already tried. I just got manipulated more. And the people that did seem to fold just returned to fuckin with me when they are in a group setting. This might be true idk man. I Ok yea defenitly. If your low value in general life is a bit more simple, there are less fakes, less parties, less politics. I guess thats a plus Overall good points, thanks

Thank you. Your right it is a loop, I'll just focus on my self for myself.

There are so many ways I mess up, even on a daily basis. (I can't believe I'm writing this shit down, I'm cringing at myself lmao) 1.Someone keeps putting me in my place in a social setting, usually through a joke. I am too stunned to say shit back. 2. I am shitty at talking to girls. This is very much tied to the next point. 3. In a group setting I over analyze my words and filter everything I say, making it hard for me to actually contribute to the conversation. You may then wonder why I haven't worked towards removing this filter. The truth is, half my class doesn't like me because of some beef I had with this narcissist manipulator who sort of fucked my reputation. Now whenever I am myself, and or make jokes, all the jokes get disapproved, not because their unfunny but because of my reputation (ik this because I have less problem socially with people I don't know). Anyway this sort of thing really put a filter, now I am always scared on saying some shit because I feel like it would be cringe or disapproved. This sort of disapproval is something I faced when I was younger and it hurts soo bad. I remember I went to a party, and the whole class basically just kicked me out. Like everyone was asking why tf I was even there. I think that really made me insecure. Generally, I am kind of not good at anything anymore. I have shit grades, which leaves me no time to do anything else other than school. This makes me feel like a failure ngl. So many other larger incidents that make me feel this way, not too comfortable with getting into them. I'm sure you get the idea though

Pisces I think

I'll give this a listen

Completely agree. It is really hard to let go, and I have a weird mix of confidence and insecurity. I'm naturally a very confident person, when talking to someone new I have no problems making friends at least. When I do mess up however, I criticize myself completely. There are significantly less fake people. Your right about that, thanks for reminding me.