quantumspiral

Started taking meditation for seriously around a month ago, although I've been doing it on / off for around a decade. Suddenly, it feels like I can see through the mask / fakery / schtick that many people put on. It's something about stepping outside of the ego let's you be more perceptive as you're detached from the whole rivalry that happens whenever two egos collide which distorts reality. It feels like everyone is fake. Anybody else experienced this?

@Husseinisdoingfine Well spotted. Pepe memes aren't allowed so I'm in a mortal dilemma

@An young being surely you're being ironic?

Demanding to live for free with your friend for free for 3 years after you help them recover from a bike accident is absolutely insane. As soon as I read your post, I knew this would be a non-western country.

@Hardkill The answer is to engage as fully you can with the process (for any kind of result) while relinquishing your need for the result. The need for a result causes resistance and makes the process more difficult and less effective

@Lyubov She believes herself to be one of the best break dancers in the world

When corruption meets avoidance of reality, you can end up dancing like this at the Olympics:

21st century schizoid man...

Is an intense curiosity about the world, knowledge and ideas themselves, rather than just seeking out knowledge that will advance yourself- a pretty good indicator that a good portion of your psyche is beyond orange? Of course, there's a lot more to it than that- but this seems to be a difference I spot quite regularly.

I've ignored taking meditation / mindfulness very seriously as I still need to handle my foundations before pursuing higher levels of consciousness / mystical states etc. I believe this was actually a pretty big mistake- and may be a common trap some of us are falling into. I say it's a trap as the practical benefits of meditation are enormous, and may actually be critical for some of us to get our foundations handled in the first place. I wanted to make this thread for people to share benefits of meditation (specifically maintaining a heightened state of awareness / acceptance throughout your day) that are have improved your life in a concrete way. Here are the benefits I've noticed: Increased ability to take deliberate action (things I've made a conscious decision to do) over compulsive action (things unconscious emotions are driving me to do) Observing and dissolving the driving emotions (both negative and positive) behind compulsive action and emotional resistance to doing work that needs to be done Maintaining a process focus, rather than fantasizing or obsessing over the results (which of course, leads to better results in the long term) Derive more enjoyment from the process itself Better subjective moment to moment experience of life- each moment feels fresh, new and vibrant Be emotionally unaffected by negative results- just process the information and use it to course correct Able to avoid auto pilot- as each moment feels new my actions are more connected to what's going on in reality. I can make the decision to change courses of action and think outside the box at any moment Ability to maintain a state of high concentration for many hours Become aware of resistance within myself and drop it Able to be disciplined and work hard in a more effortless fashion More engaged with life and more detached simultaneously Improved cognition generally I think the practical benefits of meditation don't get enough attention here. It seems sports psychology has really noticed and tapped into the performance benefits of meditation, but the applications are pretty much endless.

@NightHawkBuzz How about becoming a tyrannical despot of some obscure tropical backwater banana republic? All hail El Presidente!

@CARDOZZO Chris Williamson is a sycophantic, highly conceited, smug repeater of quotes he'd read on the internet. Would definitely propel Leo's brand though which would be cool.

Of course, mindfulness can be cultivated to an extreme degree. But are some people naturally born more mindful? Naturally talented musicians come to mind as someone who could fit this description. How much does mindfulness vary between children (who haven't been formally trained in meditation)? Are there examples of kids born freakishly mindful and aware?

How about Conor Murphy? Just for the lols

@Lyubov I think there is a clear distinction between negative emotions / physical sensations can flow naturally from certain activities and your own resistance to them. On some level- yes your own psychology may be setup in a way that is creating those negative emotions which can be uprooted. But can you stop the feeling of physical exhaustion when doing an endurance run? The feeling of fear when starting a new endeavour you're not sure if it will succeed? The discomfort of having a tough conversation with a loved one? Negative emotions and sensations will always arise in certain situations. Do we resist them, try to escape them and grasp for more pleasant, comfortable experiences? Or do we turn towards them and embrace them fully? That's really all I'm trying to say. In the state of heightened awareness, I then like to clarify some intrinsic driving factor. This could be an intrinsic motivation, a mantra, a deep personal value, my own impermanence and expendability in the pursuit of my goals or spiritual purification. I like to imagine this as a 'flame' that is physically located in the chest region of the sensory field. I used this to reach levels of extreme endurance running quite a few years ago after reading "The Power of Now", but didn't have the awareness or conceptual understanding to clarify it. The difference with this driving factor is that it's inherently intrinsic, not extrinsic (like winning a competition, making money etc)- intrinsic tends to be much more powerful. This is just playing with awareness in the context of challenge- not pursuing higher states of consciousness.

How do you differentiate resistance to your own emotions and experiences vs resistance you feel naturally to engaging in some kinds of activities (like working or exercising)? It seems there's two levels to resistance- a naturally occurring emotional resistance, and then a resistance on a more meta level which you can have to emotions. When the resistance is resisted it grows- when the resistance is accepted it diminishes. Is there a way to distinguish these experientially? How similar are they? Perhaps they are completely different and I'm just using the same word to describe both

@Little Aurobindo are you the restful cube? That's what my ESP is telling me bro

@Jannes My friend has quite severe ADHD. The symptoms began to arise after he got the MMR vaccine. I've always thought that meditation could really help someone with ADHD- observe and liberate themselves from the constant compulsions to focus on this, do that, say this etc. If you have tried meditation please let me know if it helped

@Butters This. Online freelancing and maybe get out of Romania lol. I didn't know salaries are so low in Romania- you should be able to double your salary quite easily if you choose a suitable field for online freelancing. If you can understand Leo's videos, you can do this (if you want)

@BlessedLion Of course. I'm just interested in how much of consciousness can come about naturally- either from nature or nurture, without formal practice. For example, was there an environment, perhaps in ancient history, that was extremely conducive to the development of consciousness? Such that the people in that environment naturally developed high levels of consciousness without formal meditation practice. Maybe this would be a tribe that was not war-like in close contact with nature.

@Leo Gura Ok thanks for clarifying, I was using them synonymously

I've started 3 hours of zone 2 cardio per week. My brain feels much sharper and more creative- the blood flow benefits are really quite noticeable. It's just 3 x 1 hr light jogs per week. As someone who has experimented with a lot of supplements, I'm not sure why I didn't do cardio earlier. I guess it's beacause they were recommending not doing steady state cardio a few years ago in favour of HIIT workouts, but it seems to have reversed now.

@Keryo Koffa Thanks a lot for your elaboration. I'll have to spend a little time digesting all that- are there any teachers / books / resources you've found particularly helpful in understanding these concepts? "The overall best (unspecific but universally applicable) meta-approach is to deeply understand the source of all conflicts." This is particularly profound- I've heard Shinzen Young talk about how awareness and equanimity erases micro-conflicts in each of the six senses, letting them flow freely instead of like viscous liquid. It makes a lot of sense. With awareness, everything seems to flow much more effortlessly.

@Wisebaxter I'll have to look into his stuff- I think the practical benefits of awareness are staggering and really not talked about much. "Life as Sport: What Top Athletes Can Teach You about How to Win in Life" and "The Practicing Mind: Bringing Discipline and Focus into Your Life" are in a similar vein to this book I'd assume. I'd recommend them.

Essentially, I feel like awareness, presence and detachment are transformative when applied to performance- and I'm trying to clarify that as best I can.