UnbornTao

We already take action in spite of our fundamental ignorance, so your worry isn't warranted. What works doesn't have to be true in any existential sense - and it isn't, since it is an activity. Action is action. As long as it is effective, then it does its job when it comes to our daily living.

Is that true or a perspective you've adopted? Haven't you experienced wanting to help someone? Ever helped your grandma set up her phone? You fail to acknowledge that some people might want to make positive contributions to others, whether it is a word of acknowledgement, emotional support, or something else entirely. A teacher may genuinely want her students to learn while at the same time she's paid to do so. Even if the child doesn't learn much, she could still go through the motions rather than insisting on teaching.

No requisites, except getting it.

Shogun!

"Reality conspires to make you enlightened," or something like that, can't make good woo woo myself.

We may be out of luck.

Don't be reckless, guys, thinking that an extreme ascetic ritual will make you enlightened or some such. Occasional and moderate fasting may be physically and mentally beneficial, but if starving yourself for long periods got you enlightened, neanderthals would have started a renaissance. Certain practices may promote discipline and focus but no practice can produce awakening. So, be safe and reasonable out there.

Okay, you now can take a serious look into what each of them are. Regarding uncertainty, there might be a bit of superficiality and pretending with what you say in that it isn't bad but a profound condition that's the case already. We can go deeper with our uncertainty, making it real and palpable in our experience, not as a conclusion or intellectual artifice.

It's worthless and most likely hearsay, too, even to the sources from which you heard it. Tackle what being and experience are for real by contemplating them. It's no use explaining a simplistic phrase and confusing an intellectual conclusion with a genuine personal understanding of the reality or condition of something.

What do you mean by passing? I smell a belief system of some sort. In any case, whatever your state is, enjoy it.

What do you want? Why do you want it? Clarify that for yourself. Take at look at capacity. You can do stuff. What's actually stopping you? Ineffective behavior patterns such as intellectualizing, making up excuses and stories, falling into useless emotional states, etc, have to be dropped in favor of effective ones. Of course, thinking about it won't cut it. You need to perceive reality "objectively" and take appropriate action. Generate what works and is appropriate given your strategy and goal. You'll then have an overview of what might lie ahead of you. Step after step, consistently move towards your goal; remember to enjoy the process while you're at it. Notice whenever you've gone off course and failed and correct when necessary, and instantly make use of feedback.

Opportunism might be the antithesis of integrity.

What about a cooking contest? Or a race?

The ability to actualize - to make real - could be called mastery.

What's for dinner?

Rather than resisting difficult situations or seeing them as obstacles to avoid, view them as challenges--struggles that can open the door to opportunities and lessons, if you pay attention to what you're doing and making corrections.

What does a powerful presence entail and what does it take to develop it? Create a contrast between people with vitality and "zombies." Why do we fear vitality in the first place?

When you hold life as merely a pragmatic matter, it can diminish - and even undermine - your experience of vitality, intimacy, creativity, and all the other things that make life worth living.

Be increasingly honest and uncover your motives, assumptions, reactions, etc: What is my experience of X really about? Why do I behave the way I do? What is this (emotion, thought, feeling)? Is it true?

You're welcome.

"Life is a bitch and then you die."

Should have titled them "The Buddhist Myth" and "Meditation For Rats".

@Yimpa Has it already rolled out?

My first cup after having quitted for a couple weeks was one of the best ones I've ever have. Pollan drinks once a week, if I recall correctly. That might be a good option for you.