The White Belt

@krazzer Thanks, but we're going off topic here. It's not to do with meditation.

@krazzer I'm still meditating, 20 mins per day. Haven't missed a day in 7 months. Still getting a lot of intrusive thoughts. My theory is that it's coming up because I've started and it's that beginning resistance manifesting in the 'best' way it knows how. I feel if I keep plugging away and I get my mind to know i'm serious about this, then it will die off a bit. Right now it's a bit brutal, I can handle it, but i'm even having bad nightmares.

@Leo Gura Yes.

Hey guys. Looking at my past project failures I identify several issues that go with the failures, such as limiting beliefs, improper planning lack of clear vision etc. but the one I want to focus on here is an unwillingness to work hard. Currently I'm reading Arnold Schwarzenegger's biography, 'Total Recall', and something really jumped out at me, around the beginning, and that is Arnold's incredible work ethic. See, it wasn't when he started his Life Purpose that he began to work his ass off. He Dad seemed to have made him jump through rings of fire day in and day out, He started his first business at about age 15. Also his best friend Franco Columbu was forced to live alone in the wilderness several times as a kid, he had to gather his own food and look after himself just as a KID. Now in my life, I have a pretty poor job by my own standards. I work in a coffee shop/canteen and I don't really like it much so I don't put that much effort into it. I'm not too enthusiastic with my customers, I always go home on time, if not a little early, and generally I know that I can do a lot better and step up my game. I justify my poor work by saying, 'Yeah it's all good these guys (certain co-workers) are working harder than me, but when they get home, they'll be parked in front of the TV all night. I'll be meditating and self-actualizing, I need to reserve energy!). It's true to a certain degree, I do mediate and I do my reading and stuff, but it ain't like i'm grinding it out all through the night. I mean, my self-actualization is a bit murky and passive, like I don't work hard to master a certain area, I just get interested in certain parts, buy a few books, watch a few videos and move on. So yeah, I wouldn't call myself lazy, I work kinda hard at it, but I can grind it out so much more and get sick results, so this work on the evenings doesn't justify laziness elsewhere. So here my question; Does hard work sort of work as a kind of 'use it or lose it' phenomenon? Should I work hard in work, my hobbies, with my relationships as well, in order to have my work ethic spill over to use where I am really motivated to use it? Is work ethic something you can switch on and off ,or, do you have it or you don't have it? If I find my Life Purpose, will I suddenly be a hard worker, or should I start now, working hard even on small stuff? I hope you see what i'm getting at here. Thanks.

@Leo Gura Should I step my game up in all of my pursuits as a means to cultivate a real solid work ethic in my main pursuits? Sort of to make it spill over to all areas of my life?

Bump

Only when it's going well do I seem to consider it to be a LP potential. I've been acting for years but began to question if it's really for me. That's when I began the LP course. So I was doing the odd acting class whilst doing the LP course and looking through some other options. I narrowed my options to writing, photography, and acting. Tonight I went to an acting class, and told myself it would be the last one, and I would probably drop it as a potential LP. But then this happened; I worked through my fear of acting in front of others really well, I got in flow state whilst acting, and the others clapped after my performance and gave me high praise. So i've come out all elated, my mood is boosted, the world looks beautiful and now i'm considering it as one of the highest contenders. I think possibly it was always my LP, but I hit a nasty plateau that took all of my confidence and made it painful to act. I dunno what to make of this. It seems just because it went well it is now in the spotlight of my mind. This is gonna cause problems down the line, because i'll get into it, then photography or writing is gonna take over my priority when I hit a peak experience during one of them!! Even if they are just gonna be hobbies. Ehh, dunno. Advice?

What do you mean by proceeding without doing the daily practices? What daily practices? Acting related ones?

Just been checking out this guy Jordan Peterson. He seems real cool, I like his talks and he seems to be into a wide range of topics. One of the things he talks about a lot is setting goals and setting a coherent philosophy of life that you follow. I've been feeling a bit down lately and confused. I think it can be a lot to do with being so vague in life and this notion of 'paralysis by analysis'. But you have Osho on the other hand, who says if you set goals in life you will end up on a psychotherapists couch. This messes up my head. Am I confusing the contexts here? Not zooming between big and small picture? Whats going on here?

@David1 True man. The validation was like about, 'ooh look at me', and more about, 'hey, this is possible for me to do' @Leo Gura Thanks. That thought experiment helps a lot actually. I think I would come closer to loving it if I wasn't dwelling on my failure, because when I began acting I really did love it! It's all I used to think about. It's just after taking a few ego bruises that I started to doubt this.

@Dantas Thanks :-). Barcelona, Spain.

It's hard to answer these questions, because the suffering I feel as a result of limiting beliefs, conditioning, confidence issues makes it hard to love it per se. Yet something has brought me back to these classes all these years.

@Visitor Yes I think I have a fear of success. It's something to think about. I often get stupid thoughts like 'But, but, if i'm a busy actor, how will I have time to meditate'. Really dumb objections. I think I shy away from acting because it has TONS of resistance that comes with it when I think about it. Like ridiculous resistance. Convincing too. Meh

Great talk for you guys here. It's about Leonardo Da Vinci, the mastery process, and he briefly touches on non-duality at the end. This guy studied Da Vinci so much, that he was able to do amazing copies of his work, starting at just aged 11! Check it out.

@Steph1988 They were gifts from all over the world apparently. It just became a 'thing', rich people would send him more and more rolls royces. Nothing wrong with it. I doubt he lost sleep like neurotic people would, over the possibility of his cars being scratched outside.

@Juan Cruz Giusto Thanks dude,

My photography. Veeeery strong potential to be the avenue to express my life purpose. P.S, follow me if you have a Flickr acc. Let me know you did, and i'll follow back

@Leo Gura Haha! Seriously though, am I missing something here? I'm doing the LP course, I will need to make goals to get this of the ground, but these thoughts about letting it all flow is messing me up! @WelcometoReality I understand. Based on what you're saying, I guess it's context.

@egoeimai Haha. Then let us focus on the poison in our own selves, and not call the kettle black ;-)

@ajasatya Is this a claim to enlightenment? or by mastering, do you mean being in the process of mastery?

I don't know. Yeah, they might.

I live close to Manchester. When I heard the news, I wasn't shocked by it. It's happening so often nowadays. As sad as it is, let's not pretend these attacks are random. The British government have a history of being some of the most notorious terrorists around. Along with their friends, the American government. "The tables will turn, we can but stall them, every empire on this earth has fallen." - Akala (British Rapper).

Do thoughts come from the brain? I read somewhere that scientists will one day be able to tell what we are thinking, and that certain thoughts come from certain regions of the brain. Is this the case? If so how does it play into self-enquiry?

@Shanmugam hmmm. Sounds interesting. Thanks!

Have you had many breaks in your mindfulness practice, as in, missed days or weeks? Practiced? Is that past? Do you not practice it anymore? Did you do it daily in the past? @Shanmugam