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@Leo Gura Woo! Always look forward to these updates. Some of the books on the list have completely changed my life. It's such a great resource because there's so many books out there to choose from. It becomes a task in itself just trying to figure out which books to buy, so you've saved me a lot of time.

@mia_lea Pretty sure that most dogs can be trained to behave how you want them to, given enough time and training. There'll always be exceptions but it's likely that if you just keep training the dog properly then it'll start to change its behaviour. Make sure that you are training it properly though. Hire a dog trainer if necessary.

@Slade Just finished watching the movie and it was awesome!

@Hard_Agent Just keep practising!

Why is the retreat outside during the Winter?? Seems a bit odd. If there's no way around it, I guess my advice would be to try to use it to your advantage and be very mindful of/observe your aversion towards any physical discomfort. And you should probably wear some thermal clothing.

@Ether Retreats are awesome. At least so far all my retreats have been. I can't wait to go for another. It's so nice to have the time and freedom to spend all day meditating without having to worry about anything. If you do manage to go on retreat, count yourself lucky and don't half-ass it. Not many people have the luxury to be able to do something like that.

I think super human level AGI will come much sooner than we expect. I'm almost 100% certain of that. It's not going to take like 50 years, that's silly. I'm certainly an optimist when it comes to AI stuff, but I think they'll be some unbelievable breakthroughs within the next 10-20 years. Ben Geortzel's Singularity Net is, as far as I know, the most promising development in building a true AGI. That's being fully released next year. It's a de-centralised system that will connect together potentially thousands and thousands of different individual AI programs that all talk and communicate to one another, ultimately making one big AGI. And the key point is that if you submit an AI and it gets used by a company on the other side of the planet, you get paid for it! So it's a system that will encourage more and more people to start building AIs. I think when it takes off a whole new industry of independent AI developers will emerge. It'll be like the App Store but for AI programs. It won't be a few tech companies trying to build an AGI and doing all the work themselves like it is now. It'll be an open project constantly being added to by anyone who can write a decent AI and wants to make some money.

Outline is a good alternative for those of you who use Mac and want to properly store your files locally. http://outline.ws/mac

@Drsamy I can't really offer too much advice but one thing I would say is that because your kids are still quite young there's still a chance to change their habits and their values etc. Have you've watched Leo's video on raising kids? That should provide you with lots of ideas.

@Principium Nexus I've experimented with NoFap quite a bit over the past year or two and i've gone long periods without doing it. But i'm skeptical as to whether it really produces the dramatic results that so many guys claim it does. Maybe it does for some, but for me there was no significant improvement. However, I still do believe that people should cut down on the amount of PMOing they do. My theory is that it's the porn addiction which causes the main issues, not the masturbation or even the orgasm. Watching porn every day almost certainly does some sort of damage. Who knows how serious it could be. But I also don't think its an addiction to the porn itself, but rather the dopamine rush you get when watching it. It's like you're forcing the brain to un-naturally produce dopamine, which can't be good. I don't believe that masturbation and orgasm are inherently bad for you, but you probably shouldn't be doing it every day.

If you want more iron just eat lots of beans and lentils. You'll need to supplement B12 on a vegan diet because it's very very difficult to get enough from just a plant based diet.

@Max_V @Toby Oh right, thanks. I'd probably get the ferry over to France and then drive up. I think the martial arts stuff is run by someone else, and the contemplative workshops are done by Peter, but I could be wrong. This is from this years intensive, and it says 'with Peter Ralston' :http://www.chenghsin.nl/Holland Camp 2017 - CI brochure.pdf

Yea that's what I did but the Mac version (2016) doesn't let you store notebooks on your computer. All other Microsoft programs allow local storage, except OneNote. The only option is on a OneDrive cloud. Sucks!

@Max_V Nice one! I had no idea Peter did workshops in Amsterdam. I live in the UK so this is wayy more convenient for me. Still expensive but much less so seeing as I wont have to buy plane ticket etc. I reeally want to attend the Contemplation Intensive and Workshop. I'm gonna drop them an email and ask a few questions so i'll find out if it's actually Peter who runs them.

@egoless There are next to no cases of people having any sort of sever brain damage from taking mushrooms. They're not some dodgy research chemical mixed with god knows what. They're plants! Although of course anything in excess may damage to the body. When it comes to psychedelics I don't think you'd want to do it more than once a month. But what you'll notice, when you take them, is that you have no desire to take them again any time soon. Particularly if you do fairly high doses. It's almost like they have a built in system which makes you want to take a break and integrate what you've learnt.

Just installed OneNote to see what its like, but found out you can't store your files locally (i.e. on your hard drive) if you're on Mac. Not sure that i'd want to rely on OneDrive to keep all my notes etc.

Well it just depends on whether the person understands whats being said. Saying 'murder is neither right or wrong' can be interpreted in two ways. If you told that to a mentally ill person they probably wouldn't get it and would take it as a licence to go and kill someone. But the average person will see that just because something is absolutely true (there is no good or bad) doesn't mean that on the relative level there is no good and bad.

Understanding that murder is not inherently evil doesn't mean you disregard the idea on the relative level. You can hold both as true at the same time without changing anything. It's both 'true' that murder is evil, and it's also true that it is not evil/bad. Just because someone knows that murder is not evil, does not in any way mean that they will then go and murder someone.

@AlwaysBeNice Yea according to Jan Esmann she's the most enlightened being on the planet. He said she's in a permanent state of what he calls Shiva Consciousness (completely merged with the Blue Being). He also said that when he went to hug her, her love was so strong and 'thick' that it felt like you could cut it with a knife.

Yea this weeks episode has definitely cleared a few things up. I realised i've been falling into the trap of skipping through things that I assume i'm not that strongly identified with, which may be one of the reasons the process was becoming mechanical. Need to be more thorough in my approach I think. I actually had a pretty intense mushroom trip a few days ago, but I can't say it helped me with my inquiry in any direct way. It was more of a deep emotional release. I'll definitely be working with AL-LAD and 5-Meo in the coming months though. I did do a week long Mahasi retreat about 2 weeks ago. Wasn't focused on self-inquiry though, of course. I assume you're recommending doing a retreat specifically for self-inquiry/observation?

When I say 2 hours a day I mean do two 1 hour sessions of concentration, or 4 sessions of 30 minutes if you find that easier. You can break it up however you want really, but doing just 1 minute a day isn't going to get you anywhere. What Leo reccommended is definitely a good approach, but I wouldn't start with 1 minute. I'd start with atleast 10 minutes, maybe more. The whole point of concentration is to just keep bringing your attention back to the object again and again and again. The longer you spend doing that the better.

Hey Leo, Recently my self-observation feels very stale, repetitive and quite mechanical. For the first 6-9 months of the practice it seemed like I was making a lot of progress, having small insights all the time and genuinely really enjoying it. The process felt quite easy and was rarely the same from day to day. But recently I feel like I’ve hit a wall and the same questions and thoughts keep coming up. It’s like I’m just going through the motions, even when I really try to move away from it. I don’t know if this is good sign or not, but it’s having an effect on my motivation to keep practicing. I do still put aside atleast 45 mins to an hour a day, which is much less than I used to do. It’s tough going and there’s a lot of resistance. Any advice?

@Ilya If you really want to improve your concentration you're gonna have to do more than 1 minute a day. Try doing 2 hours a day for a year. You've also got to throw out any ideas of what you think is 'progress'. Give up any ideas of what you think 'good' concentration is, because otherwise you'll just be judging your meditation and likely give up when it isn't going the way you think it should. Also give up any desire to not have any thoughts, or for the mind to wander during your concentration practise. Realise that it is completely natural for this to happen, and it will happen a lot. It will take many many hundreds of hours of focused practise to get to a point where thoughts don't distract you. Don't criticise yourself in any way when your 'focus feels random'. Just accept it and re-focus back onto the meditation. See it as an inevitable part of the process. You may want to try a different meditation object as well (for concentration). The sensations of the breath at the nose, the sensations of the abdomen or the sound of your breath are all good objects. The metronome works well too. Find what is easiest for you and stay with that object like a rabid dog.

Well said!