Zephyr

Yes. All of us are enlightened. Most of us don't 'know' it.

@Joe Schmoe What is worth pursuing?

Tolerance and acceptance of self Awareness

NOTHING. The rabbi entered the temple early. Not a soul was about. He gravitated towards the ark, opening it to marvel at the beauty of the torahs inside. He heard the creak of a door behind him, and saw from the corner of his eye that the cantor was entering the temple. Immediately the rabbi fell to his knees before the ark and in a fervent voice cried out, "O Lord, I am nothing!" He repeated this prayer in mantra-like fashion as the cantor approached. The cantor, impressed with this show of piety, dropped to his knees beside the rabbi and joined with him in prayer. Together they chanted: "O Lord, I am nothing! O Lord, I am nothing!" The door at the rear of the temple creaked once again. This time it was the janitor entering the temple, curious to find out the source of the singing he had heard while mopping the halls. He was so awe-struck by the scene that he threw down his mop and ran beside the rabbi and cantor to join them. He too knelt before the ark and added his voice to the simple prayer: "O Lord, I am nothing! O Lord, I am nothing!" After a minute of this, the cantor leaned over and nudged the rabbi with his elbow. Pointing to the janitor, the cantor snickered with disdain in a low voice, "Hey, look who thinks he's nothing!"

You can do 1 hour meditation every Sunday. If you have not, check out strong determination sitting. For a beginner it's going to be more struggling with thoughts than mediating but try it. *the video is called Meditation in Steroids

If I can go back in time I would tell myself not to think of meditation as a doing as it is more about feeling rather than something you 'do' I would tell myself to stop thinking too much about "wow, can't wait till meditation will give me results X and Y." "I've meditated for 30 days straight 20 minutes a day. Where are my results?" What meditation means to me now is just being mindful. I wash dishes slowly. I wash the car slowly. To go deeper, you actually might want to stop moving physically and sit down. From personal experience it is way easier to be mindful of thoughts flowing while sitting physically still. Though laying down can be distracting. Also have something to lean back on. Talking to someone? I tried talking, you almost have to talk really really slow. It's just too distracting. I'd say don't talk to anybody while meditating.

@charlie2dogs @Ayla @Mal

Get a large one. We're sharing.

How could it be flat or not when in present consciousness, there is even no such thing as an 'Earth' to begin with?

Creating another illusion doesn't hurt. You've been doing it your whole life. In fact that 'illusion' is great for fuel to take you in great heights. 1 engulfs 2. 1 is feeling, 2 is doing. So they don't oppose each other, at least from my personal experience. Maybe you think that meditation and awareness is 'doing' cause I use to think that.

I am. Always been. Always be.

@Extreme Z7 wait, that's not evidence. All I see are flashing pixels that resemble a bald man that is synchronized with the random noises my speakers make.

My advice is appreciate the beauty of all it, man.

If he is manipulating us through producing really valuable & high quality contents for FREE, then I say he keep it up^_^ Makes me think that Leo himself is the one who is being manipulated--- by higher desires.

Idk about you but from personal experience what really causes to to become selfish is through not loving & accepting myself. If you accept and love yourself it's going to be hard to be unkind towards others.

In my parents basement of coarse. where else?^_^hbu?

If I was in Leo's shoes I would definitely just make a separate domain for the forum and give all products for free.

"A badass grows more valuable with every passing day. The most attractive men in the world are more valuable today than they were yesterday, and will be more valuable tomorrow than they are today. If you are constantly improving, always growing both personally and professionally, and taking steps every day towards becoming exactly who you want to be as a man, you will be irresistibly attractive to women." Tao of Badass, Josh Pellicer My name is Zypher, 16 yrs old I've been really fascinated by the idea of masculinity and femininity. I decided to grow to become more masculine. I don't know where to start really and I don't know where's this journey going to take me or how long it's going to be. But eventually we'll figure it out. I'm excited. This journal is just about general self improvement which will also focus on masculinity (I don't think I'll be talking about girls). I won't be covering life purpose, I'm going to be focusing on building a foundation -- pretty much standing up on my feet. Issues: - Masturbation/Porn Addiction: I think this is a huge one for me. It's not just masturbation it's unhealthy masturbation. - Gaming addiction: Causes suffering most of the time. - Maladaptive Daydreaming: Fantasizing, daydreaming. Takes up a lot of my time. This includes mental masturbation. A little bit of theories here and there are good. Obsession with girls is something to stay away from. - General distractions: Aimlessly dancing, being on social media when I don't have to, etc. - Procrastination: This had been biting me in the ass for years, until now. But I still can be potentially become a procrastinator. - Anxiety: Social anxiety and not feeling comfortable with others. Some girls can cause me anxiety. Public speaking causes me anxiety. There are certain things that causes me anxiety. - Boredom: Another low conscious state. It happens when I try to fix my addictions. Only happens when I'm low conscious though. - Being Judgmental: It's a pain in the ass. See I'm already judging. - Dishonesty: This one is huge. Really important to work on. Areas I'm going to be focusing on: - Work Ethic: Developing a good work ethic. That means doing your work with the best of your abilities. Eliminating procrastination and addictions. - Consistency: Having a routine is really important. Consistency plays a huge part with developing good habits - Surrendering: It might sound feminine, but I think this quite important. Surrendering I think is a root for confidence, assertiveness, and expression -- which are masculine traits. - Honesty: This is a no brainier. - Being Positive: ^__^

I went down the valley for a while. While it is not very fun to live in misery and suffering it is also something to be greateful for. Since suffering and life itself really is your teacher. While on downward trend I learned some stuffs, and became a little more aware. Concepts/Things I learned from Sufferings: 1. Depression: it only happens when I have resistance while in recovery state. Resistance + Recovery State = Depression. When your body becomes fatigue and your mind goes black and white this is when what I call 'Recovery State' starts.. For me it can last for weeks. I think it's a mechanism that puts us in economy state to conserve energy. This is for you to recover from the backfire you created through excessive exertion of will power, brute forcing, beating yourself, neurotic motivation, etc. This forces us stop Resistance. Resistance is pretty much the 'shoulds' and 'ought to be' that creates this conflict. The more resistance we have and the less awareness we have the more suffering we will likely experience. Especially for a person who don't meditate. When in Recovery State one should be aware of ones resistance. From personal experience recovery state just put me into involuntary awareness/meditative state. For people who never done meditation before this might be a different experience for them. They might add more layers of resistance since they are afraid of not thinking, not doing and just being. This only makes recovery state stronger, and then if one has low awareness the resistance will get also become stronger. This is why when I am depressed I play a lot of video games and masturbate to escape the recovery state which only is inviting me to the present moment -- to stop doing and just be. So this is suffering at it's finest. Eventually this leads to suicidal thoughts unless if awareness is shone to the conflict. Deep inside we all want to choose recovery state over resistance. This is why you can't just go up to a person who has depression and say "just cheer up" because that's not Recovery, that is Resistance. We no longer want to be happy (superficially) but we want to be happy. This is why that person just want to be left alone if he/she is not understood and accepted. Saying "cheer up" just pisses that person. We, as a society are just conditioned to Resistance. This is why depression is not rare in our society. This is why when someone is depressed we must choose understanding and presence rather than trying to fix the external problem that is causing the 'depression' ... Deep inside we want to be more intergrated rather than our problems fixed. Recap: When someone is depressed deep inside they want to be happy not to be superficially happy. That was cool experience being in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. A little bit of insight.

I watch porn. I procrastinate. Sometimes I meditate. I watch Breaking Bad. Pretty basic/fundamental stuffs. That's how you do it, man.

I like to play video games. I have an agreement I got to live by though. I abide 100 distraction / 50 meditation rule. I spend 30 minutes playing video games I do 15 minutes of meditation. I watch Breaking Bad which takes 48 minutes I meditate for 24 minutes. No stacking up meditation minutes, finish meditation first before the next distraction session..