ValiantSalvatore

@Leo Gura Yes, please I can discuss this with a political science major. They learn a lot about history and sociology + statistics. Very curious!!

@lmfao Yes, I listened to the audiobook the science of enlightenment from shinzen yesteday, he explains the big picture of contemplative practices in the last two chapters. He has a friend who has done shamanic rituals or native american ones. Doing sun dances etc. he explains for instance due to onerous life conditions it was easier to enter state-stages. It was not uncommon to enter into Samadhi while they played the drums, their minds settled into the spiritual experience with less resistence, than a moderner, who afterwards will still struggle with a racing mind (not sure if the term exists) because of the complex demands of a modern society. There is a ton of nuance. I don't understand most of it yet, I want to read about samskaras for now. I have the big picture, yet the devil is in the details... as so often.

Alright, Day 2: As I said I will write weekly ideally daily, yet that won't happen. Since this is not something I strive for. This will be another outlet. Yet, once a week is a good number to go for. I noticed since I used an App to block sites such as Actualized.Org, Facebook and other social media sites. I use my phone a lot. Also, I pretty much only visit Actualized.org sometimes I ask myself if I've become to centric around personal development. Especially, the theory part and being distracted by theory. Actions I took today: I studied approx for 4h only, which surprises me without classes. I did 3 study session each 45min for a project in Java and two study session for another project. I had only one class today. Yet, I slept really long since I am having setbacks when going back and forth between going home on weekends occasionally waking up in the morning. The guys above me are lunatics in the dorm 10-6 people in a single appartment and the guy lives with his girlfriend apparently. Last time I called the cops and informed myself about my rights since I am not dealing with their horseshit/bullshit/shit. I also, saw this as an opportunity to exercise assertiveness. Since according to the law I have to first talk with the person about it or talk with the landlord which I did both. I am so happy that this hysterical asshole who comes by is gone because I called the cops at 3 am, I'll do it again gladly. It is not okay to deprive others of sleep, because of noises. This already shows me that I am still materialistic I want to live in a house again, an apartment is quite annoying, there is just more silence. Sure this is relative, yet living so close with "strangers" is odd, maybe that is the reason many Germans live in houses regardless where they are at. The class today was okay, we learned more stuff about PHP and Web-based programming. I dislike the topic a lot though, yet I am also interested since it would provide myself a platform where I could offer something. Yet, there are so many tools and programming ? languages ? which create templates such as typo 3 and such IIRC. I am also quite hyped to meet my favorite prof ideally next week and getting a key to his "research" laboratory which is just a room full with android based stuff and health and fitness related technologies. For instance, Nvidia shield and programming that stuff, I mean he is self-thought and has a degree in arts and marketing, still he speaks 5 languages, he was in the hospital last week. Anything else that was insightful or that I wanted to post today? I wanted to post my survival list and I am thankful that Leo framed it that way, I always thought of it as living not survival. I also wanted to read the post about samskaras, yet I am missing my bedtime. So here I go with the list. Currently, I feel only the competent survive the rest is thrown away Why have/do certain things persits and not others ? (Survival Video Leo) To maintain for instance, skills, relationships, family, systems of surving (look at self-help) Balance ressources Stopping overconsumption Insights Breaking barries, poltical, cultural ( if nothing would persist there would be nothing to break) Decision making, choosing the correct path Trusting intuition, heart self, gut feelings Abillty to persits through life circumstances Meeting emotional needs in hard times Able to follow through with plans and goals, visions. Not giving up, or making the right call and quit Asking for competent advice Dismissing trolls,negativity,hater, toxic stuff Strong bonds (Manipulation) (Scheming) (Lying) (Playing victim) (Playing innocent) (Acting naive) (Domination) Being Assertive Proactive Differntiating from what is important and urgent and what is not important and not urgent Knowing what one wants Accepting responsiblity Dealing with ones lower self Abillity to compete Abillity to produce results Abillity to study for long times Abillity manage projects/situations/people Taking breaks Maintaing and working on relationships Making neccessary phone calls Planning neccessary dates, events, family activities, down-time Knowing the how to's and why's and hows. Questioning asking Just do it Cutting off the right people Mentors Teachers Guides Books Abillity to deal with self-deception Controlling impuslive behaviours Understanding emotions Being emotionally unreactive The opposite of survival is? Decadence Overly self-critical Not seeing survival as a game Not seeing survival as a necessity Not improving ones chance to survive Not investing in oneself Sticking with addictions Not breaking bad habits Not cultivating positive habits Being unaware Eating shitty food Complacency Projection Hatred ( breeds desire to kill ? ) Having and keeping enemies Wasting time Not investing time in the things one wants Negative self-talk Heavy Drugs Overconsumption of entertainment Ideology ( in the name of and in the name against survival) Dogma Illness Accidents Feeding fears Creating negative self-fulfilling prophecies Shitty food Shitty habits Shitty water Shitty sleep Shitty thinking Not building skills Constant overstimulation tv, sex, masturbation, video games, movies, food, soda Staying in contact with complacent people, hateful, spiteful, aggressive, ignorant etc. Not building financial independence Building a life where one needs to struggle to survive Not taking opportunity and chances Always avoiding risks Being unpolite Bein overly polite Sucking on drama/latching onto Feeding of your parents without trying to make/create smth. Carrer, vision, etc. Not becoming independent Overcoming dependencies Becoming interdependent Myopia Sticking to one's rigid identity Not realizing god Not realizing true self, no self Not accessing transcending needs (if they exist) Being passive-aggresive Limiting beliefs Neglecting performance Meditation Yoga Accessing state-stages Accessing subtle,causal,non-dual realams Cleaning chakras (Cultivating a mind-body relationship) Not informing oneself about post survival stuff Accepting reincarnation theories (nirvana/samsara) Accepting the content of dreams Considering sidhis Pursuing enlightenment Neglecting enlightenment Jhanas or states of high concentration/forms of absorptions IIRC Psychedelics Rituals self-destruction self-sabotaging What would be characteristics of modern day survival? Who survive somethings and not others? Industriouness Cutting of distractions Autodidact Emotional Mastery Mindful Skillful Entrepreneurial (knows how to earn money) Skill-based Networking / Relationships Getting rid of toxic humans and relationships Planning Vision Cooking Book Smarts Psychology, Programming, Cooking, Spirituality, Biology/Nutrition, Management, Finance, Trading, Raising a family/child Social Skills Charisma knowing how to sell him or her self. Destroying negative habits Forming positive habits Meditation Reducing Stress Exercise Clothes (as superficial as this is) Speech Family (unfortunately true) Positive thinking Generating positivity Generosity Competence Language skills (at least English) Nurturing friendships Financial Independence (Cryptocurrencies) Offering a product or service (coaching, consulting, a book, an app, a website, offering skills) Abiding to principles Discipline Strategic intent Hobbies which fulfill Maslow pyramid getting recognition and self-esteem, potential partners, relationships, sex, emotional security, creative outlet, Awareness Uniqueness(Gifts, talents, predispositions) Basic survival needs Food (right kinds of foods) Water (right kind of water) Shelter (right kind of environment) Political Awareness Education Country (State) Religion Hormones (?) Breathing (considering pollution) Quality air Sunlight exposure Visiting doctors, dentists other rapists. Inner Game Positive self-talk Energy management Managing subtle addictions coffee, sugar, ravenousness, Attitude How to approaches Asking questions Finding competent people Dealing with toxic people Life experience ( travel, age, country, religion, family, state, language, culture, projects, talents, hobbies, gifts) Company Department Housing, Apartment, flat Predispositions, illnesses, trauma, mental illness, Friendships (Travelling for modern day survival) Sleep 7-8h Constant learning Virtues Group/friends/company with similar virtues (Enlightenment for trans-post-integral-post-survival or meta survival) Persistence Endurance Ability to deal with hardships Knowing how to deal with depression Things I did not finish from the notes I have taken. Survival can be fun! There is nothing just or fair about it is just survival Model is wrong: Survival at the micro level -> planning of planning -> adding of adding -> sleeping of sleeping -> routine before bed -> planning the whole week and checking in or planning each day -> keeping options open -> throwing in my two cents -> using the actualized.org forum Check how it adds your survival: Also, check that it is important to your survival. What is unique to your self-image What is that ghost Drama is survival in action If I want to relieve from that become a master of understanding survival Survival is suffering To stall out the clock Unique demands of your ghost: Who does it want? What threatens it Who does it want to be? Observe your self-surviving Macro survival strategies -> weekly planning Intellectual worldviews and ideas I am attached to What is survival of survival ? -> The process of survival ? What is my life is not survival? I can't really address every point otherwise I'd be spending an hour thinking about this minimum. Yet, I saw a guy yesterday in the cafeteria wearing a shirt with the nike logo upside down saying I can't do this. And it looked like a sarcastic smile or some sort of mustache that is sarcastic and it reminded me that humor definitely is fun! I truly miss extroverted people who can help me get out of my shell otherwise I am stuck with a constant conception of the concept of planning. I also looked into master programs today, and I was surprised that I still have a lot of options open. Also, I did not find much about the thing I want to dive deeper into. I am not sure if I want to dive into robotics without testing any of it. I took an A.I class on my voluntarily, the math behind how he explained it was not that difficult, yet it took some time to get back into it. Tomorrow I will go there again, even if I said that I would not go last journal entry and I even wrote a mail to him because I asked him for an exercise sheet I did not receive. There was more, yet I would need the necessary time or good questions to come up with it again. Here my resume for today. What I learned today and what I wanted to improve + changes. Do another 30-day challenge with the whiteboard and stick with that Currently, I want to do more deep work and thought conceptually about it and did some stuff, this is so important as programmer engineer etc. That I want different approaches, I definitely utilize the journalist approach mentioned in the book. Workout tomorrow, this habit is so solid, I am surprised going to the gym or jogging 5 times a week. Vitamin C and Iron are live savers in the morning I still suck with being more extroverted. Now I am gone! The 30 day challenge will be either cold showers, visualizations, or cbt. Since, I can't stick with these currently. There is more. So, another time another entry.

@lmfao Dissolving the self would be accessing the true self or no self. Both are the same. You would become a stream enterer. Your sense and view of identity would vanish completely. There are many interesting maps. I always liked to do this as a kid, to lool at world maps geographie and stuff like this. It is relative in a sense, yet this is where the most likly highly advanced or "god" like nuance lies. For instance one problem Leo mentioned in his audioreview (new) of the thyroid book, was adressed yesterday by shinzen. The guy had the same problem with cold hands and feet and shinzen told him that it is a "sign" of one of the deepest stages. The guy also had a very good meditation routine of 1h and 30min. Most do 30min to 20min. So, in contrast he grew very fast and did the work!!

@lmfao it is most likely good to read about state-stages. Spiral dynamics is about value structutes less moral codes, but value codes. Which drive differences which is very similar, but less judgment based and more behaviour based imo. I can't personally distinguish the two very well. For e.g Imagine a shaman being fully enlightend (I did not read the Carlos Castaneda books but he was an antrhopologist being initiated into the modalities of being a shaman) He would still be attached to magical thinking the sun is the holy spirit of the reincarnation of god Z. Live in a tribe that is polyamorous and where multiple women take care of multiple infants, so one women in the tribe cares about 2-3, for e.g, infants till they are adults and can go hunting. Still it is one big family in a tribe sense. Reading about jhanas could help to have an idea of enlightenment experiences or technically, states of absorption independent of "structure" development in the moral or values line. Also, people have a gravity where they are centered according to wilber for instance your gravity can be turqouise and 50% of your responses will come from that stage 33% from a stage higher and one stage lower. Also a person/human/creature/ etc. has one "subset" gravity. Excuse my wording. So, you gravity circles around on stage, yet you draw back heavly from another which is your "go to" substage or the bread and butter substage lol. This is what I read and can recall. Correct me in case there is an error, im open for feedback in general.

@CreamCat Alright I'll definitely download the app again to reduce blue light. Thank you for the tips!

@CreamCat is there anything important to know about the circadian rhythm? I know about rem sleep, deep sleep, light sleep phases etc. Also, that rem sleep is the phase were the body recovers the most and also dreams. The phase usually lasts 20 min. About the circadian rhythm I know that it adjust to the exposure of sunlight/artifical light? Are there any things to know about the circadian rhythm? I also read that melatonin is reduced when exposed to light and Serotonin is produced therefore, one should darken the room. Also, most likely why.. the light switch in the smart room, is so effective. I have difficulties in the morning to get started, since I am not doing cold showers anymore... Eating nuts before going to sleep is supposed to be also good to produce melatonin, I read that on the forum IIRC.

@CreamCat What's your take on different sleep styles like polyphasic or bi-phasic sleep? https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319425.php https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/polyphasic I tried it for a month or longer two months or so this year, but relatively unsuccessful. Is it healthy? I tried advice from a book saying that you want to find your magic number which is around 7h and 10 min for me of sleep. Is it feasible in the long term to do smth. Like this ? I listened to someone yesterday explaining that he transcended his body. He had a lot of energy or "flow" and therefore did not need a lot of sleep. This is also what I heard about bodhisattvas.

Some things I find unnessecary, yet they could have deleted unconscious habits. The techniques not, different procedures yes, since I am not used setting up a book in that way and then going through it. Even if it makes sense.

@CreamCat @Leo Gura @Leo Gurart@Leo Gura i cant delte the tags with my phone... Around 1300+ wpm with techniques. Around 400+ without.

@whoareyou I read the article last week about Mooji, also about Robert August Masters cult. I was a bit disapointed that Mooji has sex scandals as so many gurus. The latter seems even more insane to me. Punishing children wearing diapers, having multiple partners, slamming someones head against something + a lot more violence. The article can be found on GuruMag.

@Leo Gura Yes, I can see what is meant. I feel that it is possible to speed read a couple of books and re-read them doing the speed reading techniques. This is what the book is about comprehension and speed. Also, underlining for re-reading saves time for a great book. I still can learn a lot from the speed reading techniques. I don't know to what extend you "amped" up the wpm to test speed reading. To say that you read normally. Also, not sure how fast normal is for you, some just read fast and say it is normal. Like around 800-1200 wpm. When something is important I slow down. I can see how nuanced that is and I take notes always. Besides when reading in bed. Or some more contemplative books. For e.g speed reading the dao de jing won't provide much value I re-read a couple of books on the list again to gain more comprehension and understanding.

@Joseph Maynor What about jhanas or high states of "absorptions"? I did not transcend any aspect mentioned, but just listened to someone who transcended his body. In presence + feedback from a highly competent teacher.

Reading the map would be helpful, yet nobody cares again. For all stages of enlightenment, in case someone is interested in that. Otherwise these individual subjective experiences sound confusing, yet could create meaning.

Here is the whole map explaining stages of enlightenment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_enlightenment. How buddah framed it. The view described above sounds like stream entry or no self, true self.

I think intuition is accesible at every stage of the spiral. The more I become conscious of survival tactics, strategies and dynamics. The better I could utilize them and transcend them slowly. For instance purple imagination and beliefs describe the territory in an abstract way and can be a guide therefore. Or red power drives ideas and hunches serve to outmanouver a person in a game. Orange success drive and ambition spotting "loop" holes in a system absuing them or reporting them. Beige: Different brain waves cause different kind of thinking intuitive or not. For instance more attentivness then dreamy imaginary "intuition". Yellow: connects single points of modalities or ideas and forms an unconventional system. I think at third tier first intuition is post survival or it is a new survival game. Green: Uses intuition to bond an share empathy not based soley on kinship or family tribes. For instance compassion to help a person across the street, for instance the elderly. Turqouise: Has insights about humanitry problems for instance after a meditation session and finds macro solutions to macro problems. No idea about spirit releam. I think terms like "makio" is stage red/purple fantasy (not that it can not be experienced), most likely I am wrong with this.

@Leo Gura Do you use the speed reading techniques described from the book in the booklist about speedreading ? What do you personally think or feel about speed reading in general?

That is unfortunate... is it possible to reduce that? I never checked smth. like this yet did a small haemogram this year. They said I have iron deficency, so I am taking supplements. My family has some unfortunate cases with alzheimers diseas, fortunately meditation prevents that. So.. I am trying to convince my mom to do meditation, but she does a lot of sports. Biking, swimming, jogging. The classics basically.

@Shiva Does cholesteroal not increase the probability for a heart diseases or attacks or is it not a root cause for it? I looked into that because I sometimes eat eggs after training to get some protein. Is there good and bad cholesteroal? Similar to simple and complex carbs?

@kieranperez I am going to be a bit pedantic or nitpicky, you wrote deactivated did you delete the apps or deactivate only the notifications? I started using IG this year and it became a distraction and now it is time to focus, so I deleted the app. I did not use it and have no incentive to do so. Considering how much time people spend on their phones a nice small tip that helps me is to turn my phone to silent. I dislike getting messages when listening to audiobooks,also turning of notifications of apps that are not important and urgent. I listened to a ted talk once where they mentioned the root cause for addiction is lack of social interactions and bondings. In case you can meet up with people which would enhance your life quality that would help. It would also aid with being more mindful of the addiction itself. This is smth. I struggle with, yet this small town is also just crap. If you can exchange the habit with reading that would be great or some other positive activity. Also, when you did the LP consider doing the exercise again on breaking bad habits. Worked for me with video games. Then you'll also notice your own incentives to turn towards the habit of social media usage. I still heavily use Youtube. In case you have a TV you can sell that crap, a couple of succesful people recommended to me. They keep it to test stuff and watch the news, potentially a film or so. I do not own a TV currently. Phone is a bit more tricky? I broke my phone a couple of times and used a old one which just breaks the need to use it. Also... I want to constantly pratice meditation in daily life, so I actually enjoy nature a lot more and use walking as a pratice. In case that could be helpful. It's way more fascinating to look at details and symbols inside a city, or landscapds. The question here could be how do I not end up as them? I don't like how people are glued to their phones, in case you've ever been to asia this is a whole new level.... enjoying nature and using some tools for instance webblocker which blocks a site for a specific time works just wonders..

@kieranperez I am sure I get what is meant with projecting even on a physical level and energetic / attraction level. For instance when I feel into this pain in the solar plexus or breath I instantly get goose bumps over my whole body. Sometimes events occure where I think, jup that was definitely the old me attracting that stuff. (on whatever level) Yes for me it is the same it felt very difficult to create these feelings and they still do, the easiest thing I found is excitment that is even an advicr given in a course about learning. To reinterpret fear as excitment, kinda let's you feel like a compeptitve psychopath or rather a crazy creative student during exams. Still, this is what I just noticed now I also did on the cushion. So, dunno if that "insight" could bear any fruits. So, yes the feeling is tainted/touched/sullied by these samskaras constantly, they influence thinking, feeling and behaviour that is somewhat fk'd part about it. My release was ultra spontaneous, even LSD did not make me feel this spot so intensly, even when I also cried during an LSD experience heavily. I heard a sound during the retreat snap there it goes. Happend two times out of my own incapability (this was the thought behind it) of taking care of my mother properly and most likely the "imprinted" madness of it all that runs as a script inside my skull, often. At least these were my thoughts. Considering yoga thanks for the information! I have not looked deeply into it, yet I assumed that it goes deeper, since they use chakras as their system. Hope this will be fun. Especially the yoga life style and feelings inside th body. Also, yes I talk a lot about Shinzen. He mentions that feelings is the biggest unconsciousness factor, from these three things. Sound, image, feeling. So, I was triggered by sound. Not sure what happens by image or feeling. Sound is the "shallowest" then image then feel in consideration of their unconscious depth. I hope my text is readable or cohesive enough. CBT definitely helps with limiting beliefs and attracting/being triggered by these circumstance. For instance feeling unworthy or questioning my "loveabillity" or my tendency to blame and taking on responsibility. All of this changed I can understand that you want to skip this part, I would not dismiss it, and work directly on a deeper and more profound lvl on it. I can tell after the release I am less triggered about stuff that is about my persona/ego-self or simply me. Also, shadow work helps me not to project onto others very much, people love to do this with me for what ever reason. (i could come up with a few), somehow I am less aware of these subtle projections, and definitely less affected. Most likely people stop projecting potentially since I am actually embodying the behaviour denied. Or I am just less triggered. I stayed with some basic self-help stuff since this is what I could utilize with the ressources presented here. Some of this stuff is quite insane that it is free. When I see a psychotherapist would offer it and used it in the past

@CreamCat One is enough most likely

@CreamCat Yes, I saw that. The books that are rated high are still on the first page. Also, the book from Leo's booklist.

@kieranperez Yes, this is where shinzens approach shines imo, yet I did not approach any other system fully yet. I tried various techniques. Besides Kriya Yoga, yet I really want to get into Hatha-Yoga for the same reasons as you to open up the body and trauma repressed emotions in the body. Well, I can give you Shinzens perspective it in is most likely the most modern version without much technical jargon in other systems. The feelings inside the body are repressed or not fully experienced emotions called sanskaras in Sanskrit. I mean if you go by language Sanskrit is the language which comes from the Hindu tradition. The word samskara means according to what I can recall grooves or old grooves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samskara_(Indian_philosophy) Which is old accumulated stuff, that has not been fully processed. I know exactly what you mean when you say that you have trauma in my body, I felt similar a couple of years ago and addressed this place in my solar plexus solely! With mindfulness and acceptance sometimes with a loving-kindness practice. At the beginning, it felt as if it were a hot stab with a knife and a deeply rooted scar, yes also a wounded child in a sense, since I felt my family caused this feeling by blaming a lot. I could dive deeper into it. Yet, I had my first full release (chakra release/cleanse) last retreat over a weekend and I can understand why people go crazy. Yet, it felt so good in the original term it is coined it fully makes sense, that it is a cleansing process aka kriya. I saw my solar-plexus pumping in front of me while I cried. Now, it feels more... inactive and like a stinky speck of oil. Yet it hurts still a lot. Feel flow in Shinzens Paradigm most likely works with "prana" "kundalini" "energy" in the body, yet I can't draw distinctions since I do not know the definitions of prana and kundalini well. Anyway, this is my perspective here shinzen talks about Kriyas. Also, yes I had a full authentic release and even talked with shinzen about it saying that. So, this stuff is definitely possible. But, quite intense more the nut case syndrome afterwards for me... not the experience per se. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9AHh9MvgyQ

@kieranperez yeah shunya sounds solid I watched a couple of videos before, yet found him to be a bit con artist. Sounds great I never tried Yoga rigorously, yet will try it soon more seriously. Shinzen has a technique called feel good, hear good etc. https://www.shinzen.org/nurture-positive/ Not sure if this would be to mind oriented. Yet, this would adress the problems stated. I can't really maintain a 1h feel good pratice, I also want to do it rather via body and yoga. I mean I can, but it is more difficult. I pretty much have the same problems you write about in yohr posts. So, I can relate and empathise a lot lol. Yet, definitely try and do some more cbt, I did it before I bought the LP course through a book via Leo's booklist. It is quite mind boogling with a meditation pratice how recurrent patterns in thought change.