InfinitePotential

Love cacao, it may be my favorite superfood. Potent mood enhancer. Jeanne Calment (longest living human on record) ate pounds of chocolate each week (I'm assuming high quality), so that proves definitively that it's great for you. She also smoked cigarettes every day (probably just paper and tobacco, not marlboro lights or anything like that). So yeah, raw cacao is amazing. My top 3 would probably be Cacao, Cordyceps, and Mucuna Pruriens... honorable mention for ashwagandha. Raw egg yolk is great too.

I mean there's a lot more to it (understatement) but if fruit increased brain size... orangutans would have taken over by now (but they eat unhealthy insects )

I've heard the exact opposite, that vegans tend to have decreased brain sizes (not trying to be rude this is just what I've legitimately heard and read). That chart needs a new row, "ability to cook food", which would put humans on all columns. This is what (I've heard) really led to increased brain size. We didn't have to work so hard chewing so our mouths could get smaller, more energy in less time for bigger brains.

I'm amazed at all of the conflicting information out there. And a lot of it is so radical, saying one should exclude whole natural food groups, eat exclusively this or exclusively that. Humans can thrive on a wide variety of diets. This is why we were able to spread out across the entire globe. All traditional cultures that we know of ate plant foods, and animal foods, as available in season. Animals were practically always available, plants were not always available. For most people, both are good. One other universal of traditional cultures is that they were much less removed from nature than us, which is where our problems largely stem from. And they weren't worried about paying bills or having a certain body type or being in a rush to get to work, etc. As for meat vs vegetables, if you have nagging health problems, especially autoimmune issues, and nothing seems to be working.... meat (AND organs, skin, bones, collagen, broth, etc) is the safest food to eat as far as allergies and toxins go. And the latter foods are extraordinarily nutritious. The human body is absolutely designed to easily handle cooked animal food. The whole no meat thing seems to me to just be spirituality dogma, sorry. A lot of yogis look pretty fat, actually. I doubt it is a requirement to grow spiritually. Nature will always eat itself. Of course, factory farming is egregious. But that being said, mass farming of vegetables and grains is bad for animals too and requires killing pests. Really hunting or raising your own animals is going to leave the smallest biological footprint. Shopping organic, from family farms, farmers markets etc is also a great step. Our warming of the planet, littering, plastics, deforestation, etc etc is much more troublesome for the ecosystem than killing an animal and eating it. To be fair, I have never directly killed an animal and am sure I would feel guilty doing so... and I'm certainly moved by videos you can find out there about animal cruelty. But if I were out trying to survive.... I'd be killing squirrels left and right (or more likely, trying to and failing and starving to death). And lastly, while diet is crucial it isn't everything. Beliefs, emotions, mindset etc are probably the most important. Stress management, sleep, relaxation, nature, physical activity, having a good time, laughing, purpose etc... These things are important too.

Sounds like you're doing fine to me. If you're not thirsty don't drink water. I'd recommend the highest quality milk you can find. Full fat, grass fed, happy healthy cows.

Infinite Awareness relaxes its contraction into the separate self and goes through the spectrum of consciousness from personal to transpersonal to unity consciousness and beyond. Total peace and rest.

Chiming in here, I personally would be disturbed by such a thing but this is actually not as universal as you might think. For example, tribal communities in which being sacrificed to the gods was honorable and desired.

One of my favorite videos. Here are some other examples:

I've been interested in this questions as long as I can remember. We are ourselves, we don't remember when we started being ourselves, and it seems that we could have just as easily been any other living entity. Possible explanations I've heard is that A is A, A could not be B. Matter can come together in such a way so as to create a perceiving being, and someone has to be that perceiving being. That seems reasonable on the surface, but when it comes to me being the perceiving being, it makes no sense that I'm this lump of matter rather than a different one. There is no mechanism or rule that makes me me rather than my dog. There is just a self aware lump of matter and somehow I got the lump of matter I got. And then we can go deeper like well what if we cut off your arm are you still you, etc. What makes you you? Ultimately I think the only answer is that like you said, you're not you. Similarly with "why/how is there something rather than nothing"? There isn't really something. Every perception, distinction, identification, thought etc etc is illusory and not ultimately true. Still, I'd like to know why it seems that I'm me rather than something else. This body constantly in awareness in the waking state, albeit slowly changing. Why not a different one, or multiple ones, or no body? But then, why did I dream that I was running from a half bear half human last night.

@nour-cha93 I've searched far and wide and obsessed over this topic (admittedly looking at it from an overall personal health point of view, not consciousness point of view), and the best dietary approach I've come across is the following: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/the-diet/ I would also stress the following excerpt from that page: "We highly recommend certain foods for their micronutrients. These include liver, kidney, egg yolks, seaweeds, shellfish, fermented vegetables, and bone broths."

Maybe life is a dream, and just like how in a dream one can become lucid and gain some control over what happens (and more and more control with practice), in life one can awaken and better control what happens. But just like in a dream you realize you are not the person in the dream, in life you realize you are not the person in your life. So it is not the dream character in control but the higher consciousness in control of the entire dream/life itself. Or maybe we're all just made up of tiny atom balls bouncing off each other and free will doesn't make sense in principle cause one would need to be able to bend the laws of physics to choose to do something contrary to what the rest of the universe would have one do.

Talk starts at 2:34:26 "Science is the faith that the future will behave like the past" Science only deals with patterns and regularities in nature. It can't get to the fundamental essence of things. It offers explanations and models and hypotheses for why things work the way they do, but these are forever subject to doubt and change. You can never know something with absolute certainty using science. Other cool stuff too... Time for me to read tSoSR!!

I don't think there can be a true "theory of everything"... I mean mathematics itself is inherently flawed. "Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve." -Max Planck But I definitely think sound/vibration is a really big deal. "If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration." -Nikola Tesla "Everything in life is vibration" -Albert Einstein "Om" -God -The Beach Boys

I've been planning on trying this soon, specifically "Kriya Supreme Fire" in one of the new books on the book list. Actually requires holding the breath on inhale for 90-120 seconds while focusing on one of like 3 different spots (crown, heart, navel) and performing 3 different bandhas. Supposed to give you massive kundalini gains. Can't find anything about it online but it sounds pretty sick, and I seem to get really present during even a brief breath hold. Oh also a bit unrelated, but the "complete yogi breath" (from The Science of Breath) is highly recommended.

Check out Rupert Spira's videos on this topic. Basically, you can be aware of thoughts feelings perceptions sights sounds subtle moods etc etc, but awareness itself is not any of these things. Divert your attention away from the objects of your awareness, and direct them instead towards the subject itself, Awareness or I. A mini exercise I love to do: ask yourself "Am I aware of X"... X can be a physical object in your field of vision, a feeling in your body, a sound, the thought "am I aware of X" itself... Actively check if you are indeed aware of those things. ("Am I aware of that lamp?" Check. "Yes, I am aware of that lamp." Try to move through several objects, taking full account of everything you could be aware of. (None of these things are that which you are seeking... Ultimate Reality, Self, God, etc.) Then, ask yourself simply "Am I aware?" Actively check if you are aware. Where does awareness go to check if it is aware? Nowhere. It rests as itself, awareness being it's very nature. It's like a flashlight that can shine lights on objects and illuminate them. But how can the flashlight shine light on itself? It can't. It can just stop being preoccupied with the objects it is lighting up, and instead rest as itself, and intuit what it is. Or perhaps a better analogy, the sun that shines light on objects, which is self illuminated by its very nature.

Imo, from experience and unreasonable amounts of research, the most effortless way to lose body fat is to go on a "ketogenic diet". Eat high fat, moderate protein, and very low carb. This mimics a lot of the effects of fasting... forcing your body to dip into its fat stores and use them for energy. Kills tf out of your appetite and also cleans tf out of your body. Plus you get to enjoy some euphoria and boundless energy. Combine this with a sensibly healthy overall lifestyle (stay active, relax and manage stress, get nature, get good sleep) and fat loss becomes reasonably effortless. Check out reddit.com/r/keto for more info. For optimal body composition, include some "carb up" days, where you deplete your glycogen stores through exercise then eat high carb, moderate/high protein, and low fat. Will get your muscles popping ;).... Totally optional and not necessary for fat loss. Good luck with whatever approach you take.

http://perfecthealthdiet.com/the-diet I would recommend the above diet. Replace pizza and bread (these are junk foods) with potatoes and rice. Get calories by eating as much fat as you'd like. Cooking fats, butter, fatty cuts of meat, nuts and chocolate, etc. Try to be more active. Exercise 2-3x per week unfortunately doesn't make up for an overall sedentary lifestyle. Something like below is ideal (I would replace "sprint" with with any sort of maximum effort physical activity... including sprints)

You could check out "Buteyko breathing". Read The Oxygen Advantage / look up videos. Basically breathe exclusively through your nose (it filters the air), softly, and train yourself to require less breathing.

I hear about and have practiced "letting go" a lot. It seems to me to be among the highest and most valuable practices for spiritual insights, well-being, and inner peace. I find myself wondering though, what exactly does it mean to let go? What are some other ways of putting it? For me, it's dropping all effort. Ultimate relaxation. Not clinging to or avoiding experience. Letting things be as they are. Any other descriptions? How does one 'let go'?

Ugh, I agree, see earlier about how every word implies duality. The mind does have legitimate viewpoints on morality however, imo. Hopefully. Not ultimately true but relatively true. Yeah took me a lot of courage to "admit" that. Lmao. It's so simple though it shouldn't matter, right? I have been on the path for oh about 3 years now. And have been intensely curious about the nature of reality all of my life. I'm not even gonna elaborate anymore than that but understand you have little to no clue about my experience and understanding. I realize ACIM is gonna help you find god, which is synonymous with awareness. Where'd that come from though. Why that rather than not that. Infinite potential that's why Also sorry but this line of reasoning makes literally no sense (quoted from you): Awareness doesn't have qualities. You said awareness is "aware" and "ever present". But notice these are qualities (distinctions) that the human mind made up to infer awareness. The actual truth is awareness is devoid of any qualities. It's not really "aware as such, is IS awareness. It's not really "ever present" either because ever present are just concepts again, aren't they? You can't have ever without never, and you can't have presence without absence. We just need some kind language to speak about the subject. So no, you're wrong, awareness does NOT have qualities. Basically you're saying "X doesn't have qualities.... Any qualities you say it has are distinctions, with opposites. So no, X doesn't have qualities".... WTF??? lmao . That's gotta be the worst of all logical fallacies. Again, you say You can't have ever without never, and you can't have presence without absence... Okay again I say, you can't have awareness without unawareness... What of that? Now, I WOULD agree that there is a truth out there which is not able to be expressed in language... no qualities. Seems like you're calling that Awareness. Semantics. I'm wondering if we can't even go another step further and say Awareness itself is Sourced by something even more free. Also you earlier accused me of parroting some new age buzzwords or whatever.... But you yourself said you're just going off of what the ancient texts are all pointing to (i.e. parroting). And I'm SURE you've read all those ancient texts and are not just parroting what you've heard someone say about them!

I can say precisely the same to you, although apparently you're enlightened. "I" actually do "have" "firsthand experience" with what I would think is a "glimpse" of "the void". The feeling that I was losing existence, and the universe / reality itself was disappearing. It's happened many times, however I always have a feeling of terror and snap out of it rather quickly. What is awareness but a concept? You can't have awareness without unawareness, no? I think "Ultimate Reality" is ineffable. No word suffices as a description. Words immediately imply duality. Absolutely nothing wrong with awareness. I love awareness and practice meditating on it frequently. I also practice letting go of everything, or ignoring everything, which would include awareness, sorry man. Okay so I'll keep meditating, living a healthy lifestyle, living morally, and pondering and contemplating and seeking ultimate truth, remaining open minded and skeptic and not-knowing. Enjoy your assuredness.

@Etagnwo rn and lately

@Etagnwo Most of your points are valid, besides some putting words in my mouth, and the moot points about Bentinho's personality. Additionally, trinfinityacademy.com is entirely free. I will take back "highest levels of enlightenment"... clearly you and @Anna1 have reached this ending and can be 100% certain there is no more to understand or realize.... was there a finish line? Also, awareness does have qualities -- it is aware, ever present, etc. It seems to my intuition that there would be "something" truly indescribable, beyond all concepts, unable to be spoken about. Perhaps a "Nothingness" or "Infinity", which transcends Awareness itself and sources it. Idk, could be wrong but it makes more sense to me that Ultimate Reality is "Pure Nothingness". Or maybe Ultimate Reality is awareness itself... lucky us! What do you make of deep sleep, or anesthesia. Are you still you during these times? Is there awareness? (Legitimately asking what you think). I do hope we can both agree that one (sorry not one, but awareness) can reach a ... "state" ... of Pure Consciousness, in which it just is, and is not aware of anything in particular. And all thoughts, sensory perceptions, sense of time, etc are gone and awareness is resting at its source.... It's often called The Void. What are your opinions of this?