hinawashi

Last Friday I was hanging out with some of my friends and we were talking about the wildfire that's been going on for the last couple of weeks. So they brought up this topic that there were a few people who believed that the government was setting up cameras and monitoring devices while their homes were being evacuated, and they ended up getting killed because they didn't get out in time. I thought it was a stupid idea because how can anyone believe that the wildfires were fake? Well, anyways there were people who did believe that, and it was just mind-baffling to hear such stories because there are tons more conspiracy theories out there that people actually believe. There were people who believed that our government was run by shape-shifting alien reptiles, and there are also people who believed that 2012 was the end of the world, and they still insists on the idea that the world really did end in 2012 and we're living in a so-called "new world". I've been thinking about this for such a long time now and I still couldn't come up with a conclusive reason why this is the case. I don't know if it makes any sense, but here's my hypothesis: First, the beauty of conspiracy theories is that it requires no evidence or critical thinking, therefore, it only appeals to people without the ability to seriously question things for themselves. When you look at the population in general, there really is this wide spectrum of people, and those without any critical thinking skills definitely have their own spot on the spectrum, maybe on the lowest 5% region (or however much it is in reality, it's just a rough estimate), and it's definitely possible for them to believe in those crazy things. It's hard work trying to figure out something for yourself, it takes research even for the "smart" people. So the easiest thing to do is, of course, believe what they're told without putting any independent thinking into it. Sorry for the long post, but here's my guess. I'm much more likely to be wrong though, so feel free to correct me.

The reason I don't join any servers or any multi-channels is because I knew this from the very beginning that there's no chemistry between me and them. It's not because anyone is crazy, but rather incompatible as you said. Nobody is crazy because you follow your logic perfectly and they're following their logic perfectly. I had the same question before but I thought about it for quite a while and I realized that to think yourself or anybody else is crazy is only the ego talking, because the ego likes to separate itself from others by putting labels like "crazy" on either side. In reality these labels don't exist, therefore nobody can be crazy. It's like mixing oil and water. They don't mix but how can you say oil is bad or water is bad? Nither is good or bad. They just exist. People just exist, nobody is crazy, that's all.

Lately I've been reading a lot of self-help books, and a lot of them were eye-opening and they really made me think. Not just while I'm reading them, but rather whenever I come across something in life words from those books just jump out in my mind and I can see things from a totally different perspective. However at the same time I was thinking to myself whether these self-help books are that useful. Because I know a lot of them are best-sellers, however I don't really hear how people talk about how these books made them grow. I don't know what's going on. Do those people just read the books and then forget about them? Or is it because they were unable to make connections with real-life scenarios? Same with Leo's videos, of course. If they have half a million views then why aren't more people talking about how their lives were transformed?

@mohdanas I think yours is also a great analogy. It's more of an experimentation, or playing detective. We all want to solve our problems but we don't know where to start. We pick up some clues to begin with, and maybe the first few clues don't lead us anywhere, but as we start to explore more options and hunt down more evidence, we can put all the pieces of puzzle together, then we get to see the big picture. I think the reason most people don't benefit much from self-help books is because they're too result-oriented. Life isn't only about results. The results are important but the pathfinding is also rewarding in itself. I do care about results, but only in retrospect. When I look back I know how much I have accomplished, and it gives me more inspiration to go out there and get more done.

Yes. This is exactly the kind of video I needed. Many thanks! The insight I got out of this was that I was able to put a lot of efforts into it, and maybe I'm at the top 5%? Also what's funny is that I'm able to focus on the process rather than wanting the results right away without much expectations right off the bat. I think the whole self-help process is more or less like an experiment and it's up to me to test everything out and don't overwhelm myself with a whole bunch of books at a time.

I've been thinking about this for a very long time now, because this is something that I haven't been able to understand. We're always worshipping something. There are religion, and different gods and people have been worshipping them for millennia since prehistoric times. Today, even when we live in a materialistic culture, we still worship money like a god. So it's quite funny that we claim that there is no god but we still treat money as a god. So we still have to worship something. Even the most grandiose people who have the most power worship their own self-image as a god. At the end of the day, we really have to worship something or another. Why is it so? What is the reason to worship anything? Is it because deep inside we know that we're no good? Like, we can't do anything on our own? I don't really understand it so perhaps one of you peoples can help me answer this question.

@Spiral That's some really good advice. I realized that I missed Leo's video on karma, so I went and watched it and it was exactly as you said. Also, Compassion does come at a much later age. I'm not a teenager anymore, but it's this sudden transition that's making it hard for me right now.

OK, so this is one of the top items on my hit list of behavior and thoughts I need to eliminate from my life. Every time I think that someone has wronged me, I always feel the need to plot my revenge against them. But then I realized that even if I'm in the right in the first place, if I actually carry through with my revenge, then I'd be committing the greater evil. So this has caused a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering in my life simply because this is such a big internal struggle that goes inside my mind all the time, and also because I have done some really nasty things in the past and now I look back at it, I'm not really the hero but a replacement villain who's even more evil than the villain I thought I was fighting. So... Any tips on ending this cycle once and for all?

Waking up in the middle of the night from this epiphany. I was doing some introspection and trying to understand how the ego operates, and all of my observations point to this: The ego corrupts everything it touches. I mean literally everything that you and I can think of. We try to combat the ego through religion, yet the ego turns religion into idol-worshipping. Art gets corrupted by ego too, as the ego turns art from creation and expression into a tool to satisfy our desires. Ego also corrupts reality by turning nature into a playground for the ego, and twists our senses into judging everything by its "usefulness" to us. It taints happiness and tricks us into chasing external things that will never fulfill us. The question is why? Isn't the ego there to help us survive? How can it end up enslaving us and harming us instead? I think I'm over-thinking to the point that it's messing with my sleep. I should be going back to sleep now. I'll check for responses in the morning and see if there's anyone who can answer my questions.

OK, so from what I understand from a non-dual perspective, the statements "you don't exist" and "you are everything" is actually the exact same. Of course, like @Shin said, I didn't get to that understanding through thought or concepts or logic. This is something that you really have to experience in order to understand. I mean I could tell you about it, and Leo can tell you much more, but fundamentally whoever is speaking of enlightenment and non-duality is just a messenger, someone who has a copy of a treasure map. You have to first believe that the piece of treasure exists, and also that the treasure is worth spending time and effort and possible risking your life and limb to acquire. Then you have to actually go out and dig up that piece of treasure. Of course when I say go out I really mean go inside yourself because, hey, this is all a mind trick. So don't dismiss thought as unimportant, I mean technically you don't have to have the treasure map, but getting that map makes the job much easier. All we're saying here is don't mistake the map for the treasure. That's a very easy trap to fall into.

So, my guess is that the ego must destroy everything in order to survive. Ego doesn't necessarily harm us, it's just very transient and inevitably doomed to destruction. According to the spiral dynamics model, at some point the ego will sort of "disappear", but then the stage after that will introduce an upgraded version of ego that can coexist with enlightenment. That is, you can still do what the ego does, but now you are no longer the slave to it. It sounds kinda far, but it might be just around the corner for those who are actively doing enlightenment work.

@Joseph Maynor Thanks for the great advice! Yeah, I really should put openness to the test. The reason I could grow so fast is to live out all the knowledge I have absorbed. I mean that's actually the reason there's just so much stuff I could write on and ideas are just swirling around my head because by putting all the knowledge into my life makes them feel very real and personal. I think the same goes with openness too, I can only get it nailed by practicing it. So the conclusion is, I'm gonna publish more of them in my blog, and we'll see where it will take me...

I keep a self-actualization journal mainly for myself, and for the most part it's bits and pieces of useful information and knowledge that I have accumulated from both outside sources and introspection. These journals are basically my own understandings of everything related to self-actualization like happiness and life purpose. My journal has always been how I kept track of my own growth and it's a live journal that's constantly being updated as I learn more things, so right now it's growing pretty fast. Also I think that keeping a journal is a great help, because it's like a library of ideas but since they're already my understandings, all I have to do is pull it out at the right place and right time and I'm all good to go. Now the problem is, I've been trying to compile them into longer and more coherent articles so I could publish it as a blog of some sort. I've written a few of them already and the reactions were mixed, with the majority of readers completely unable to understand any of it. I'm having the feeling that people are starting to think I'm going nuts over all this self-actualization work, even though I'm hoping that it might actually end up transforming someone, like how I transformed in the first place. By no means I'm trying to convince people though, because as I said, it mainly serves as a reminder for myself to stay conscious, but if someone can understand and resonate with me that would be a nice bonus. So should I publish more of my journal? Or should I just keep it all to myself?

@Joseph Maynor Yes. Fear has always been my greatest enemy. Though, I don't fear the writing itself, in fact I'm completely comfortable with everything I've written so far. What I am afraid of is people judging me. Well, it's not like I'm fearing that it will happen in the future, it's more of a certainty because it has already happened with my past writings, and I certainly don't like that. People tell me that I'm crazy and think too much, and I should stop thinking and stop writing and go with the flock and do what the flock does. Especially when what I write goes against common sense, I get ridiculed a lot. Nothing malicious though, it's just kind of... normal... from normal people, I guess?

I'm seeing this problem all over the place. Sometimes when I give advice to friends and family, I really don't know what to say. If I say something that only makes them feels good, it's not going to help them. But if tell them the truth they'll instantly go nucking futs, and they'll think I'm nucking futs as well. Even though I know they have nothing personal against me, but it actually makes them reject the truth more. For example, if I tell someone to stop being a victim and they're totally responsible for their misery and there's nobody to blame but themselves. That's stabbing the ego right in the heart, and you can imagine all the defenses and excuses they come up with, and the truth ends up getting thrown straight out the window. This is especially a problem from within my family because they think I worship some insane cult when I'm doing self-actualization work. So this had led me to think that I'm casting pearls before swine and those low-conscious people don't deserve the truth. But, what's paradoxical about this is that I was just like them before I started my self-actualization work. But somehow I had this urge to seek for solutions not just for myself but my friends as well. So somehow I was different, but in reality I'm really no more different or special from everyone else, yet I deserve the truth but others don't? That doesn't make any sense. I honestly don't know what's wrong here. Now clearly this is an internal problem, because whatever kind of wrong things I see in other people must be from inside me. If someone can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.

@Nahm Thanks a lot! I got it now. So basically how I convey the truth is just as important as the content. I went over to Wikipedia and looked up the difference between guilt and shame and that was exactly it. You just worded it differently and made it easier for me to understand. @SOUL That's exactly what I said before, I should stop being the judge and just be at peace with everything. Also when I was reading all the replies, something clicked in my head. I suddenly realized that actually everyone deserves the truth, and I stood correct that I really am no different from anyone else in terms of "deserving" anything. Deserving the truth and willing to accept the truth are two totally different things! It's just like how everyone deserves happiness, and the reason most people are miserable is because they are unwilling to accept happiness.

@Nahm I just gave an example. If I tell someone who's a victim to stop blaming others and take responsibility for everything, that would like pouring salt on their wounds. @Spiral and I agree that I should stop judging who deserves what. Hmm... I guess I'll just have to keep everything to myself for now.

@aurum Now that you mention it, I had to listen to Leo's talk on the hero's journey again. It's true that I don't know what my next paradigm shift will be, but I am certain that this paradigm shift I'm facing right now is my unwillingness to accept the truth and the real unadulterated reality. Maybe it's my first threshold guardian, and I'm getting my ass kicked because I'm not really fighting the truth, but rather my ego, and the shocking plot twist is that my ego has been lying to me the whole time that the truth is a bad thing which must be defeated in some way.

I was looking back at the past few months putting all the pieces of evidence together when I had this sudden epiphany. I wasn't chasing the truth, the truth is chasing me. Why? Because I started self-development as an experiment to see if any of this crazy talk is true. So in a sense I though I was pursuing the truth by testing different theories and models, because I'm a scientist and I believe experimentation is the gold standard. But in the end, all the empirical evidence of everything I thought be counterintuitive turned out to be true. That drove me almost insane, because now the truth is forcing me to believe it whether I want to or not. I still want to run away and keep my old beliefs, but I can't run away from the truth anymore When I thought I was the hunter, I became the prey. I thought I could win, but I took on a far too strong of an opponent and now I'm completely crushed, rolled flat and tossed aside. Isn't that ironic?

@ajasatya Actually what I'm feeling right now is a mixture of both melancholy and thankfulness. It's this mixed feeling that really causes trouble. I honestly don't know how to deal with this cacophony of emotions, but for now I'm just going to accept that it's OK to have mixed feelings.

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I've had this problem for quite a while now. Technically it isn't that serious of a problem and it's not really affecting me personally. To be honest I actually feel great about myself and it's not like ordinary depression. It actually came with all this self-development work that I've been doing and while it feels great to wake up from hell, it actually pains me to see a lot of people including my family and friends still stuck in a low-consciousness state. Sometimes this melancholy expands so much that I ending up feeling sad for all the people in the world, like when I'm peering out the window of the train station and I'm just looking at the city from above, for example. It brings tears to my eyes even though it's got nothing to do with me. What even more mindfuckingly ironic is that I never had any real experience with empathy before I started doing self-actualization work. Now all of a sudden it's getting overwhelming. Is this supposed to happen? Or is it too much of a good thing?

If the ego is all about preserving itself, then why do we engage in non-sustainable lifestyles? I was reading up on the topic of "late capitalism" and how different people from different time periods interpret it. From the current perspective, it's about making the rich richer and the poor poorer, but it's obviously not sustainable in the long run. Not because there's going to be some leftist commie uprising but we'll probably end up destroying ourselves if we keep this up. We built this economy to satisfy our desires, but why are we ruining our lives with the very system that we designed to help us? That's just an example on a collective level. We also have individual-level problems like addictions. So that brings back to my original question. Shouldn't the whole purpose of self-preservation be sustainable? If not, then where is the difference? Where does this chain of events fall apart?

I had a few of these, but the biggest was to realize that every problem that I have actually starts off somewhere inside me. This opened up a whole wide field of exploration because looking inwards was something that I wasn't aware of. Once I started to tackle the ego problem, things started to make sense very quickly. So now instead of looking outward, I look inward whenever I'm experiencing "technical difficulties" because once I change myself the whole world changes. Another huge breakthrough I've had was the ability to jump out of my own perspective and look at the world and everything in it in a more holistic way instead of value-scanning everything based on my own needs and wants. This is almost like a superpower which gave me so much more freedom than ever before.

I would say that there is a big difference, even though it's hard to tell. In a nutshell, Dark Night has hope attached to it, like the light at the end of the tunnel, or a "silver lining" telling you that the truth is better than everything that you used to believe. You will eventually come out of it and actually be in the light. Depression, on the other hand, is just pure darkness with no light at the end of the tunnel. no sliver lining, and no hope. It drags you down and cripples your mind. That's my personal interpretation of it. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I mean there are indeed conspiracy theories that turned out to be true, but I'm talking about some really crazy, out-there theories like the wildfire one. Still like @Truth said, the fundamental reason that people believe in those theories is not wanting to accept that there are unknowable areas in life. Somehow we all think that believing in something, whether it's true or not, is better than not knowing at all. On the other hand, I think an enlightened person would be much more willing to accept that there limitations to our knowledge.