Edvard

I have eaten no candy for about 3 months now, but I'm just about to backlash. Any words that will prevent me from going to the shop/keeping me motivated? Or should I just screw this "project"? I miss candy... Thanks..

@Leo Gura I was more thinking of you showing the tricks, instead of people beliving them. My point was, that by doing something extraordinary, people may understand that, "oh, maybe there is something into this consciousness work..." I mean, it worked for Jesus. Unfortunately there weren't any cameras back then, so all we have today are beliefs, and pervertions of what he meant. But of course, this "magic trick" thing may be out of line, and your point obviously is to just not take anything for granted. But still, what if one can walk on water? That would be the new Messiah, that even Jesus talked about? Jesus raised consciousness from barbarism to religion and dogma, the new Messiah may be the one who gets everyone enlightened (heaven). I'm even surprised of me writing this, have been quite a bit against religion for a couple of years, but I'm opening up. Maybe there is something to those holy books? Just maybe....

@Leo Gura Because it would have made it too easy to follow you, and make the world conscious too quickly?

@Leo Gura I wonder, when you know so many times more about reality than the average person, can you do "magic tricks"? I mean Jesus could (do you buy that he supposedly walked on water, fed 5000 peple, etc.?), I guess, and I've seen you write that you wouldn't be surprised if a hardcore mystic could transmute physical matter. Quite an extraordinary claim I can't help but asking you to elaborate. Could you?

So you advice no discipline in life, at any point, is that right? Would you say the same about nicotin or heroin addiction? Obviously it would be a long term good for one's healt to get rid of those habits, but it would require discipline and emotional labour. Without that it would never happen, unless your fully enlightened, I guess, but then it probably wouldn't have been a problem in the first place.

@Serge Because I figure pleasure like that spoils me and numbs my mind + I know that eating candy now would make me crave it even more in just a week than it would by just totally staying away from it. And I don't need candy to survive, and I shouldn't really need it either, to be happy. I regard it as emotional labour, that is also inevitable in the spiritual process. It's just that I'm starting to wonder how long it's gonna take for the cravings to fully vanish. I guess I have to give it some more time. 3 months is not that much after all. And it's not that I'm dying to eat it, I just miss it, and thought it could be motivational to hear other's thoughts on whether this is a good idea of mine, and I should keep staying away from it. Yes, sometimes it's useful to negotiate with yourself, a little, but at some point you have to negotiate for the last time. Because if I eat it now, I sort of want it even more the next day, and will totally backslide. Have to contemplate whether this is worth it, and maybe you got something to say.

Will restrain the urge for now, but I don't know how much longer I can... hehe

@Dan Arnautu Ate one 1 hour ago, but ty.

@Leo Gura What do you think about Albert Einstein?

OK, actually fine, I work on not letting what other people think of me effect me. I'm in a little special situation nowadays, though, I'm having contact with a lawyer in case there's something I need to hear.. So it's really just for practicle purposes that I would consider having a phone available. But you have a good point, the phone itself is not the problem, but the distraction and craving for things to be a certain way, a lot based on fear. But still...

Aren't beans and peanuts vegan? Those are filling me up pretty well, I find. And of course, we also have bread, which you hate.

@Shin Makes sense, just a little messy + people would probably think I'm crazy. So thought that if it doesn't matter I could as well have a quick look at the phone. Unless it's a problem, which you are saying it is?

I think you should make a video on this, because my mind, and probably other's, easily come up with the limiting belief that robots ar going to completely leave us behind, and that we have to merge with them for them not to take over the world, and by that life purpose is gonna be irrelevant. Especially if you listen to Elon Musk. You know, the guy who has a mastery understanding about computers and AI, and made space rockets reusable. And Stephen Hawking. They are experts in this field. Not you. At least come up with something to back up you claims, because they tend to be pretty ridiculous at times. And I'm also not sure whether you are just doing wishful thinking here. It seems to be the case that intelligence is information processing. If that turns out to be true, this evolution could quickly become dangarous. Just look at the evolution in the last couple of decades. With the same rate, maybe even more into the future, I don't know. "Google has a hard time fighting online spam because it cannot even read human words.". Lol, there are robots who can interact with humans by listening, unless that Saudi-Arabian robot is fake.

For me I can, it's just that someone's eventually gonna report missing person to the police...

Is it OK to have a daily one time short look at the phone to see if you have gotten any important messages during a 10 day retreat? Or will this usually spoil a lot of the practice? Thanks.

I don't think it matters whether there are "souls" or not. I think life is infinite and eternal. Nothing else makes much sense to me. Of course, I don't know, and I agree that's the place one should always start from. But think about it; why is there perspective in the first place? To use up a "one shot"? So it is depleted once it happened once? How much sense does that actually make? The present moment is eternal. In which way is hard to understand, but that there's "something", I'm getting pretty sure about, in both an intuitive but also logical way. But don't know it.

The perspective is dying?

Are you talking about any form of bread here? Coarse bread is certainly not empty calories. Wheat without any grain is. Coarse bread has been extremely common in Norway, and regarded as healthy. The problem is if you only eat rationed bread. Bread is not my favourite on taste, so it's not that I will be unhappy to be proven otherwise. Where are your sources?

Ken Ham, the president of the Christian fundamentalist org. Answers in Genesis, which operates the Creation Museum in Kentucky. Spent a lot of his decades praising the Bible as the literal word of God and bashing evolution, posting articles that «disproves» it. He also believes the Earth is about 6000 years old, and that the Bible is a science book, because he says science=knowledge. So, my question is; is there hope for him? Is it even remotely possible for a person like that to get out of that level of consciousness? Is he too commited? Any suggestions to how he could open up his mind and grow? And it makes sense to ask, when after all 45% of the US population holds the very same beliefs. http://news.gallup.com/poll/170822/believe-creationist-view-human-origins.aspx Or do people even care about it? Of course, better to change oneselves first before others, but I just got curious now.

@Ilya Eckhart Tolle has some decent tips in regards to your situation. He advices to practice being conscious, or present, whenever the opportunity presents itself. Become mindful of reality, or you mind whenever you are waiting, which we actually spend most of our lives doing anyway. Make tasks interpreted to be a means to an end an end in itself, he also advices. Anyway, good luck!

What are you doing that's so important that you can't meditate? I'm a full time student and have just started doing 2 hrs of meditation practice every day, because I get more and more convinced of how profound this is to my life. Even if that means getting poorer grades now the first semester I think it in the long run will make me a much better student, and give me better total grades in the end. And that's just one of the reasons that I meditate.

I think we all deep inside know it. Because of the present moment, which always exists, and the paradox of being «unconscious» for eternity. You can't be conscious of being unconscious, UNLESS unconsciousness is simply consciousness without content, meaning it's eternal. That's the only thing that makes sense to me, at least.

@Leo Gura What do you think about peanuts? I eat 350g of that most days, with some salt. Just in case that's somehow terrible.

Sounds amazing, so congratz. I wonder, does anyone have an idea how Buddha got to remember his past lives? Or is that dogma, you think? I assume you didn't experience that?

As I'm able to shut my mind down more and more, I get deeper and deeper insights about every meditation session, although it generally goes up and down. It's been a good week. Just wnt to share my experiences and some thoughts about all those techniques, because getting enlightened, to me really seems extremely simple (not necessarily easy though). Two things: - don't think, which means train the mind to get better at that skill, and become present. - dare to not think, and become one with everything. Dare to release. So to sum it up: don't think. At my peak moments I sort of become more and more aware of me thinking about becoming aware, and then aware about me thinking about thinking about being aware. It's almost like it's spiraling more and more into an emergence with the thoughts and awareness to eventually become one, and it also seems to me that because this spiral can always become smaller, means there are many, maybe infinite levels or degrees to how close to clomplete emptyness you can become. And it goes deeper and lasts longer for me every session (some periods, including this week). At the peaks I had today, I got to the point of liberation, and I think it's the best experience I've ever had. Still scary to the ego though. I sometimes put in a thought saying «I'm ready to die, just surrender», and some thoughts about what reality is may pop in. I have to dig deep for subconscious assumptions like the self-image, too. And by deep concentration I get to the states of more and more emptyness, or whatever you'll call it. There probably are some more insights to be had, you don't know after all. I don't get the insight of consciousnesses «splitting», as some, at least Leo, claims. So not quite sure about this oneness, although I feel one with every sensation from the same perspective, sure. But I don't see some friend outside my house, thinking that I am him. I don't know what happened before the Big Bang either, as some seems to «know». That's like reality says something conceptual to you, like «you are one with everything. You are Jesus». I'm just saying it, because I think it may be easy to becone dogmatic about these things. You hear all these concepts about what the Truth is. I'm certainly open to me being everyone else, but that's probably a much deeper insight than what I'm currently having. I'm probably still scratching the surface. I'm not saying I'm enlightened (certainly not as I write), but I think I can see where it's going: more emptyness, and less centeredness. To me it doesn't even seem to be a sudden thing, but a gradual. I guess jumps can be made, and maybe somebody sees it without training, like Eckhart Tolle, but even he hasn't probably reached the rock bottom, if bottom even exists. I also wonder, how can you ever get enlightened by self inquiry, when that process seem to require thinking? I tend to mix it a little with meditation, and sometimes just try to be conscious of what reality is during a peak moment from time to time. I mean, isn't meditation that anyway? Why need a separate technique for just asking conceptual questions? Nothing wrong with asking now and then, but setting aside 1hr every day? And lastly, of course, one doesn't know anything, including me.