emind

I was curious what you guys´ thoughts were on this article, I feel like its pretty accurate. Married couples dont seem to be very well connected to their communities (friends, family, etc.) I personally dont like to bash on marriage, undoubtedly it works for some people. But a good question I was asking myself the other day was: "How many married couples do I know that havent grown stale unambitious and unhealthy?" Unfortunately the answer for me was "none". https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/07/case-against-marriage/591973/

As many of you have probably heard Nick Bostrom's argument (here's Neil Tyson explaining it) ( it is the most statistically likely possibility that, we do in fact, live in a simulated reality. If this is the case, then what the hell is enlightenment but an illusion?

@Leo Gura Ok. I will rewatch it. Thanks.

@Leo Gura Come on Leo! Dont tell me that! Its really hard hitting for someone I admire so much to tell me Im lost! I mean, I know I shouldnt get lost in concepts and abstractions, but, shouldnt I be able to use them to a certain extent?

@Geromekevin I found myself agreeing with pretty much everything you said. I dont mean to bash on Leo or anyone else, specially given that he is way, way more advanced than I am. But it seems to me that invoking science has become anathema to this community, at least when it comes to metaphysical topics. Forgetting of course that science is the only reason why this community exists in the first place (electricity, computers, the internet). Also, many of the advice that Leo gives, helpful as it is, is based on scientific research, i.e. his videos on how to lose weight, or how to gain confidence, etc. Of course you could ad hominem me and tell me that Im close minded and stuck at stage orange, but that doesnt really say anything about the argument itself. I love you Leo! Again I dont mean to be harsh or anything, just my honest take.

@Leo Gura But Leo!!!! To dispense with a notion of statistical probability would be to be inconsistent. Everything you do is based on it. You work on a video throughout the week because it is statistically likely that you will not die before you finish it, and because its statistically likely that Youtube will not fall, and that a nuclear outbreak wont take place. Why should we dismiss statistical probability in this case when we use it in every other situation in life?

@Leo Gura But doesnt your conception of duality come from experience? Experience that you would have hypothetically had in a simulation?

So I've really been delving deep into the unconscious thoughts and fears that guide my behavior (mostly through long meditation sessions) and I've come to some interesting conclusions, but I don't know how to go on from here. So, after being in a rather long relationship (several years), and going through a bad break up, I went through some time without getting laid. After, having gone around a year without sex, I decided to have casual sex with someone whom I didn't feel connected to in any way. I thought it was going to be this great amazing thing, and sure it was pleasant, physically speaking, but after the sex itself, everything was so empty, insipid, lacking in passion. I then asked myself, "why the hell did I sleep with this girl" if I didn't feel anything for her? Sure, it might sound cool to be a player and everything, and sex is good in the moment, but I felt like I was chasing some kind of connection I wasn't able to get. After meditating on it a few weeks, I realized that I have this inner fear of NOT having sex, and more specifically, an inner fear that my ex is having sex and I am not. To be quite honest, the thoughts of her sleeping with some other guy still haunt me in my sleep, and this fear, this (for lack of a better word) injustice, that is taking place by her sleeping with a bunch of guys, and me not getting laid, is what propels me towards having meaningless sex; something which I ultimately, don't want and doesn't satisfy me. I might be guessing here, but it is, in a way, some sort of vengeance or revenge that I want to take. It is rather disappointing that I feel this way, given that the relationship ended almost two years ago. I've really tried meditating through the pain, I've had cathartic sessions in which I have relived painful memories and processed them, but time and time again, it keeps guiding me.

Hi guys. Im a pretty avid meditator and practice an hour almost every day. But someway or another, I always happen to miss a day here or there, though most of the time I don't. Given Leo's emphasis on never missing one single day, "ever", I am a bit concerned with regards to why he said this. I mean, I know momentum is ideal and everything, but does missing a day kill all my progress? I mean, if I meditated 27 out of 30 days on any given month, isn't that still a lot of progress?

@Leo Gura I had never thought of it that way. I guess I just need to keep diving deeper in contemplation. I'll also try to add a meta meditation practice to focus more consciously on love.

@Inliytened1 Exactly yes. I don't schedule them ahead on time, they just happen coincidentally. I know I should take more control over this, but I just wanted to make sure the progress doesn't go away.

@Inliytened1 thanks! Yes. I will definitely strive for 100% of the time, its just that, whenever for some reason or another Im not able to do it, I always end up feeling guilty.

@ajasatya you're right. I need to go deeper inside, but how could I go about this in practical terms?

@Wyatt Yes! Thank You! I have been considering some of the questions you mentioned, and, not coincidentally, am a big fan of Joe Rogan! I guess I might be more at a disadvantage in the technical aspects of conducting interviews (filming, editing, publishing) than in the interview itself. Which is not to say that I don't have to work on both! This is really valuable advice! Thank you!

Hi guys. I hope you´re all doing well. I´ve been contemplating about my life purpose and exploring different potential domains in which I could exercise my work. I came up with interviews. One of the things Ive always dreamed of has been to interview important people on relevant political and philosophical matters. Despite knowing a good deal about the aforementioned topics, I have no formal training in journalism to be able to carry out interviews on these matters competently, let alone to film them. Do you guys happen to be acquainted with any resources I could utilize to educate myself informally (as a newbie) on how to properly interview people, and how to film interviews. P.S. I am basically a complete ignoramus when it comes to cameras, cinematography, etc. All I know is a bit of Adobe Premiere. Thank you so much in advance!

So I've started reading Jung. Started with one of his simplest books, Man and His Symbols. He mentions a lot about our unconscious and how it determines our behavior so much. I was wondering what are your thoughts on him. I noticed that the unconscious Jung refers to is more biologically based (aka primitive mind) than mystic or spiritual (as far as I've read). I know it's early (given that Im only beginning to read him ),but I haven't seen him say anything about non-duality and the more spiritual form of "unconsciousness"that mystics usually talk about.

@Quaker Thank you very much! I will follow your advice!

Did I miss him talking about this somewhere?

All of my life, Ive lived in a third world country deeply mired in poverty and misery. A country in which not a second goes by after you've walked out of your house, and there's already someone with a poignant look of hopelessness in their face begging you for money. The levels of inequality are staggeringly high, and, frankly speaking abhorrent. Luckily enough, I was raised in an upper-middle class household, and never experienced hunger, lack of resources, education, affection, nor any other of those horrifying realities. I remember, as a very young kid, 6 yrs old perhaps, when I first had the realization that other people were going through hell while I was kicking it back in the comfort of my air conditioned room playing Gamecube, with all the food, love, and attention I could possibly wish for. I was in the backseat of my car while my parents drove through a stoplight, and a young beggar came and approached us, my dad gave him a puny amount of money, and we left. The look on the kids face though, dirty, sad, and despondent, shook me so hard I started crying, I cried all day. I couldn't accept the fact that there were people out there going through such debilitating circumstances, and that there was nothing I could do about it. Nowadays, many years later, I still try and give as much as I can to those in need, but have sort of repressed any attempts to think about the matter deeply, namely because it is so painful. Well today, just now, I was driving through a fast food restaurant when a poor man approached me asking for money, unfortunately I didn't have any cash with me and had to tell him quite bluntly that I couldn't help him (something I never do), and as I denied him the help he so much needed, I looked at his face as he sadly nodded, and I saw so much misery, pain and suffering in him. You could tell from miles away, how sunburnt, hungry, thirsty, and in need of affection he was. My emotional reaction then caused me to start ruminating about what his childhood had been like, perhaps he had been abused, turned down by his parents, beat, neglected, who knows? Here I was, sitting in the cabin of my air conditioned car, holding what was to him an unaffordable meal from a fast food restaurant, well rested, with no worries, and there he was, struggling to make it to the next day. The juxtaposition was intolerable! I am now feeling the same thing I felt in my childhood experience. If there is one word that can be used to describe what I feel, it is guilt. I now realize why I am such an overly nice person, up to the point where people step on me some times. It is because I feel guilty, so guilty for the misery and despair of others. And, to stop and consider that this is just one person of millions upon millions who live in this way, makes me lose all hope. How can the world be such a bleak place?

Why, if we assume that you're exerting an equal amount of concentration on both, is a 1 hr meditation better than a 30 min one?

@Privet Yes. I guess it makes sense that a longer practice would inevitably lead to better outcomes and more improvement, the things is, Ive been finding I daydream a little more when Im doing the 1hr meditation as opposed to the 30 min.

@Rilles Absolutely

Through self examination and trying to be as honest as I possibly can with myself, I have stumbled upon a bitter truth about myself, one that is both immiserating and liberating at the same time. The introspective insights that Ive had lately, remind me of Carl Jung's famous quote, "That which you most need, will be found where you least want to look." This mirrors exactly what has happened to me. For years, my friends and relatives have admonished me, about how I lack practical skills (i.e. street smarts), and assertiveness, and how my constant distraction and lack of focus hinder my ability to succeed in the world and not be taken advantage of. I realized that much of my neurosis comes from this very fact, and the low self esteem that comes along with it. To be more specific, I believe my main problems are: 1. I lack assertiveness - Im extremely nice (or at least act that way) and struggle to say no to things that I dont want to do because I feel sorry for other people. 2. I am in my early twenties and still depend on my parents financially, and I have a very deep yearning for independence. 3. I forwent many of my more "mundane" , materialistic, stage orange desires and goals (i.e. getting laid, making money, status) in a misguided effort to embrace spiritually prematurely. I rationalized having sex and going out as being frivolous and petty, and withdrew significantly from those activities while at the same time denying to myself that I in fact wanted them. Ive always been interested in very esoteric and abstract things, Ive always loved history, politics, philosophy, and science (much of my absent mindedness in quotidian matters stems from this). I understand the importance of having a life purpose and doing something that fulfills me. I came to realize that something akin to political and philosophical commentary in the form of entertainment/informative media would be something that would fit really well with my personal desires and values, but.... Heres the catch. Given the way in which entertainment media works (ie Youtube), it is highly unlikely that I will be able to make my ends meet from my life purpose in the short term. So I have come to defer this for the moment, and set it more as a long term goal. I will still work on it, but it will be on the sidelines. For the moment, in order to remediate #2(above), I believe I will have to learn practical skills that I currently lack, and that I dont necessarily like, in order to gain the independence I so much crave within a year. So these are the things that I will do: I will learn web development and copywriting, and work in freelance within the next year, in order to gain some amount of income that will eventually allow me to move out of my parents', and if possible out of my small ass country, to a place where I can do pickup and fulfill my stage orange cravings. I will NOT abandon my spiritual practice, I will continue with my hourly meditation sessions and will utilize this as a doorway to get rid of my pathological "people pleasing" trait. I will, in the 3 upcoming years, work on my long term goal of establishing a political and philosophical commentary channel, improve my video and editing speaking skills and make a substantial living out of it. So I was thinking, how could I optimize this plan more efficiently? What am I missing? And, more importantly, what other practical skills besides copywriting and web development could I learn in a short term span (3-6 months) to start making money quick?

Ive been recently thinking about something Leo has mentioned a couple of times, and that is how low consciousness it is to be wanting to argue and debate, and be right all the time, ala Sam Harris. I have a lot of intellectual friends and the relationships I have with them provide a lot of satisfaction to me, but there is one downside Ive been experiencing as Ive been going through my journey, namely their overwhelming keenness to debate. I sometimes find myself in a high state of consciousness throughout the week, but when the weekend comes and I see them, they start getting bogged down in trivial debates, egoic desires to prove others wrong and overanalyze stuff. I find that this automatically crashes my state because they draw me in to this mindset. How can I deal with this in the face of the fact that I do not think they have an ill intention and that aside from this aspect these are people whom I truly love?

So, I know this is going to seem extremely petty but it is something that I genuinely wonder and have experienced to a certain extent. Does having no attachments, and being fully present to immediate reality enhance your ability to attract people when dating? I can remember certain periods in my life wherein the presence that I had cultivated seemed to just overflow my own inner reality and translate into others, making girls magnetically attracted to me. Does this happen to you Leo? Or any of you guys? I feel this kind of screws up my consciousness work though, because I feel like Im constantly fighting an internal battle between relinquishing sexual desire and subconsciously meditating for an ulterior purpose (getting laid). This is strange, but have any of you experienced it?