Viking

Just now I decided to almost completely stop watching TV shows, because I noticed how toxic it was. This is pretty much what I have been doing all of my free time besides self actualization stuff. So much free time has opened for me and I dont know what to do with it, because I dont have a LP. Im planning on buying the course, and since I wont have anything else to do for now I will have a lot of time to do it. Can I just devote my free time to the course? or I have to take it slowly so the knowledge will integrate? I dont find any books to read because I have no real goals, so books wont connect with me and will just bore me. Do you have any ideas as to what to do until I will start to get hints of my purpose? thanks.

@hundreth funny, that's weirdly inspiring

is just proper theory about meditation and self inquiry for example enough? or will it be slow? i watched a bunch of leo videos and I am doing trifinity academy courses (which for the next 3 weeks is on hold because of lack of time, army stuff 24/7). Do i need to know more stuff in addition like 4 noble truths or 3 principles something blah blah blah... in order to achieve results (or faster results) ?

I dont know if it can be done with a magic pill, more realistically, cultural changes are key. like 200 years ago people thought slavery was alright and now it's obvious that it isnt, same way people can think in the future that enlightenment is the only way to true well being when they realize materialistic stuff doesnt do it. I think it could be done gradually with slight cultural changes. with that, if it is brought up when people are very young it is much easier to "convince" them to do it. maybe we could invent a way of raising children that makes them enlightened at a young age, because right now getting enlightened is based on getting rid of beliefs.

you think the hero's journey is easy?

for example to get used to a meditation technique, you have to force yourself to do it everyday until it becomes something you enjoy/dont mind. in order to get rid of old habits, you have to be neurotic. in order to stop being neurotic you have to be neurotic, in order to accept the moment you have to work towards accepting the moment. am i missing something? or this is how it works?

the practice to achieve both is the same (i think) is it? whats the difference? i have seen a practice that says to try to concentrate on an object and if the focus deviates you should put the focus again on the object and with time it will become a meditation that you focus the whole period. in Leo's video he says that we should do only as much time as we can concentrate and scale up 1 min 2 min 5 min etc. are both options valid? what's the difference? can you provide any sources how to do it please?

Im having an army thing for the next month where Ill barely use my brain, therefore I want to apply some techniques during the whole day to get some nice progress and not just waste a month. I want to employ as many techniques as I could manage, for example, noticing breath and positive thinking the whole day. It doesnt have to be any techniques, just advice as to what should I do during that period would be appreciated, thanks.

@Preetom so basically what you're saying is that by wisdom and contemplation you got rid of some neurosis, i think. you cant act yourself out of neurosis, you can only realize yourself out of neurosis. but in order to realize yourself out of neurosis you have to start neurotically kinda because to realize you have no control is no easy task. can you point to some videos of Nisargadatta Maharaj that you think are most profound please?

just watch more of leo's videos, man, start self actualizing, just by setting the right goals you will have more motivation. Pursuing after enlightenment only doesnt work in my experience, you gotta have emotional mastery and other stuff covered too. with more wisdom your desire will increase. I really suggest to start meditating if you dont already do so. regarding other stuff look up this vid, it helped me during tough times

do nothing is to experience everything without any attachments, to notice that you are nothing(ness) out of your experiences. it moves you more into your natural state of being, basically enlightenment.

i think youre not interested enough. pump up your motivation by watching some of leos vids for example think about it, can you concentrate on stuff like tv or video games? stuff thats interesting enough? contemplate what you are really doing and why are you doing it. put a timer for 10 min and just sit think why the fuck are you doing this stuff. be honest.

im doing the practice with a metronome, and sometimes i imagine the ticks going on an upbeat and sometimes on a downbeat, the beats are the same but my mind makes them somewhat different and sometimes plays with it, however most of the time my concentration is on the ticking. is that how its supposed to be? im only managing to do 2 min for now and i doubt if to up the time if my mind plays like that with the sound. dont know if it counts or not.

there's so much stuff, different schools of teaching, different techniques, nirvana, samadhi, kundalini, whatever else, how do I choose where to start? should I just shut up and do my negating thoughts meditation with some concentration and self inquiry? I dont have any goal right now with that stuff (which I guess is good) but I feel like there's so much to explore and it makes me restless. How should I approach this if I want to experience all of that richness? what kind of goals could there be besides nirvana and samadhi?

https://www.trinfinityacademy.com/

refreshing the post, still a clear answer is needed and its important for me

During our whole life, we do activities that we hope will give us satisfaction. Whether it will be eating food, having sex, following our life purpose, good conversation, meditation (debatable), etc. All of that stuff gives us some level of satisfaction. We prefer to do more of the stuff that gives us more satisfaction. For example I see that my parents are really attached to food, TV and alcohol because their daily life is not really fulfilling, so they turn to the stuff that gives the most satisfaction and is available in the moment. They work at jobs just for the money and have nothing else left to do when they come home, so they turn to that stuff, which they hope will fulfill them, and it kinda does, but not entirely. I became curious how's that satisfaction scale like with more self-actualizing people. sure, food is nice for self actualizing people, but it's more at the bottom for most of them I guess than normal people. What is higher in your satisfaction scale? What would your satisfaction scale look like? for example, from lowest to highest, TV-food-good conversation-sex-good work day-realizing the ultimate nature of the universe, you get the point (I hope). Of course it's not set in stone, sometimes food could be better than sex, but on average, in daily life, what's giving you satisfaction at all and where would you put that on the scale? The purpose of this topic is to have insight on how to improve the lives of non self-actualizing individuals (and self-actualizing beginners like meself) by expanding their satisfaction scale by stuff that wouldn't harm the body, unlike excessive eating, or would just give more overall satisfaction in life.

isnt enlightenment a realization? therefore has to be realized, therefore not everybody is enlightened? or do people mean it in a certain other context? if so, in which one?

@The Monk yeah, I know, that's not what I asked, or meant to ask. What I meant is could I possibly contemplate this stuff for a lot of my free time? that would result in faster completion of the course, because more time would be put into it. I asked if it's healthy and will it bring the result

My brother is 13, I talked him into meditating for 20 mins everyday and if he does that, ill give him extra 30 min to play in my computer. I know, extrinsic motivation but he says he kind of enjoys it. He is very immature (as immature obviously as 13 year olds go) and my guidance is really crappy, I just told him to sit with a straight back and if a thought pops up, get rid of it. I think it would be irresponsible for me to not ask if there is any psychological/physiological damage that could be done by that, he's been meditating just for 2 days and the only unpleasantness he tells me is that the back hurts a bit (I also have that). He's also really fat, about 100kg and 1.7m tall, i've put him on a diet recently and made him go to the gym, all using the bait of the computer. Thank you.

@AleksM For this period I agree somewhat, as something that I asked for in this post. But I think on regular days-correct me if you think im wrong- positive thinking is better than concentration on breath, because we cant operate as humans 24/7 from a state of expanded awareness. We have to fulfill our role as a person. As shinzen and much more master said, they have a choice whether to access the source or not, the time they arent doing it, they're people. since we plebs arent as developed we dont have access to source so we should have something to back us up like positive thinking, else we'd just get lost in the mumbo jumbo of awareness and not actually live human lives. we do this work at the end of the day to live as self actualized humans, not as some awareness ghosts.

@AleksM yeah, at the same time it's not really possible. What I meant more was being conscious of thoughts and letting go of bad ones, while actively searching the good in stuff. I guess that doesnt make you get nearer to Truth than breath focus but I dont think it strays away from it.

@AleksM dont completely agree with the positive thinking but the breathing sounds very attractive! thanks for the motivation

sorry. I meant for how long did you already practice the concentration technique before the retreat, also do you think that the practice affected your results in this retreat?

I am letting my monkey mind take over this topic. it is well known that consciousness work has a lot of absolutely ridiculous side effects good and bad. some of these I think have to potential of damaging the body, like kundalini stuff, and some could maybe fuck someone up mentally like going insane (maybe monkey mind theorizing or something else). can consciousness work cause brain damage? am I talking nonsense here? What precautions should I take in order to not go insane/break my neck?