youngshinzen

@Max_V Take a pen and just start to doodle like a lunatic. Look at your work and try to identify an object in there (like looking at the clouds, your subconscious will pick sth. that is relevant) Take that as a starting point and find associations towards your highest values. Create a story with that. It's just about eliminating the pressure in the beginning, after that it's easy and fun. If you have done these steps, I would be excited to see it

@Geromekevin I think if you had the experience yourself, you would say so too. And you know how Leo is, he's very careful with these statements. The other thing is: Reality can be seen like a fraction with many factors and variables in the numerator and denominator. When thinking/experiencing on such a high level happens, you're able to reduce the fraction to a minimum (=1 for example). If you did such a task in normal life, you would also have a feeling of "oh now i got it, it's that simple." Because of the simplicity of the absolute, it induces a strong feeling of understanding. And it would make perfect sense if reality is based upon simple rules or paradoxes (outside of logic).

@Nahm I ask because I had a 9 hour long trip (thinking non-stop in causal chains) when I ate a hash-cookie 3 years ago. The only things I remembered is that: there is much more to life than we perceive. An analogy that came to my mind was: If you see a light-tube, it's just light shining constantly. But if you record it with your phone in slow-mo, you can see that it flickers. that we cannot die, there's nowhere to go life is an infinite chain reaction infinity=nothingness When that last insight came to me, I opened my eyes and everything was understood. After 9 hours of ultra rapid thinking, the thoughts just stopped. Now the most interesting thing is: at that point I was not interested in religion, philosophy, physics, biology, nor did I know about spirituality. Let alone enlightenment. Now how can my experience be so congruent if it's unique? I've used the "kid-example" to represent a state of mind without knowledge. Could it be that everyone of us has the absolute answers within him/her?

@How to be wise In the first few sentences in The Power Of Now he talks about being depressed since his early childhood. That day when he disidentified with his "self", he had even more emotional and physical pain than ever, which shows the connection between enlightenment and suffering. It's a sudden change of brain activity, going from the most powerful self-blame to complete innocence. That happened to me too. But I just became aware of infinite determinism, which implies a lot of good stuff regarding insights, but I'm still in ego mode. Maybe because he was 29 when it happened and I was 22... Damn, only 7 years more left in hell

@Alex K If it does not get better with using techniques, you should try to get some psychedelics. There will be a huge gap between the experience and your everyday life, which creates a tension between the two. I just had one trip 4 years ago and it still motivates me to a very high degree.

@Fredrik Andersson There's evolution and then there's spirituality. Do you want to serve the first or the latter?

@Joseph Maynor Who has mentioned a "need to know"? Edit: Even after your edit, I still don't get it.

@How to be wise I don't know. Depends on the definition of a sleep state, maybe it's a fluent transition, in that case we're not sleeping, nor being awake. Why?

@Captain Flint You should not take my example literal, the kid just represents simplicity of thinking and a minor treasury of words. Leo basically talks about infinity, nothingness and experience. Maybe it's like a puzzle, the "kid" and Leo both completed it, but the kid had one with less pieces and Leo with a lot more. The core of my question was: Is the level of satisfaction the same? And if communicated, could the kid achieve the same effect on the audience?

I am longing for a spiritual experience. I`ve had three before: one near death experience, a hash-cookie and realized I´m very sensitive to those (9 hour trip to realizing infinity) and a deep insight of determinism and no free will after a long depression. Today I have realized more than ever that I want my friends to have spiritual experiences, through long meditation or drugs, just to satisfy my longing for it. I sat down and became aware of what I felt. I was hungry and felt an inner vacuum, which is nothing new to me. But the fact is, that this seems to be my motivation to have a peak experience. So the question is: Should I find ways to realize a strong spiritual experience or should I face this emotion more often? But there might also be the option, that this feeling (fear) can be reduced through taking a substance and it might end the vicious cycle. What are your opinions and experiences?

@Nahm Thank you. I'm already noticing how that answer changed me.

@Geog Haha that's really messed up that you have to meditate to not be aware of your breath:D But I have done a few months of solely breathing meditation too and focused on it automatically during the day. Try "chaotic breathing" (Elliott Hulse) whenever you feel anxious about it, that will help to lose control and become more relaxed.

@Nahm I feel like it's a long way to get to where you are on a being level, but let me start by telling you what I became aware of: 1. I was intimidated by the amount of words you wrote. 2. I thought, wow that's a really cool guy, he's embodying this to the fullest! 3. Wait...what if he just... 4. Copied a part of your answer, pasted it in google to check if you already wrote that to someone else. 5. Feeling guilty for being so skeptical... 6. Nothing relevant came up, realized I had to put it in quotation marks to get the exact same text. 7. It was hard to edit the marks with my iPhone, had to play around a lot with the magnifying glass to get the marks on the right position. 8. Nothing found. I was certain posts from this forum are available on google, but maybe it won't show up there, so I tried to search it directly on this forum. 9. A huge list of "maybe you were looking for "first word" or "second word" or ... 10. I was reading the list with Leos voice, actually thinking he made it right that second. Which is infinitely stupid... 11. Read your answer again, became more aware of how specific it was. 12. Then I was even more greatful then before, but to even this feeling out I thought, it's just a brain and electric signals typing words nonstop. Again feeling guilty for not letting you be superior in my imagination? Crazy to see the amount of shit I think, thanks! ? I'll focus more on those negativ thoughts from the past. It really feels like I'm always wearing this heavy coat, packed with things I've done "wrong". When I think of my face it's like it's made out of crumbling clay. Can you recommend any techniques from your experience to feel fresh and free again? And I'm much younger than my profil says? And already wanting to cease to exist?

@MsNobody That really inspired me, especially the part with nature being a teacher. That's something Wim Hof talks about a lot, but he tends to repeat the same phrases over and over again, which gives me the feeling of him being too unconscious while talking. But hearing this from you or a source of higher thinking is much more acceptable for me :-) Thanks for sharing!

@Nahm I think that it´s an accumulation of suppressed negative emotions from the past, but the core might be fearing death, which should partially dissolve having ego death experiences with psychedelics. I have been meditating almost daily for a year now, but I´m stuck in the concept of determinism and still feeling like an entity, which also leads to a cognitive dissonance. Yes, I´m looking forward to participate in retreats, but I am really enthusiastic when it comes to psychedelics due to my intense hash experience, so this is something I´m thinking about every day. But I´m judging people who try to find peace with external things like relationships, partying, talking... And now I see myself in that position, maybe on a more conscious level, but the mechanic is the same, isn`t it? I would tell "those people" to first become content themselves and then strive for these external things. So should I wait until its indifferent to me to use psychedelics or is it ok to have a mostly negative emotion (mixed with curiosity and excitement also) as a catalyst?