Matt8800

Tell him your concerns in a gentle way without trying to convince him, love him and let it go. Either he will figure it out eventually or he wont. Its not in your hands, or anyone else's.

The ego is an emergent property of our animal brains. If insects, worms, etc are conscious, I dont assume that AI does not now have a rudimentary consciousness.

Something similar to is not the same thing as being the same. Outside of the imaginings in your head, its a non-issue.

I feel like my worldview is probably what you refer to as realized nihilism but would you mind defining what you think realized nihilism is? (as opposed to unrealized)

If you are not ready, dont. For many, the day comes when they realize there is something profound missing from their life.

Unsubstantiated assertions. Leo's videos are in alignment with Buddhism and Yoga, which have liberated people for over a thousand years. This is nothing new.

Ive found that neuroticism and mindfulness cannot co-exist. Leo does a video on mindfulness alone is curative that explains it further. I used to be highly neurotic but not anymore

To me, Jesus is a reminder that much of modern society believes in the efficacy of human sacrifice...at least in particular situations. Other than that, how could anyone possibly know what he actually said or did?

There is no way to know what Jesus actually said or did. The new testament was written almost 100 years after jesus' death. Even if it was just a couple years, stories still get changed alot....especially before the information age.

I cant speak for anyone else but there are subtle but important difference between them for me. Loving kindness meditation is another good tool the tool box that can lead to unique but radical changes.

Many shamans for thousands of years would wholeheartedly disagree with that assumption There is no one thing that "produces" enlightenment but many things can be factors that come together at the right time. With that said, people that have used psychedelics for spiritual work pretty much unanimously agree that it can be a powerful factor. The only people that dont believe that are the people that have not used psychedelics for spiritual work.

Do you want to talk with people that already agree with you or do you want to talk to people that dont agree with you? If people that dont agree with you, why? Either you are trying to find truth or you are driven by egoic reasons. If truth, you want to discuss it with people that dont agree so you can find the holes in your thinking. That means you will admit when you are wrong and change. I suspect it is for egoic reasons but either way, join debate.org. There you can argue with people all you want

Do you exist? If so, there is a Self...just not what people are thinking. I think people get carried away with the no self concept. I think Alan Watts makes this mistake also. Buddhists believe that, while the self/ego is just an illusion, there exists a stream of consciousness/karma that gets repeatedly incarnated. I think there is paradoxically both oneness and separateness. If a raindrop falls into the ocean, is its identity a raindrop or the ocean?

The mental horsepower of the person on the receiving end, their environment up to that point in their lives, genetic hard-wiring of their brain, etc, etc are all very powerful factors to consider. Some subjects are simply too complicated for less intelligent or biased people. Remember that the average IQ is 100. That means half the population has an IQ below 100.

I hear you. I was an arrogant, judgmental, alcoholic, religious, cold-hearted republican whose sole goal in life was making more money and getting laid as often as humanly possible. I was miserable lol

Thanks, I feel strongly about psychedelics because of how they have changed my life. It seems strange to me that people with no experience with psychedelics would deride them. They used to kind of scare me but my attitude was that there must be something there if so many people are convinced it changed them for the better. Maybe Ralston and Sadhguru should watch Leo's video on radical open mindedness

I was one of those people that used to know I needed to meditate but just couldnt find the discipline. Long story short, I tried DMT in an attempt to shed some light on my obsession with the nature of consciousness. When I tried DMT, I knew that all suffering was an illusion, love, beauty and being present are the most important values and knew in a new way that meditation would become an important part of my life. That was about a eighteen months ago. I have meditated every day since and average about an hour a day. I used to be depressed and anxious and now I can say I rarely have a negative thought or emotion. I am truly happy and love my life now. You can judge the tree by the fruit on it. Its a good thing I didnt listen to people that say that psychedelics arent helpful otherwise I would have been undoubtedly stuck where I was. Nobody else's unsubstantiated opinions and biases will ever change my reality.

I did a lot of experimenting with combining DMT and meditation and discovered some interesting techniques. One of the things I discovered was Samadhi. I didnt know what it was but when I read about it later, it described exactly what I experienced. One thing I can say about sumadhi is that if you wonder whether you experienced it or not, you didnt. It is a very profound experience in another reality. Once I had practiced it with DMT a few times, I could do it without DMT. Here is basically what I do: 1. I start with "clearing my energy" meditation. Sometimes there can be some background "energies" that can get in the way. I ask myself questions like how do I feel, if I am unhappy about anything, anxious, in physical pain, etc. If something arises, I just let it in and focus my observation on it until it disappears. I keep repeating until I feel like I have cleared everything out. Leo does a video that describes this technique called something like how to deal with negative emotions. I make sure to breath deep and slow. Specifically, I use Ujjayi Pranayama. 2. Next, I focus all my effort to have strict concentration in observing any thought or emotion that arises. The best way I can describe it is I am aggressively intense with my observation. Leo does a video about meditation vs concentration where he describes how to develop access concentration. That is what you want. 3. My eyes are closed but my eyes are focused as if they were looking at a point in space about six inches in front of my third eye. I believe this is also a yoga technique. I am like a hunter hiding in a bush waiting for his prey to step in his trap. My prey are thoughts and emotions. 4. When thoughts or emotions arise, I direct all my observation at them. When they are observed, they are not identified with. If they are not identified with and not fed, they disappear like a mirage. If my concentration breaks in the least, I try to bring it immediately back. This is not a meditation technique to relax. It is a technique that takes effort. The more the effort, the more you get from it. 5. You will find your mind getting increasingly still. If your focus is strong and and you keep pushing through, your mind will be like water that is as smooth as glass. Eventually, you will reach a state where your ego is completely gone, subject and object are one and you are pure awareness without cognition. Once I am there, I usually try to push for a deeper state a bit longer and then I just stay in that state for awhile. 6. If that still doesnt work, adding some DMT will usually make it work. Once it is experienced, you know what you are shooting for next time, which makes it easier. Here is how I supplement my meditation with DMT: a. Find a nice comfortable place where you can sit in your meditation position. b. I would never recommend DMT without music. DMT is extremely pleasant with music but can be unpleasant without music. DMT is intense so the music is like a safety tether to sanity and helps avoid a bad trip. c. Have the headphones in and the music playing but do not "listen" to the music. It should be unconscious background sensations like the feeling of your butt sitting on a cushion. d. A DMT high when smoked lasts about 15 minutes. The meditation sweet spot is right after the peak and throughout the next hour or so. Profound insights and wisdom can be gained from higher doses but you really dont need much at all when your focus is meditation. I am not suggesting anyone should use DMT but if you are already experienced with psychedelics, I've found DMT to be the best for this. I have also noticed that very long flowering sativas (cannabis) can help because they have unique effects but those sativas are difficult to find, and obviously less effective than DMT. I have also been able to reach samadhi with ketamine, which also has very low toxicity.

I would say that it is like discovering what a door knob is, how it works and how to identify it. The door knob was always there but once you open the door the first time, it is a lot more simple after that. Thank you

For me, it was simply because it was so radically different and I had never experienced it. Letting go of the ego was just a concept before it happened. I was like a barnacle trying to imagine what a life on land is like. I had tried meditating throughout the years on and off and it just never clicked for me. My meditation used to consist of me sitting there bored waiting for it to be over because I didnt know what else was possible. The DMT literally changed my life....radically. Everyone I know, including my kids, say I am a totally different person. The first time, I saw how all suffering was an illusion, beauty was all around me and I just wasnt seeing it and that I needed to focus on love. DMT also taught me what it was like to have no ego. I needed that so I knew what to shoot for next time.

True. I am just posting what I found works for me.

I forgot about breathing (Ujjayi Pranayama) in my original post. I edited it to add that in.

Ive been meditating about a year and a half. Thats probably not long compared to some but Im 48 yrs old and been obsessed with the nature of consciousness, and trying to figure out who/what was having this conscious experience, for quite a few years. I suppose that is a form of self inquiry. I had also studied epistemology, philosophy and science about 10 hours a week for the last 15 years. The year prior to meditating, I had discarded my whole belief system and rebuilt it from scratch (surprisingly painful). I had always been afraid of psychedelics but knew that if I was serious about figuring consciousness out, I needed to explore there. The first time I smoked DMT, I saw a lot of things and I was totally changed as a person. I understood the importance of meditation, searched for videos on meditating on youtube the next day, found Leo's page and have meditated an average of an hour a day without missing a day ever since.

There is a slew of epistemological issues if anyone says they "know" that astrology is true or claims to know how it works so Im not sure what you mean by "you dont know anything when it comes to astrology". The burden of proof always rests with the claimant. I dont have to prove unicorns arent real; the person claiming unicorns are real has the burden of proof. In philosophy, this concept is illustrated in "Russells teapot". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot The skeptic in me says that it is just bullshit for the weak-minded. The mystic in me says that dont rule anything out because reality is not what it seems. I will take the middle road and hold no opinion. I doesnt have anything to do with enlightenment so Im not going to spend my time trying to analyze it.

If they were true, how would one verify it? If we believe things without verification, what methods would we use to weed out the untrue beliefs or should we just believe everything told to us? Im not saying Astrology isnt true. Im just saying be very careful about taking a position on something until it can be verified objectively or experientially. Personally, I think the best answer is to say we dont know and leave it at that until there is more information to consider.