lmfao

Amen

@moon777light You don't know if it is a trick or not, true. One can never know for certain that they aren't under the guise of self deception. No entity (like the the god in christianity or islam) or organism can ever be sure they aren't deceiving themselves. I agree with that quote you mentioned. You talked about how humans have imagined entities in their mind for things. Many things that we take to have a concrete existence are just concepts/words. Human rights, laws, religion, nation, money, it's all an abstraction. The author talked about these things being something you can't directly see and they were concocted in sense. What I see being pointed to by what you type is the difference between the map and the territory. I see meditation and mindfulness as the "best" attempt you can make to avoid these concoctions. All meditation is about is paying attention to the raw data in your consciousness. Paying attention to the raw data in your consciousness will probably "break down" the existence of even simple thing like "a tree" , and would probably go even deeper with the idea that the author is mentioning. I personally think of concepts being rooted in words, with words being rooted in thoughts, and thoughts are just a conglomeration of different noises in your head that have no inherent meaning in the same way that random colours and sounds you experience in the outside world have no inherent meaning.

This is probably the wrong site for this type of thread but I feel the need to type it anyway. I fell asleep 90 minutes ago, and those 90 minutes since then have been packed with the most emotional distress I've ever experienced in my life. I woke up screaming. It was literal hell, I've never experienced so much negative emotion in my life. Those 90 minutes of sleep literally felt like two weeks of lived experience, so much time dilation. I'm at a loss of words of how to describe my dream, other than simply being hell. After having woken up now, Im literally crying if I try to remember my dreams. The whole things feel so cerebral and unreal. I've never taken psychedelics, but for a short part of the dream I was experiencing what you could probably say is the most negative and suffering filled drug trip in all of human existence with hallucinations and negative perceptions reaching to depths of negativity you never even knew existed. Hallucinations and emotions that I felt in the dream was extremely scary and honestly feels like some borderline supernatural shit. Anyone here had similar problems?

@Dan Arnautu According to understandmyself.com , I'm 1st percentile agreeableness when I took it over half a year ago. This might be inaccurate, I'm not really sure. I think I'm below average in agreeableness for sure though. I just took the test from the site you referenced, my agreeableness score is 2.5 ( which judging by eye on the scale they give since they don't tell you an exact number) would make me 25th percentile agreeableness. I've definitely changed a bit since I took the test half a year ago, plus the test half a year ago was somewhat inaccurate. I'm not really sure what I can say to you, since I think my low agreeableness arises from the fact that one of my parents is a manipulative person (although the manipulation isnt directed at me) and so it is that I have a tendency to just look for signs of bullshit in other people. Another thing to realise is that your high agreeableness might partially be a function of anxiety; you might be excessively nice not because you're being authentic but because you're afraid of the consequences of not being extra nice. If you see something being done inefficiently around you, don't be afraid of saying it. People should have a thick enough skin for you to criticise what they do without them thinking you're criticising them as a person, provided you're nice and polite about it.

@Leo Gura Yeah there is no such thing as typical, I understand what you're trying to say. There is no such thing as typical especially in the context of absolute infinity and in the context of what a persons exact conscious experience is like, although typical does exist for individual particular aspects of the psyche when we take averages of certain traits in a human population. For arguments sake we could conceptualise the nervous system as having Y (with Y just being any real number) elements where each element has a numerical quantity for a person. The numerical value would represent "sensitivity" for that particular aspect of first hand experience in consciousness. We could have a Y-th dimensional co-ordinate system where the exact, precise numerical quantity across each dimension of measurement is needed to define the exact state of the nervous system. I suppose I was also curious about the particular cause of autism ( and also other cases like maybe psychopathy or whatever other deviations you can get from the average). In the reductionist model I proposed in the second paragraph, autistic people would have relatively low numbers in some dimensions of measurements. But I also wonder whether someone autistic would compensate for it with an increased number for other dimensions of measurement. Supposing Peter Ralston has a decreased sensitivity to "Love" ,idk if he will compensate for it in other ways. Ignoring neurological conditions, we could just look at personality types such as the ones in MBTI. My question is kinda unanswerable, but I was just wondering if certain types of people are capable of a more "rich" experience than other people by nature. Need it be said that the "value" of this consciousness couldn't be reduced into the sum of numerical quantities across each dimension in the reductionist model I stated earlier. My current speculation is that 99.9999...% of people have a equal capacity for a rich conscious experience since all beings in reality come from the same absolute. Some people might be "talented" in fulfilling their capacity, but everyone should be able to I think.

@NoSelfSelf idk maybe they just mediate for the lols. Maybe the mediate because they're bored and there are perhaps few things more enjoyable. A passionate , master level athlete will keep doing his craft for fun even if he won't make progress and even if he can't enter any competitions .

When I was younger I discovered a stretch I'd use in an attempt to fix my bad posture. I made a post about this months ago, but I just want to make another post because: 1) I've slightly changed how I do it now and 2)its feels amazing. After a very short time of using the stretch today I accidentally made my left arm numb and tingling (and it hasn't fully gone after 45 mins) so be careful lmao. I have no experience with yoga whatsoever, I just do this stretch when meditating randomly. Sit down (not on a chair) cross legged (or with whatever sitting position you'd use for meditation) and put your hands behind your back. Introlock all your fingers, including your thumbs. Keeping your hands interlocking with your back straight, try to raise your arms and hands far up vertically whilst other trying to maximise the horizontal distance between hands and back. You don't have to strain yourself too much here. KEEP YOUR BACK STRAIGHT. If you are looking straight ahead of you, tilt your head 90 degrees to left or right. The previous sentence is simply being written down to precisely give you a visual perspective from which to follow the next instructions. You can separate your thumbs and then from the current perspective of your visual field rotate your hands anti clockwise. Your fingers are interlocking (except thumbs) and your palm is facing away from your back. Keep your head in a normal position now. Keeping your back straight, stretch your hands and arms far out horizontally from your back whilst keeping your arms raised vertically. Put a lot of effort into this stretch, even if it's uncomfortable. After straining yourself for a bit you should start to feel a huge stretch across your entire arms and and shoulders. If it hurts and is uncomfortable, it's a good sign. Keep going. Remember to keep good form and symmetry. After you've finished, if you've done it right with enough intensity, your arms +shoulders will be tingling and relaxed. For a few brief moments my consciousness felt extremely elavated and amazing. It felt like I ascended to the 8468th dimension. Be careful, for me the stretch is very potent and caused numbness and tingling for me quickly. Do it at your own discretion. But if you're of normal health, and are not a pussy who doesn't mind numbness and tingling, go for it. Im typing about this just because it felt so orgasmic, idk if it will be the same for everyone. I did the stretch 70 minutes into meditation (so my shoulders and back were slightly loosened up for the whole things) and maybe it felt so good just because of the numbness and tingling I induced which persistent over an hour after. It might just be a combination of all the right factors which made it feel potent. --------------------------------------------------- Extra info which is not needed: After doing it and putting your arms in front of you, your body might have the natural urge to bend your arms and flex them towards your body. To explain what this urge is, you might know of this little experiment. Completely submerge your hands in the pockets of your trousers ("trousers" is the same as the word "pants" for you filthy americans). Have an uncletched palm. Push both your hands outward from your body as hard as you again, straining your muscles. Your hands are fully submerged in the pocket and hence will not escape. Do it untill you're extremely tired. Take your hands out of your pocket and your hands will experience a funny urge to move outwards.

@Leo Gura Supposing we grant the existence of brain types and personality, is it possible that an autistic brain and personality type would give someone access to new/different dimensions of high consciousness to a neurotyoucal, or is every deviation from a neurotypical result in exclusion of something rather than inclusion.

@Jordan94 whenever I meditate (I just do 1hr a day) there's always plenty of shit for me to focus on and work on. Emotions, pain, mind wondering, monkey mind, etc. If you're looking to spice things up, you could maybe meditate when you're slightly dehydrated and/or hungry? Meditating upon new flavours of suffering and misery might work.

If I have the feeling that everything in consciousness is perfect and that the existence of everything in reality is good and amazing, is that what is pointed to by "love" with a capital L? If that's the case, is "Love" just a mode of being you can reach at high levels of consciousness?

@Tony 845 I'm not enlightened, but I intuit that's its possible to get rid of anxiety and depression. In your consciousness you're experiencing all sorts of sensations, pressures, emotions, different senses, and etc. For some reason, we ascribe a positive meaning to some sensations and a negative meaning to other sensations. This ascription of meaning happens at a subconscious and conscious level. The raw sensation of something negative, e.g. anxiety, isn't inherently bad. You could perhaps say that "objectively speaking", a negative sensation/feeling/emotion isn't inherently bad. To say that the raw sensation of fear is worse than the feeling of (insert arbitrarily chosen pleasurable sensation,e. G. Sexual stimulation) is to say that the colour red is objectively superior to the colour blue, when in reality both these colours are equal in their "objective" status. I was meditating earlier today and felt I went deep. I was at first blissfull, then depressed after meditation ended, and now blissfull again. And I was feeling extremely down earlier, but through being mindful it's gone. The only way for you to get rid of a negative emotion is to fully accept the negative emotion and see it for what it is. Right now, there are negative sensations for me but I have equanimity and optimism about it. Your depression might get temporarily worse for short periods of time from doing meditation since your old neurotic motivational structures can abruptly collapse. The whole process of purification through mindfullness is essentially outlined in this video. You let the negativity engulf every cubic centimeter of your body and it is then that you'll realise that it ain't all that bad: At the deepest levels of enlightenment, you're probably gonna be in a state of peaceful of bliss. I think that at that point, the fact that there is existence at all feels beautiful beyond words and all contents of your consciousness feel good.

@Preetom @Outer Thanks for the good advice. @Angelite ?‍♂️

@Akuma I know its bad but ive started to struggle bothering listening to materialists talk about anything the same way I struggle bothering listening to religious people talk about anything. That said though, this particular talk seems interesting. He seems intelligent for an 87 year old lmao.

@CreamCat You seem quite interested in the area of psychopathy. Have you read what self proclaimed psychopaths say about themselves online in places like Quora? https://www.quora.com/topic/Psychopathy-and-Psychopaths It appears that psychopaths are born the way they are and that isnt their fault, but they are as far as one can be in wanting sympathy for that fact. Because from what I've read of what self proclaimed psychopaths say, their emotional dial is muted in sadness and anxiety in combination with being muted in empathy. I find this answer to the question "What is the definition of a psychopath" quite interesting. https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-definition-of-a-psychopath/answers/51259476 Im about to goi off on a tangent. In regards to monoamine oxidase A, I remember reading an article https://mad.science.blog/2018/07/12/serotonism/ which essentially stated that theres a hypothesis that groups of people which have faced oppression and subjugation (on a large enough scale to have an effect, im assuming) will select for genes which code for low MAO-A.

I've recently wondered whether theres a "reason" for why certain things are deemed pleasurable and why certain things are deemed painful. From meditation I've come to feel that things like negative emotions, muscle pain, thirst, are in of in themselves just sensations in the same way that warmth, tasty food and sex generate another set of sensations. There isnt anything inherently wrong about the raw sensation of fear, its just different from sexual gratification in the same way blue is just different from red; none of the colours are inherently superior. But despite this, my mind has a natural aversion to certain sensations which are deemed negative and ive come to notice only during meditation that this aversion happens at a level that is subconscious but I never notice this in my day to day life. I think long meditation sessions are the best way to see this. Maybe there is no reason for why we have an aversion to certain colours, and it is just the way it is. I'll read whatever thoughts you have on this. A really good short video on this topic: There's also Leo's video on strong negative emotions:

@now is forever Good question, politics probably does go deeper than that two dimensional compass.

@Outer Everything just is the way it is, nothing is done by you in creating this moment. Reality is always in a situation you did nothing to make or control.

@Ampresus Good

@Outer Just took it LET THE POLITICAL JIHAD ENSUE. I agree with you that libertarianism is just voluntary ism. Please don't purge my dualistic egotistical ass Leo, I'm sorry for posting political compass ?

@Outer I like libertarianism but I just feel that taking it to its extreme in implementation in society wouldn't succeed, I think Leo articulated it well. I personally think that voluntaryism is a nice ideal, but maybe government is a necessary evil. The ideal government probably has some conservativism there, liberalism here, a pinch of authoritarianism, a dash of libertarianism and etc. For a long time I have and still do resonate with libertarianism, but it just seems extremely unrealistic. To paraphrase something I heard from Stefan Molyneux "At the core of every law is a gun pointing at your head telling you to comply", and whilst that is an emotionally compelling reason to hate government, I think it's something to accept.

Enlightenment is paradoxical in a way because your desire for enlightenment is what causes you to not be enlightened, although that might be a crude way of phrasing it. The way I see it, it's the intention behind your effort to increase consciousness and mindfulness that matter. If you try to forcefully "raise" you awareness into accepting something negative in your experience, you'll fail. If your awareness has the intent of "fixing" or removing something, you'll fail. Rather your awareness should come from a "desire" to just pay attention to reality as it is. In order to stop thoughts "The first rule is: Don't try to! Because if you do you will be like someone trying to make rough waters smooth water with a flat iron"

@Ampresus Because I have not reached this potentially existing point where I need no further theory whatsoever for the rest of my life I cannot answer your question. But I'm not sure why you would be so focused on this question and why you are not solely focused on what you should be doing right now. Things change in life, planning ahead 40 years is pointless. Just wonder what you should be doing in a much smaller time frame in the future. Like as I am right now, I feel like I've done too much thinking and mental masturbation in my life that for now and for the foreseeable future I'm done with taking in non-duality theory. Theory helps to a degree but you MUST practice. I don't think I'm done with theory forever, but as of right now I am done with it because I can sense it is the right move for me. So if you're deciding whether to take in more theory or only just practice for the next few weeks/months/years, the answer should be clear to you deep down.

@saffron In a very pragmatic and simple outlook, the quote is pointing towards the fact that those who take action in the world are the ones who will prevail. "Evil" will prevail if "Good" is passive. Does it even need to be said that the quote is meaningless in the context of absolute truth.

I might be going about my daily business and become mindful of the fact that nothing is in my control (not a negative way). For all waking moments of your life you're a situation which you did nothing to create. In some sense existence is effortless because you never have and never will have to do anything. The problem I have is that whenever I try to maintain my awareness for long periods of time or I try to break bad habits I have I'm met with huge emotional resistance and I'm probably met with what you'd call ego backlash. Even if I get glimpses of non-duality there's still a massive under current of emotional shit which seems impossible to get rid of without an extreme amount of suffering. I feel like I can spend a few minutes in no mind voluntary, but it always dissappear for me. Besides mindfulness, what solutions exist for low emotional maturity?