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The seeking perpetuates the notion that bliss is somewhere else, and needs to be found(lack) in order to enjoy reality. But nothing is actually lacking or missing. Its already full and complete. Remember there cant be a sweet without a sour. Infinity has all emotions included 🙏 ❤️

Mastery vs the Ordinary I've been reflecting on the concept of mastery and the 10,000 hour rule where in order to be amazing in something, you need to put 10,000 hours towards it. I've mainly been contemplating this because I have been feeling aimless in the way that I feel like I'm not working towards a compelling goal careerwise at this time. I've also caught myself comparing myself to the other people in my life who appear to be working towards a compelling goal and really clocking in the 10,000 hours in the form of high education by going to law school or medical school or by working crazy long work hours in consulting, research, and accounting. And I caught myself feeling mediocre in the face of that thus resulting in an existential crisis where I clock into work wonder wtf I'm doing with my Sisyphean life and old insecurities to crop up. One of the insecurities that has shown up for me is my inability to work crazy long hours. Hell, sometimes I find myself tired after a 40 hour work week much less 60-80. Not to mention as a student in college that I wasn't exactly the type of person who had 2 jobs, was involved on campus, was going out every weekend from Thursday to Sunday, while still managing to maintain a 4.0 GPA. And as a result, I do have a bit of a chip on my shoulder. But I think it really helped that in my current job, everyone is doing things at their own pace and I'm not in a hyper competitive bubble of my own peers. I was able to slow down and still manage to pick up on the skills I need to do well in my role. Eventually, I came to the realization that my friends who are putting in crazy long work hours or pursuing a specialized professional degree aren't necessary special or superior to me rather they're putting in their 10,000 at a faster rate or they are more structured in clocking in those hours because they aren't as aimless in clocking in those hours. Another thing that I recall from the forum is that there is a good chance that you have already started clocking in your 10,000 hours without realizing it solely from engaging with hobbies and interests you have. And that makes sense in my context because I feel like even though my friends are super accomplished on paper, the ways that I stand out are in the ways I give good advice on relationships, mental health, and over all a sense of guidance, how I have pretty on point takes politically and culturally, and my sense of media literacy. Sure, the things I have just listed aren't coming in the form of a degree nor are they things I'm clocking in hours for at my job but it's still work that I have put in, even if it didn't feel like work as I've been clocking in my 10,000 hours. I think we also have this view of mastery that with being a master comes money or fame of some sorts. I think the first people that comes to mind for me personally in terms of mastery are talented actors, singers, artists, entrepreneurs, professional athletes, video essayists, public speakers etc. But what about the regular masters who aren't in the limelight making millions? I have encountered a few of these in my life often in academia given that I was in college for a decent chunk of time. I also feel like I encounter this in my corporate job as well since it does take some time to accumulate the skills to troubleshoot and help clients with the software well enough to where you can also teach people in the company as well. I say this to say that you don't have to be exceptional in the sense of being larger than life in order to have valuable skills that you have mastered. That is a realization I had to have in order to deal with my mundane life and acknowledge that even though I feel aimless at times, that doesn't mean that I'm not working towards mastering things I care about. I might not have a super lofty goal like getting through law school, training for a marathon, trying to travel through every country in the world, or building a business or following on social media with a specific niche but that doesn't mean that my work is not going to amount to any thing. Here are some ways that I've put in work towards my purpose of understanding and improving the human condition: Understanding the human condition on a personal level: journalling therapy + self help self reflection meditation Understanding the human condition on an individual level: reviewing various social dynamics in my social circle and reviewing research that comes out on various topics helping my friends through their issues while taking their specific situation and tendencies into context listening to other people's life situations and applying them to my own or drawing parallels with what other individuals are encountering regularly socializing with my friends and understanding them on a deeper level taking things I learn about the human condition on a personal and societal level and applying it to individuals and their specific situations Understanding the human condition on a societal and global level: getting a social science degree and taking classes ranging from sociology, political science, history, religion, and anthropology watching various video essays on politics and social/human rights issues + staying updated on current events reading books on various things I'm interested in such as policy, history, and international relations learning about different cultures and watching documentaries about different places travelling + exposing myself to different experiences and ways of doing things (especially in regards to trying new foods and cooking) trying to learn other langauages even if it's me just doing 5 min daily duolingo lessons lol I came to a lot of this not by being super structured in my purpose but by either following my bliss or dealing with things in my life that were pressing enough to develop certain skills. I think I started off more with the category of understanding the human condition on a personal level as I was working through a lot of trauma and difficulties of my upbringing which gave me a lot of purpose until that came to more of a resolution in the last year or so. I might not have something I can physically point to or flex regarding the work I have poured into myself since much of it was internal, but that doesn't mean that I didn't put in the work in the first place. And it shows in the way that I move through the world, evaluate situations, and the type of life I have built for myself. I also think nowadays, i find myself gravitating towards the 3rd category and that is the category that I'm thinking that I want to focus my career and hobbies towards. I know the life purpose talks about finding your purple cow or finding a niche that causes your form of mastery to stand out amongst the rest and there is merit to that. But I don't think that in every case that it has to do with being exeptional and larger than life. Sometimes it's you specializing something in your field like being an immigration lawyer for people with specific life circumstances, or maybe it's the specific way or the personality that shows through your technique like for example if you were to be a master in being a teacher in early childhood education. I guess I'm saying this to help bring the notion of finding your niche or purple cow down to earth to something more tangible as it doesn't always manifest in a clean cut way in situations outside of art or entrepreneurship. This is a video that I find myself resonating with lately: The video starts out with the creator talking about how she tended to feel emotions in a very big way growing up and how she would feel really intensely in love with people but since she perceived herself to be incredibly average, she had a hard time imagining that someone would feel this way towards her thus leading her to eventually start trying to overcompensate for her self perceived averageness by trying to be exceptional in something, in her case it was music. She goes on to explain how in the early days of social media when people were mainly just following people in their inner circle and influencers weren't as much of a thing, that having a talent and being really good at something felt like a rare, exceptional thing. There wasn't as much exposure to how much talent that was actually out there because usually the image you had consisted of a certain celebrity or a kid in the school talent show. And because we didn't have as much exposure and access to celebrities compared to what we have now in social media, it was easier to deify them and put them in a pedestal because that type of curated image and attention was more rare back then. And this creator took that notion that talent is scarce and that she needs to be exceptional to be loved and just ran with it in her teens and early twenties But as time went on and as we have gotten to the age of short form content and specialized algorithms, it feels like everyone and their mother is really exceptional at something. Which isn't a bad thing because it lets us acknoweldge the extraordinaryness in otherwise ordinary people which can be beautiful, but it also makes it seem that being exception isn't enough or that it isn't all that. She also goes on to talk about how we tend to value outward facing talents like being really good at painting for example over inward facing talents such as being exceptionally kind. The later tends to be more frequently overlooked by others and even by ourselves. I guess after being on social media for a while, I found myself feeling the same way about mastery and celebrity culture. I found myself feeling the same way towards acknowledging my more inward facing talents that I have built up over the years and how that corresponds to a more external form of mastery that my friend circle engages in more. And while I didn't feel the need to be exceptional in order to get validation from others, I think there has been a part of me throughout my years in the education system that made feel like I needed to be exceptional to myself to access a certain type of self love. That is something that I've been trying to unlearn while acknowledging that I'm not this aimless blob that has nothing going on, that I do have things that I'm working towards even if it doesn't seem like the typical image we have when we picture mastery. Mastery isn't as uncommon as our egos would like us to believe but that doesn't mean that it isn't worth pursuing or that it doesn't amount to much to be in the 1% of something, even when that means that there are still millions of people at the same level as you or better. I think it's important to pursue mastery for it's own sake when it comes to pursuing your life purpose regardless if this is a hobby you have or something that manifests in your career path. And that also means taking things at your own pace and not trying to rush clocking in the 10,000 hours by working unsustainable hours. Not to sound cliche, it's about the journey and if you genuinely enjoy it, you're not going to be counting down on those 10,000 hours to be done and over with so you can have that sense of glory at the end of the journey. And honestly, in most cases of mastery unless it's in a glamorous field, the end of the journey when you become a master at something after clocking in the 10,000 hours is going to be anticlimactic (or hell for all I know the glamorous fields also have this sense of things being anticlimactic once you actually experience certain things instead of just building it up and idealizing it in your head). Like for example, as a teacher, maybe the end destination of mastery is retiring modestly and occasionally having your former students get back to you on how impactful you have been on their lives rather than becoming famous and being this larger than life figure. Maybe all I know for now is that I'm pursuing my interests and I don't know where it will lead in the end, if it leads any fixed destination at all in terms of being exceptional. I guess at the end of me contemplating this, I've been learning to come to terms with my own ordinaryness and mediocity and how performing well and being exceptional isn't always going to be a by product in my journey to mastery nor does mastery gurantee a career or something grand. Nevertheless, it is still something that can give me a sense of purpose for doing something for it's own sake.

Well by Potential and Possibility that is synonyms for Spectrum I think, we can live and experience ourselves as absolute Savages, below Animal nature, totally cruel and disconnected with everything around Us, no concern for others only absolute concern for individual self, or we can be in the experience of God/Absolute and complete oneness of everything around us, via this experience a natural sort of expression of Love comes out, no attempt is being made to make it happen, it just happens, one is super kind and offering and of service to other as a natural consequence, so this is the spectrum, total none connectedness lead to narcissism, total connectedness leads to Natural Bliss within and Giving nature on the outside...

I would say in the end everything is Subjective Experience, everything happens within You, all experience only happens within You, in this yes Solipsism is True, but we are Embodied Life right now, we are not the Body/Mind complex, that is there for us to experience Basic Dual Life here on this planet via our 5 senses, but we can go beyond this, close Your eyes and dream that is not 5 senses in play in this moment, that is our brains recycling data and making a movie, but we can go beyond that too, and realize beyond our 5 senses and Body/Mind complex, to feel and experience complete Inclusiveness and Oneness that has nothing to do with our Body or Mind, that is the whole Sadhana of Eastern Methods, but its a stepping up process, don't think Absolute/God/Life realization when you can't even make Yourself Peaceful at will, its too big a step, baby steps first.. Hey the Guy just admitted he still Suffers in his last video, yes he has a high level of Awareness and such but I think its mostly Intellectual, he's like a jnana yogi "Jnana yoga, also known as the jnana marga, is one of the three classical paths for moksha in Hinduism, which emphasizes the "path of knowledge", he's on a Knowledge/Knowing hunt, that is part of the process but not the complete process imo, he's missing the Ananda/Bliss part which is the Inclusiveness/Oneness aspect, its not in his everyday experience for sure...

If Your Intouch with Truth, by product is Happiness, how could it be any other way? This is why in India they say Truth is Ananda or Bliss, you can't explain Truth/Reality, but if Your in it and experience it, then Bliss is what the baseline of Your Experience is. Intellect Identification destroys all of this, because Intellect divides and separates, not unites and brings together as one which is the Absolute isn't it? The base problem is that people today are brought up via their intellects as the primary form of Intelligence, which in reality it is just a tool, but its gotten us so much in the form of comforts & conveniences, scientific discovery and higher quality of life, so we think it is the be all end all, but it just the beginning of what our true Potential is...

@Psychedelic seeker Once leo wakes up he becomes God of us all. When you wake up you become God of us all. So from perspective of dream characters its true. God is infinitely waking up all its dream characters waking up at the same time forever creating this infinite bliss. Leo is talking from his perspective like he is God but hes not right now he is in a lower dimension then Top Dog God and is Top Dog God right now at the same time. It is kind of egoic but he is just speaking the truth and he sees that he is God of the universe. You are too Everything is visual hallucination from inside a machine. But the brain is tuned somewhere and we see eachother and God did that.

@NilsiSome food for thought , from different perspectives : Even if you were to spend every single second of your life working, getting minimal sleep and optimizing your productivity to your maximim, working your ass off to the very fullest, you would barely move an inch towards solving " humanities pain and misery " . I dont share this for you to get depressed and unmotivated. It's a truth of life that is actually freeing you to choose WHAT DO YOU PERSONALLY FIND MEANINGFUL Consider that unless you consciously choose it, it is not your job as a human being to save others from suffering and pain. And if so, choose a specific niche problem that you find meaningful solving, that aligns with your personal strenghts , values, prefered medium, domain of mastery and zone of genious ( yeah a Life Purpose ) and make your life's work about solving it. You triangulate all of this so that the time of your life that you spend on it is as meaningful , fulfilling and rewarding as possible . Remember that a Life Purpose is your career, your life's impact and contribution to the world. It is a big part of your Life , but it's not the entirety. Chronically spending more than about two chunks of 4 hours per day on your Career, no matter how much you love it, will most likely end up being counter-productive . It will end up negatively affecting the other areas of your life . Work-life balance is real. The balance looks differently at different chapters of your life . A Human being has more needs besides a Career and Life Purpose. You have social needs, sexual needs, physiological needs, finantial needs, cognitive needs, biological needs, curiosity for life, etc Identify what are your needs and work on fulfilling them consciously rather than unconsciously. In what way is your career not fulfilling ? Work on that. In what way do you find meaningful connecting with others? Architect your social life so you can meet this need in that specific way. More food for thought : Empathy is self manipulation. You don't have access to others suffering. You imagine it. And mostly it's less acurrate than it actually is . Your negative emotions and suffering is manually generated by your mind, in an unconscious way. I see that you are aware that if you "stop looking" and imagining others emotions and difficult situations, your suffering dissapears . And you say you want to feel deeper, which is a noble desire, but I advise to learn how to turn "empathy and that negative imagination" on and off on command . You already have it partially turned off. You are not connected to the suffering of the current 8.000,000.000 people. you are not connected to the suffering of the 100,000,000,000 human beings that have stepped on this planed, and not to talk about all the animals, insects, vegetation and so on, currently alive and throughout all of time . Not being able to turn off empathy and disconnect imagining others suffering would be acertain OCD in my opition, and is a recipe for unnecesary suffering . More food for thought : Desire is an unconscious contract we make with ourselves to be unhappy untill we archive what we want. Over and over . It allows you to leverage negative emotions for extra fuel you wouldn't have if you knew how to be satisfied with less. It is absolutely useful- but for a certain stage of your life. Think deeply before letting go of it . I have spent my early twenties deconstructing my motivational systems and have access to " unconditional happiness " and " bliss on command" states. It's great, but on the other hand this doesn't fit my personallity since im very creative and have yet to establish a fulfilling career as a finantial backbone for my life . I have accidentaly unraveled it at the wrong stage of my life, because I didn't know better . Now I'm spending the second part of my twenties manually reconstructing my reward and motivational mechanisms from the ground up. Unconditional happiness to that extreme degree makes you a lazy sloth and ends up backfiring in multiple ways, as you have correctly intuited. It's very counter productive to what the mechanics of being a part of society requiere of you. Unless you have nailed your LP or have enough income for a lifetime, I'd think twice about letting go of that mechanism . But let's not get stuck in black and white thinking here . What I advise you here is to be more open to your intuition rather than relying on negative feelings and drudgery. You can find motivation, meaning, happiness and guidance in other ways : What do you love doing ? what do you find beautiful ? what sparks your curiosity and interest ? What absorbs you so much you want to master it ? What inspires you ? What kind of contribution or impact on the world / humanity / others do you find meaningful ? How can you leverage your values, strenghts and interests to build a meaningful career ? If you follow that intuition, unless you have serious health issues, you will still be productive without having to rely on negative motivation and suffering. I'm happy to elaborate more if any of this has sparked your curiosity .

sorry to hear you are despondent and your life seems rubbish what i would say to you is, life is nothing without the 3 b's: beauty, bliss, brain-power beauty means to see the divine each day whether it be in a child's face, a sunset, a hottie in a swimsuit, a painting or the waves of the ocean bliss means to experience your true nature and this can be accomplished through meditation, psychedelics or service to and love of mankind brain-power means to engage in self-betterment and smart usage of one's time and energy also i urge you to know the universe needs you and only you can carry out the difficult assignments that have your name on them you are essential to my destiny and to the destiny of millions like me

It is said that my experience is absolute and there's nothing outside my experience. That when I am not looking at my mom she doesn't exist. But also there's a "special way to be" (i.e. awake or enlightened) or that there is a see of infinite insects or aliens or trippy church stained glass visuals that is a higher truth or God itself. Where are all these cool visuals if I can't see them? Isn't it the same thing as when a Christian believes there's a heaven with infinite bliss and angles? Why or why not?

imagine reality to be two dimensional: one dimension is happiness, joy, ecstasy, bliss, fulfillment... and the other dimension is: pain, suffering, misery, torture, illness, depression... and you as God want to explore any of them truthfully. it's almost like you're exploring each dimension. given how many people experience the second dimension, i wouldn't say it's wise to want to only experience the first dimension. embrace your suffering and treat it as an exploration of the second dimension of reality, the dimension of misery and suffering. be completely unbiased about it. the goal of life isn't the good life. But to experience whatever comes as a growth opportunity and wise investment into your overall understanding of reality.

Both physically and mentally. Lots of potential for accidental abuse, misuse, overuse. You can really sour yourself on life and blackpill yourself psychologically if you go too deep. Humans are not meant to be that conscious. And you will not be able to hold on to that level of consciousness. So you will have to live knowning how much you're missing. The beauty of nondualists is that they just have no idea how little they understand Consciousness. So they can live in bliss.

Bliss is for the spiritual hedonist There are blissful states and non blissful states, that's the nature of Infinity What did those sages mean when talking about Ananda is probably Existential Love. I would translate Bliss to Amrita or Rasa, I think it's a more accurate description; from my knowledge of the scriptures and my current experience. I would take such lense when interpreting the vedic texts. Language is a tricky subject and sanskrit has many nuances to express spiritual experiences that aren't translatables to other languages. Furthermore what those terms encapsulate are different for every individual. This distinctions are crucial if we want to get clarity on the topic. Love on the other hands seem to be existence itself, a Love for everything that is, the infinite oneness & unity throughout eternity, it is ever present and therefore unattainable as it is beyond gain or loss, it is everpresently loving all that is because it is itself. It loves bliss so much as pain. It is unbiased and without preferences for one part over the other, it's perfect love. In this regard bliss for me is just a transcendental emotion. I also like this quote regarding God-Consciousness and happiness:

The person see itself trapped in the eternity alone and that's why it's scary. Who had that perception is the ego. For me, psychedelic trips are a way to make the mind flexible, the opening to infinity happens sober, or perhaps with a single hit of weed to soften the mind a little. openings with psychedelics are forced, and the ego always finds a way to get a hold (i have done hundreds of trips of 5meo and DMT). The surrender of the self must be voluntary, if it is forced by a substance 99% there will be a remainder of identification and confusion. To say that reality is pure love, pure bliss, total intelligence is not false, but it is still identification. Reality is the absence of limits, and that is the cause of love, etc. the openness must be absolute and the surrender of the self total. and no drug is going to do it for you, you have to do it yourself

Bliss is more like material bypassing

Feeling free and peace is possible. Go head man no one stops you try:) what you really are is nothing, not the bliss.

@James123 @Someone here You guys are wrong and are not doing the Work to really become Free. What I´m exploring in my own experience prove otherwise. Bliss is fundamental to the nature of Reality and what I am, and at this point I see a complete possibility to be in a state of Bliss indepent of external situations. But it is because is not a state. iS NOT A STATE! IS YOU! Right now I can not explain to you guys how the dream works but it is how it is being revealed. . People think having a certain experience or certain enlightment is all there is and that's it. No, the real work is to make STABLE everything, actually going SOMEWHERE REAL. Activating and Realising something within this dream that changes everything. IF not, everybody can have enlightment, ecstatic, high, experiences. They come and go. So what? People doing psychedelics at Burning Man already do this, and they do not need to be in a spiritual forum to do this. So...if you guys are here is because you are supposed to Aim towards something Real. Something more than just fleeting states of highs and lows. Yet...you say that´s all there is to this. I ask then, why are you guys doing here then? In anyway, do not assume all that you have seen is what there is. Not want to preach anyone but at the same time I need to be honest with that is true in my experience. Doesn´t matter if 1000 people come tell me I´m wrong, what I´m discovering is something that 1 million people can not break. @Breakingthewall Is difficult to explain but in my experience Consciousness is free from any kind of memory or form. I put it like this: When one is 30 years old and it realises is being attached and entangled to the same kind of thoughts of 15 years ago, and the kind of thoughts and energy structures of their father, grandfather, or whatever other kind of humans he might share they karmic structure, it tells you one thing: Obviously there is something fundamental there that is entangled, no? Consciousness, Intelligence, or however you want to call it, that is attaching itself to that structure of memory. It is attaching itself all the time. It keeps doing that. But it is not bound to do that. It is not actually that.

The Bliss from Sat Chit Ananda saying, is the Bliss You experience when You touch the Truth of what You are and what Reality is, Reality is Now, so if Your Intouch with it You Experience Bliss, don't make it more complicated than that, if You do then Your Trapped in Intellect which will try to dissect it more, than ask more questions, get maybe an answer then come up with follow up questions, it becomes a never ending loop...

You can't say absolutely what Life is, if You do then You have limited it, and Life is not Limited. Life is all Potential and Possibility, so that is whatever it is, things You and I have not dreamt of or thought of, so its Infinite, but we are here in Limited Bodies and Minds, but You are neither of those things, You are Life, so it comes down to Experience, You will never "Understand" totally what Life is, or be able to use any words to explain it, as once You explain it you limit it again, but You can Experience it, maybe not in an Infinite way but a more larger way than trying to Understand it, they say once You are intouch with it, Your In Great Bliss, this means You have no need for family, surviving, posting on forums and things of this nature, basic Human life nature...

İmpossible. İ tried that with psychedelics, and i fucked up my neurological system. You might completely surrender, not suffer, at peace, free etc... However, i have never seen anyone including any teacher who bliss the fuck out 24/7. Did you?

That is correct @Someone here I was not referring to being on an MDMA ROLL. Lol I am talking about a subtle Bliss that keeps you in a certain place of intense awareness and freedom from low vibratory thoughts. In this state, you can have a normal Life, raise kids, go to work, etc... Is not an impairing extreme Ectasy or something like that. Maybe i did not explained myself accurately. That is not correct. What you are has a certain quality. But is not a Bliss that is from the Mind because It has no physical quality. This Bliss exists before Universe or Even Creation/Form. Is something that you can not imagine if you havent touch It. Once you touch It you see this Bliss exists before Creation and after Creation. But again, you can not imagine It because when i say bliss you think of a mental or brain state, and im not talking about that. @James123 I see what you are saying. But can you open your Mind that that Bliss Still exists when you are being tortured to death? 😂😂😂

This is totally right and wrong at the same time. Because, when breakthrough happens, that's where the bliss peak happens. But time is infinite there. However, when you consider the human body, it is impossible. That's how I fucked up myself with psychedelic addiction.. Meanwhile bliss for human being is just to be simple as birth free of any addiction. Cleansing.

Nothing is ever "constant ". Existence is in a continuous flux . Your true nature is not bliss .your true nature is EVERYTHING. So expecting that awakening will jail you into a never ending state of joy is a myth. Buy a plane ticket to India then ..it's mecca for spiritual seekers .maybe we can meet there too

I don't think he means the type of bliss where you're nonfunctional rolling around on the ground though. I don't think it'd be too high of a bar to aim for the three characteristics of ultimate reality (sat chit ananda) to be consistently realized as your true natural state. This is awesome. I wish I had access to people who are so dedicated.

I doubt that anyone on the planet today can achieve this . Even Jesus have fasted for 40 days and then he became hungry and then Satan tested him according to the biblical story . There are Highley advanced Yogis and Mystics here in India trying to achieve this . They are breatherians and they are immersed in meditation 24/7 and they still haven't got "there ". It's been a reoccurring theme this whole "bliss " on your posts recently...I advice you to be realistic. Don't get dissolved into spirituality. Strike some balance between unconscious spiritual happiness and between the practical aspects of reality.

Honestly i didn't even care about paranormal stuff, my goal was always happiness/bliss and that is in my opinion most effectively gained with the approach i mentioned in my previous post but all the "paranormal" superpowers are just consequences of that approach, and it's not that we develop new abilities, these abilities and this understanding and this bliss is our default state of being that we sabotage with distortion of sexual energy, eating and deep sleeping (and many other things, but these 3 i would consider the biggest sabotages)