Who is more powerful: the person who is fully independent, or the person who is dependent on things external to themselves?
/sig/ Basics: >YOU are 100% responsible for the way you experience life. Not your parents, not your surroundings, not your ex, not your bully, not your future spouse. YOU. Complete, sincere acceptance of this is the most fundamental step to bettering yourself, and it is by far the hardest thing you'll ever do. >Work your way to becoming the best YOU you can be - one step at a time. >Set realistic Goals and have a Plan. Use short-term Goals to keep yourself going. >Learn helpful and effective daily/weekly/etc. routines, including mundane ones. >Have a steady sleeping rhythm - one that works for you, so long as you keep to it. Get 6-11 hours of sleep. More Info: pastebin.com/h4CDDtKu >Learn Mindfulnes Meditation. More Info: pastebin.com/0NMDEUNh >Learn to be Brutally Honest with yourself. Stop being a slave to your Ego. >Have the balls to follow any beliefs to their logical conclusion. Think critically, question everything. >If you need to put others down to feel good about yourself, you are putting yourself in a position where you are dependent on the people you look down on. >Focus on the essentials. If you try to do everything at once, you’ll burnout. Little by little.
>You don't need a relationship, you want the feeling you've convinced yourself a relationship will bring you. >What you actually want is not wanting anything anymore >This is true of everyone. You aren't abnormal.
>The famous, beautiful, rich guy can be more miserable than you. >The impoverished, ugly, unknown guy can be far happier than you. >You decide your mindset, and the reasons for your misery or happiness.
>If you push away and suppress emotions, you are still behaving emotionally.
>Ignorance is the source of all suffering >You will always do what you think serves you the best - that is the limit of your free will >If you consistently do things that make you feel bad, it's because you don't truly know how to do any better >If you only know of shitty options, you will always just choose what you think is the least shitty option >You need to increase both knowledge and understanding to give yourself the possibility to make better choices
I've put more thought into it, and more than likely I will go on a cross-country hike/walk here shortly. I need to understand why people wageslave, what else is out there, a break from the noises and distractions, and generally just time to reflect on my own thoughts and continue working on my philosophical system. If anyone has pragmatic suggestions or tips, I'd appreciate it. I'd be going from Pittsburgh to the West. No itinerary, just going wherever my legs, mind, and circumstances take me.
Read that book, or the Sam Harris book in OP. Or both.
Ryan Cook
I appreciate reading material, although I stay away from juden. Regardless, a large part of my yearning for this walk is to establish original thoughts i.e. a personal philosophy. I've had great strides already, and have already found myself lining up with vedanta philosophy without ever having read any of it. Regardless, I want this walk to act as a reset, and for me to understand what the fuck I'm doing if possible. I've been in college and feel completely un-gripped by it, and wageslaving makes me suicidal. I am most engaged by philosophy but want to take a breather, because I truly believe there is no rush.
Henry Long
Do you think this is a good goal? I'm not even sure if its what I would do, but I have experienced so little of life that I cannot think of anything else.
It's a good goal for sure. However, I think only specific people would actually be satisfied by doing that for the rest of their lives. It is an open but also restricted goal, and although a great starting point. It's probably difficult to imagine what the initial question is asking. Do you *really* want to draw/create *every* day? Every single one? That's a task that you may or may not be up for. Imagine that since your first memories (probably around 5) you did this one thing, every day. Self-expression is an admirable goal, but don't limit what that entails
Lucas Evans
Your own thoughts and experiences are valuable, but you need to compare them against that of those more knowledgeable than you, and against established philosophies in the world.
If you find something where all those three are in alignment, you've probably found a truth.
Look at the world from a point before your Ego, as your Ego is unreliable. It's only ever concerned with what gives you the most immediate satisfaction.
Christian Gonzalez
I'm well past ego at this point, friend. I believe in a universal self (i.e. all matter, thoughts, etc are eminations from a single primordial self) and that my feelings of desire, understanding, and so on are all either illusionary or artificial contractions within an illusionary or at least temporary existence. Regardless, my life has been one of Un-experience. I feel trapped and as if I've wasted an opportunity. I certainly do critique "my" own ideas all the time, and love reading other people's stuff. At the same time, I feel like it's time to be actually constructive for once instead of purely de-constructive. The walk would ideally help with this transition, and prepare me to enter the philosophical world anew, and ready to align my views with either existing philosophies or with people that agree with mine.
Chase Morales
Good for you. I think you'd really like Tantra Illuminated and also Recognition Sutras then.
Never assume you're done though. Who feels trapped? Who wasted an opportunity? What opportunity? When?
Nolan Carter
Excellent questions, and ones I've attempted to answer myself. It's a better question of "what" feels trapped, to which I'd answer the universal self through "my" body/mind. In other words, the self moves towards peace or harmony or non-conflict, or towards justice, and that, upon seeing the grave injustices/conflict of the world, is drawn towards resolving them. My body and mind are limited things, so no doubt the task is larger than one I could complete. As to opportunity, it is about an opportunity to address conflicts. Existence is experiencing itself through my body and senses and can use its influence to try and address the conflicts it finds. In addition to the vedanta, I've found myself agreeing with Socrates and the cynics interns of morality, but feel a more active/positive condition is required.
Hunter Allen
I can't think of anything that I would want to do *every* day without getting sick of it. It is a starting point I guess because I don't know much about anything other than videogames and computers for now. When I say create I don't really mean to draw specifically - it could be an invention for all I know.
I feel like I can't answer these correctly because I feel like I don't even know myself that well. I've lied to myself so many times that I don't even know whats true about me anymore.
Where do conflicts come from? Where does injustice come from? Why?
Jack Nelson
That's a common problem in today's world. It takes patience and self-reflection. Im phoneposting so can't say much more, but just realize first you are not alone, second that it is all in you, and third that others will/can help you
Thomas Jones
I've read it before, but don't remember everything it says. I know it resonated with me somewhat. As to your other questions >where do conflicts come from This is a difficult one that I have had to revise several times, but here's my current view; The two main beings of existence (that's the sum of every possible thing) are the Self and Conflict. Without conflict, the Self is an eternally peaceful existence, with everything simply existing. No desires, no pain, no suffering, nothing but simple existence. Conflict moves along a spectrum to interact with the Self. It is an eternally varying phenomenon, with each possible degree of conflict existing at the same time as all the others, meaning Pure Self and purely Conflicted Self exist at once. What we experience is a tiny sliver of one tiny possible degree of a conflicted self. Each apparent layer of conflict (such as desires in the mind, conflicts between individual and society, civilization and nature, etc) are all products of the Self moving towards Pure Selfhood. The issue is that the conflicts are never resolved because Conflict is as eternal as the Self. It's difficult to explain in linear temporality, but all degrees of conflict (including non conflict) exist at once, and our realizations and existence here is just one of countless possible possibilities that all happen simultaneously. I believe in reincarnation, but not in the ability to transcend Conflict. It believe peace is possible, but only as a one of many possible existences. The ultimate goal of the Self is to simply exist, and in all degrees of conflict, it resolves towards that end. Injustice, I view, as simply the presence of conflict and justice their resolution in a way that "reduces" conflict.
Charles Gutierrez
Oh, and I should add that the Self is a single entity and Conflict causes it to in a way vibrate, and the reverberations make up unique instances of the same self, which constitute the unique essences of an existence, which go on to constitute all apparent matter/things within an existence.
Joseph Jackson
These questions are good but more a thought experiment to get your priorities straight
In my experience thinking about life gives you shit. you should just do something Start making things, talk to people, talk to ladies. You will learn more about yourself and the world that way. You will encounter things you never expected and see new opportunities.
Just do something man.
Dylan Flores
I'm about to start a better journey to improvement. I want to improve my journalling, I was already keeping a bullet journal but found it started to lose its effectiveness after a few months. Are there any more specific guides to journalling layouts that can improve how I work. Immediately I know I need to set deadlines as I hadn't done that before but are there any examples of journal layouts you recommend?
Lucas Perez
>all matter, thoughts, etc are eminations from a single primordial self
>The two main beings of existence (that's the sum of every possible thing) are the Self and Conflict.
How does this work?
Blake Smith
self-improvement comes down to two things: cutting out bloat and grinding as hard as possible everything else is a meme /thread
James Stewart
Well, I'm basing this whole thing off a few assumptions. First, that existence is eternal (something before big bang and/or religious creation), that nothing is created or destroyed (zero-sum), and that things at rest stay at rest or move towards staying still. Secondly, I like to imagine it like a mirror being broken. If you take a mirror and smash it, each piece of the mirror still reflects something and acts like a smaller mirror, but at one point it was all apart of one large mirror. Not a great analogy, but what I've got right now. Lastly, I'm not steadfast on the actual structure. This sort of stuff isn't very easy to come to absolute conclusions on as humans, limited mind and all that
Gavin King
Think I've gotten identity issues I can't see the world as a very enjoyable place either It's not like I've not been trying, been doing gym for months and a diet as well, real close to weight goal. Practice art/reading/work on projects, meditate and run everyday but I don't know
Doing all this normalfag shit has completely uprooted what was essentially an identity built around being a weeb and playing vidya. Reality just seems so dreary even if you do succeed and I fundamentally don't like myself or can see myself ever becoming somebody I will like even though I'm doing I wanna try something exciting but there's little I can come up with that wouldn't be pathetic or just stupid. thank you for reading my blog post desu
Anthony Robinson
Well, I think there is a logical conclusion. Everything is Awareness, that which comes before one's story about self ( Ego ). That which comes before the Mind. Awareness gave rise to everything, and everything is equally That. Hate, love, conflict, peace, suffering, bliss are all equally part of it. Everything is equally divine, and loved.
Well, that's what Non-Dual Shaiva Tantra teaches anyway, and I found it hard to disagree with.
Well, like I said, I'm not concrete in anything. I'm working through my own thoughts but also absorbing what I can. I appreciated talking with you, but I'm going to go for now. Good luck to you
Michael Russell
Just had my first meditation attempt, Managed 15 minutes before I lost my focus but it felt amazing. I slowly lost focus on my posture and eventually only had focus right behind my eyes, was a very new sensation. I did see any stream of thought beyond awe but that is one of my problems that I hope will resolve as I do this more often
