There is no such thing as an absolutely True thought

Contemplation is a technique for the generation of meaningful insight. The results form contemplation are very different from intellectually understanding something. It is also different from looking up an answer and then being content with it. 

Insights cannot be looked up.

As a society today we are used to finding every answer through google on our smartphones. But relative, rational answers leave us without the deeply satisfactory "aha"-moments when our minds have seen through a question on their own. 

Show Me The Line Between Internal And External

The close observation of your experience will reveal the insight that there is no real difference between the inside and the outside. What is the inside supposed to be like, compared to external experience? Internal as well as external experiences have certain qualities. They differ from each other in certain aspects. 

For example, one significant feature of the internal experiences is their privateness. This may be enough to define the difference between the external and the internal experience. We share with others what is on the outside and we experience only for ourselves what is on the inside. But in this article, you are going to see that the differentiation between inner and outer experience is illusory. 

Internal external reflection.

Belief and Knowing

We all know the difference between knowing and not knowing. We try to replace not knowing with knowing. Knowing makes us comfortable and not knowing makes us uncomfortable. Not knowing may feel like a flaw in our character. Why do we not know? We should know! Right?

The Irony of Reasoning

The irony of reasoning is hidden in its own blindspots. Every line of reasoning has its origin in faith.

Maybe you remember the time when you were a child and it seemed appropriate to always continue to ask "why?" no matter the reason your parents told you.

I remember having that period in my childhood, where I wouldn't spot asking why and probably driving my parents crazy. I just never stopped asking for a deeper meaning and why things are the way they are. But at some point we stop and usually settle for some answer.
An answer that usually explains how some event is caused by some other thing.

To be practical we have to stop at some point of abstraction that is appropriate for the situation. We don't dig deeper. In our daily life, we usually settle for very shallow answers.

We settle for one or two levels of reason. If it fits into our model of the world, we are happy with the answer. Therefore reasoning is rarely practiced consistently to the deepest levels and is instead based on faith. One thing is caused by another and that is enough to satisfy our curiosity. But what is the consequence of this? 

I suppose that we hide deeper, uncomfortable truth about reality from us. To be a philosopher in the truest sense of the word means to be committed to the truth on a deep level. To love truth for it's own sake. To be a philosopher also means to be an advocate of reasoning, but not only at the shallow levels of daily discussions. Exercising it on the deepest levels is instead the way to apply reasoning in order to obtain true insights. 

This is self-inquiry. The exercise of applying curiosity and reasoning to one's own self. This can lead to interesting experiences and I find it worth exploring.

Decision Fatique - Not Another Piece Of Information

You came across this blog looking for answers, right?
You opened up your browser because you had some kind of question?
Your curiosity led you to search for experiences of others on the web, experiences you can relate to and learn from.
You want to reach a desired outcome by implementing what worked for others.
This is probably not the first time you used this method. This might have become your new normal.
You have a question or a problem? It surely is already out there; somebody has already lived through it and has come up with a solution. So, clearly, the most efficient way is to look it up.

Information overload? How confusion can help us see more clearly.

This is, in fact, not only you whom I describe, but myself.
I grew up with the internet and with Google. When I was younger, I still had to use a computer every time I wanted to look something up and do it at home, but it was not much different from asking Google through a smartphone.


What is this new environment doing to the way we think, and especially to the way we come up with solutions? How is our creativity influenced, and has it changed our decision process?
How can we know what is right for us? Among all the different ways people live their lives and have made it visible through social media?
When do we reach the point where we can say we have read enough to make a decision?


How do we discriminate the honest from the dishonest?
Who is stuck in his story because he has created a product around the information he provides?
What resources are worth taking into account?
Can we judge the value of the information by how we feel about the person who is providing it?


You probably think that all of these questions make your decision more difficult instead of easier.
You are right and wrong at the same time. Because the resources to deal with any deep and meaningful problem in your life lie mostly within yourself. So you are right in the sense that the search for deep and meaningful answer from others are never going to fully apply to your own situation and is therefore highly confusing and very complex. And you are wrong because you can rely on your own insights to be fully applicable to your current situation.



I guess you have noticed now what I did here. Instead of giving you another answer or another personal life story you can compare your own to, I leave you with open questions. I hope that you embrace uncertainty and let yourself be guided again by your own creativity. I hope that, the next time you want to look for an answer on Google, you pause for a second and remind yourself to tap into the intuition and inner intelligence that lie already within you.
That is all we are doing here in all the blogs and videos anyway, we inspire each other and help each other learn faster and to avoid mistakes. But in the end, everyone has to craft their own unique path with it's own unique challenges and solutions. I guess that's why it's called Life.

Insights On How To Act And Achieve Your Goals

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have an easier time to challenge themselves than others? Why can some people stick to their exercise routine and others not? Why do some people take risks and work on actualizing a vision they have in mind and others stay stuck where they are?

Maybe wakeboarding is your goal

During meditation and contemplation I have gained some insights into how the mind works in this regard. At least how it is in my mind, and maybe you will find some of these to be true for yourself. 


Envision these following steps with me here to arrive at these insights for yourself.

1. Feel what you basic mood is right in this moment.
1. What is on your mind when you try to be as neutral as possible?
2. Are you generally in a positive mood or a negative one?
3. Is something bothering you right now?
4. Get a general picture of your current emotional situation without reference to one particular situation or object.
2. This is your baseline happiness. Research shows, no matter what happens in your life, you tend to always come back to this baseline level of happiness.
3. Now think about some project, some goal, something you would like to do, but are not currently doing because something holds you back.
4. Now that you have this vision in your mind, notice how the baseline mood which you identified before has blended in with this vision. 
1. They are not separate
2. It would take an enormous amount of imagination to actually elicit the feelings that come with that action you envision
5. What can we take home from this observation? 
1. It is not possible to judge any of our visions by how we feel when we think of it.

Example:

You have the goal of doing exercise first thing in the morning. You want to go for a run. Now you woke up and you feel tired and not yet energized. Exercising seems like an impossibility. You tell yourself that exercising now will feel way to hard and difficult. How do you come to this conclusion? By observing your current mood. Notice that thinking about exercising didn't give you the same mood as actually exercising does. If you actually end up going out and start exercising, you will feel the outcome of that vision after maybe 10 minutes. 

We can see from this simple example that our visions happen in a completely different state of mind than the actual lived reality of these visions. 

Conclusion:

I think that people who have an easier time acting on their goals and actualizing their visions, have a greater ability to imagine and evoke the feelings they associate with their vision. In this way, when they think about their goal, they actually get a little boost in how good they feel and that motivates them to achieve it as well. Whereas someone who has little imagination will not have an emotional response to his visions, and that leaves him with no reason to achieve his goals. 

You can take this insight and test it for yourself. Try to infuse in your vision or goals as much emotional power as possible. Thinking about it rationally from your current level of happiness won't really motivate you. But actually connecting to the emotional level of your goals will give you a boost.

On the other end of the spectrum, I think it is important to mention that this can be taken too far. I have found that overly indulging in positive emotions associated with a certain goal can be so pleasurable that it seems unnecessary to put some actual effort in its realization. Just something to keep in mind.

Insights from the Darkness

I quit my darkness retreat after 4 days. I could say it was the noisiness of the place that got at me. But really, I am weak. Or my ego is strong. Whichever way you want to put it. Learnt some interesting lessons though.

Ego is a deep entangled mess. Can't see clear. Thoughts get stuck in themselves.

I am just starting out. Many more retreats needed. They are the way to go.

Much deeper meditation than in daily sittings.

Darkness is wonderful for calming the mind. Little movement and exercise sucks though.

Darkness regenerates. I feel motivated and joyful with a more positive outlook on life.

Life is entertainment. Whatever you experience is whatever you wanted to experience.

All forms arise within me.

Existence recognizes it's infinite beauty through experience.

Contrast your life with the alternative of ever-present nothingness. Joy, gratitude and mindfulness follows.

Darkness with fasting is the ultimate stoic exercise. Increasing happiness through contrast.

Darkness will rise within me again. Light will follow.

Paradoxes And How [Not] To Understand Reality

Reality is at it's essence a paradox. The rational mind cannot not grasp or understand reality for exactly that reason. And science is rooted in that same belief-system. Science proclaims that you can explain reality in a rational way. Science and the materialistic world-view is based on a simple but mistaken belief. And nobody within science ever seriously questions this belief. It is taken for granted. The fundamental belief of science is that there exists a materialistic and mechanistic reality out of which consciousness arises. Consciousness is viewed as a biological function that is produced by a complex interaction of neurons and chemicals in the brain.

This is taken so deeply for granted that it is never questioned. It is not surprising, because this is the way that literally every person on this planet is raised today. That we are a human being which is separated from a dead and unconscious reality outside of us.

This is the rational paradigm of science. And only within that framework rational explanations can work. This paradigm allows for certain things to be possible and other not to be.

Rationality and therefore our minds cannot grasp how existence comes from nothingness. Why something exists rather than nothing. That appearances and all of reality is infinite and groundless. That there is nothing inherently existent behind that which appears as our experience. It is an infinite regress. Behind the illusions you can only find more illusions. Taken to it's full conclusion this process negates itself. The search for truth is seen to be pointless. Walking the path leaves no path behind. The answer is found in the unanswerable Isness or Suchness of the Absolute.

Truth can only be found in the illusion. Because Truth escapes all experiences. It precedes all experience and is the ground of everything. But, as it is no-thing, it contains no points of reference. Nothing to experience itself against. Only un-manifested infinite possibility. To transform these words into experienced realizations, we have to leave rational reasoning on the side and dive into what we can actually experience.

How can you arrive at these realizations? Well, that is the quest humanity has been on for a long time. At their roots, many religions tried to be a guide for the realization of truth. But in today's world they are even harder to understand. We leave all religious dogma also on the side and instead go with easily applicable and practical steps to enlightenment.

The two basic exercise that form the corner-stone of almost every serious practice are meditation and contemplation.

Meditation in this regard has two poles that need to be developed. The first is concentration and the second is letting go.

1. Concentration can be developed by focusing on an object (the breath for example), increasing the duration over time. Without letting the mind wander and getting lost in thought. 
2. Letting go can be developed by observing the mind with awareness. Letting the mind think and do what it wants without interference. This is also called the do-nothing meditation. 

It really is that simple and those two techniques can guide ones practice for many years.

Contemplation also has two aspects.

1. The first is contemplation of the self, called self-inquiry. It the deconstruction of illusions through the observation of reality. A list of exercises can be found here.
2. The second is the contemplation of teachings and theories of reality. Reading or hearing a metaphysical philosophy is the first step of assimilating the words. To transform a theory into knowledge it has to be pared with experience. And contemplation (as in silent meditation) allows one to validate of falsify the various concepts. 

In this whole endeavor of separating the real from the illusory humanity has used mind-revealing chemicals throughout history. We call these now psychedelics. They can greatly accelerate the revelation of higher truths. But it takes great courage to became a true psychonaut. So this path surely is not for everyone.

The Source of Suffering

"Grasping at a self and phenomena to be truly existent causes all suffering through distorted states of the mind" 

The Dalai Lama