What are the most common things about women that we are more likely to be unaware of or ignorant towards? in regards to your needs, bodies, habits, & femininity?

And are there any specific behaviors (particularly harmful) which you happen to notice is more common in men that we may be unaware of in ourselves?

What are the things you would like to tell a young man about so he can be more aware and open minded in modern society and escape his societal programming?

*yes i know not all men or women are the same, i don't intend to insult or generalize anyone, i just want casual interaction without belittling please (:

Most recently i had a dream right before waking up, maybe i woke up and went back to sleep, i was in bed in the dream, but i realized that i wasnt actually awake when i was looking at my reddit messages, i saw a message from a really entitled moderator after i had proved all their points wrong, and i realized as soon as i saw the message there is no way this is real, because i knew they'd never respond lol.

Anyway it was honestly shocking how coherent all the sentences were and the words werent even forming before my eyes (to my perception), they seemed to be perfectly worded before i even finished reading it even, i thought this was really cool how the mind can do this, i can literally effortlessly fill in the blanks, so this made me think i should go outside and try flying (i always try to fly), but this was after trying to envision a person close to me i haven't seen in 2 years, i was not able to bring her image to mind and i did try very hard, but oh well i decided to go outside and jump straight up, and it did seem like i was ascending, i must've been something like 1400ish feet up or something, imagining the grid layout of the city, i couldn't keep myself up and started descending, at an increasing speed, then i kept trying and each time it was less powerful, i was actually moving forwards a bit but not very much, and my body i think was still in the standing position while i was doing this, eventually i ended up on a roof, and it became nighttime (though i didnt notice til i woke up), and then after that i drifted out of self awareness, and woke up a few minutes later.

I feel like my issue may be that in my dream im imagining myself imagining the things i want to do -see my friend, fly. but i don't know how to fix this or how else to solidify myself into the dream, and make it last longer than that 2-3 minutes (if thats possible, idk how long they should last).

Does anybody notice any known patterns here in this story and know how to fix it, or have any other good tips?

had a little tiff with moderators the other day, they banned me because i broke a rule, and then i explained and then they decided i broke another rule, to which i explained, this went on and on for like 4 or 5 more accusations which i literally blatantly proved false, and they started ignoring me.

I knew they would not ever respond to literal logic, (even in the subreddit which happened to be about wisdom, insight, non-attachment, non-aversion by the way lmfao), and i was dreaming and at one point i was in my reddit messages and i saw a response, it wasn't a positive response obviously but it was still a response, and i immediately knew that it wasn't real, even though all they did was feed me more shit, i literally realized exactly in that moment, -oh shit this isn't real, i'm imagining this.

Anyway i proceeded to go outside and jumped really high up in the air and tried to fly around but ended up slowly drifting down at an increasing speed, i kept doing this until i lost self-awareness again and then woke up in the next 5 minutes probably.

This just proves to myself that using logic on reddit especially to a moderator is a 99% fallacy if it can LITERALLY SNAP ME INTO AN ACTUAL LUCID DREAM, and my first one in months, also one of the most powerful ones i've ever had, though short lived.

I know the origins of the chronic pain isn't known yet (if i am incorrect please correct me). However, i'm sure i'll eventually convince myself to get it anyway as i should, so does anybody know the best methods to find doctors or methods which may be less likely to have patients with this chronic pain? or at the very least some comforting statistics from reputable sources or some personal experience stories, and advice to help me through this mindset and to minimize my dangers?

I am in Austin TX

also im curious, will i need a person to drive me there and back?

and whats your best advice for preventing STIs/STDs with new partners after the snip (because less condoms)?

If dissatisfaction is blown out in nibbana, does that also mean that satisfaction too is blown out, or is it a perpetual state of satisfaction?

I mean this in all seriousness and curiosity, why is it loving kindness and not resenting rudeness? if an arahant is fully freed from desire and aversion, then why is it that a subtle desire/motivation remains and not a subtle aversion? shouldn't they when seeing everything clearly, be totally free from even the subtlest motivations even to the point of being unwilling to stand up and walk, but to simply sit still/lay down and wither away as nature takes its course?

Irrefutable facts of nature

• Every being is fundamentally chasing a feeling, chasing goals with underlying hopes of contentment in understanding, satisfaction, or love.
• Every being is a victim of themselves and their environment.
• There is nothing which ‘should’ not be, nothing is unnatural or ‘wrong’.
• The only rules that really matter are these; what one can do, and what one can't do. -Captain Jack Sparrow
• Your ‘enemy’ & ‘friend’ would easily treat you completely differently under other circumstances or first impressions.
• You already are dead; living this unsustainable, fragile, provisional life salvaged, & lent by earth, irrefutably predesignated to a complete & necessary indeterminate undoing.
• No matter how long and hard you run from being inherently inconsequential, it follows you in every step.
• Each person is just another center of an entire detached universe in which all that is known can only be from us interpreting from our own limited sense impressions.
• As far as everyone else is concerned, you’re just another person.
• We are all light years apart from one another, playing characters which don’t speak the same language as one another.
• Dopamine is released in anticipation of a reward. -Susan Weinschenk

Hard truths/Humility

• Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. -C.S. Lewis
• You are responsible for your problems, nothing is coming to save you.
• Our form, & all of our knowledge, is all passed down, we are just flawed clones of clones, continuations of LUCA.
• There will always be more to do, be and enjoy, forgetting all that you’ve accomplished already.
• You’ve had your entire life to try to find lasting contentment, & still have not found it anywhere.
• Emotions are just automatic, confused, & unstable drugs which always come down.
• There is always another perspective. (duplicate)
• There are many possibilities in life, but not a single possibility is without pain. -Fernando Pessoa edited
• You may never have the privilege of knowing that you are about to die, death will come on an ordinary day, in the middle of unfinished plans, you will be unable to care, and the world will forget you.
• Obsession is NO real way to escape stress and dissatisfaction.
• Nobody will ever see you in the way which you see yourself & vice versa.
• Nothing belongs to you, nothing is yours, it’s just extra, be contented to be without it.
• Life will test you past your limits, and you haven’t got a scrap of power over it.
• Each unbearable suffering has been borne countless times already.
• All love is conditional.
• Your time is limited, gone before you know it, & it absolutely does not come back.
• There will be numerous insurmountable injustices about & around you.
• Each person will think and act only for ourselves, and this should be respected, not denied.
• Nobody owes you anything, nothing is obligated to go your way.
• You will be certain and still be wrong.
• You will have irrational fears.
• You will want your beliefs to be truth, not the truth to be your beliefs.
• You will be misunderstood, & unacknowledged.
• You will not get much of what you want.
• You will lose everything.
• You will never understand everything you wish to.
• You may never get closure.
• There is nothing wrong with you.

Dissatisfaction

• In expecting no lack of satisfaction, you are consciously planning to suffer tenfold.
• It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it elsewhere. -Schopenhauer
• You forget all of the positive in favor of magnifying to fix the negative, feeding back & refueling the want and resentment, rather than being grateful that it could be worse.
• If you think you just need a bit more, very little is stopping you from needing another just a bit more.
• Never lose clarity of the fundamental reason for your striving, nor the full expenses of them.
• You want things under the impression you will still want them after you have them.

Impermanence

• Seeing everything as uncertain, & impermanent, ownership & knowledges are disillusioned, & every minute is precious. -Ajahn Chah edited
• No matter how much you worry or crave this phenomenon, eventually you will become completely disinterested whether willingly or not.
• We come into humanity without a single identity or possession, & leave broke just the same.
• You are not the only meaningful me, you're one me in an astronomical & ancient existence of other animals who each have richly suffered the same as you or even more.
• One day you will be somebody new.
• One day you will miss what you overlook, & take for granted now.

Conditioning/Indoctrination/Habits

• We are an emergent phenomenon; a symphony, without any conductor.
• You can do what you will, but you cannot will what you will. -Schopenhauer
• You do things habitually for comfort; it takes less effort than breaking the cycle even if it means something more important.
• The animals are without doctrines & religions.
• Boredom feels as though it demands satisfaction, but any stimulation resolves it just the same.
• The internet is just a playground, not a substitute for real living.
• You have been conditioned to feel shame over your basic humanity due to society's categorical dehumanization, & fear of insignificance.
• A woman & a man is just a person with a penis or vulva indoctrinated independently by a sick devolving society.
• Familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. -Daniel Kahneman
• When overwhelmed, structure is more efficient than panic, even though it’s less attractive.
• We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people & ideals, living for somebody else. -Arthur Schopenhauer edited
• Anytime you rely on another's approval, you are training the mind to care about a bipolar, limited, and deluded external.
• Every action you perform will ripple & amplify through time and space, be the change you wish to see.

Interpersonal Conflict

• Do not hate the person, if you must hate, hate their action, their motivations and conditioning, there is always a reason, even if unknown. -Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche edited
• Mind your intentions, recognize the groundless & habitual defensiveness.
• Is this person even able to comprehend alternative perspectives?
• Let them have distorted perceptions of you, & your thoughts.
• They have to live with themselves every day.
• Instead of fighting the person, fight your narrow mindedness, give the person the benefit of the doubt.
• Never try to *be ‘*right’, never try to prove someone ‘wrong’, instead focus wholly on the unbiased facts, & agreements.
• It's never wrong nor too late to change your mind, you are under no obligation to stay the same.
• Destructive people wish to spread, but they are just reminders, & not invitations.
• You cannot reason a person out of a position they did not reason themselves into in the first place, their mind has been predetermined. -Jonathan Swift edited
• It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled. -Mark Twain
• Hatred from the ignorant is proof you’re doing something right.
• Engaging with an ignorant intending on destruction, you search for satisfaction in a predetermined fallacy, ignoring their true insignificance.
• Any person capable of angering you is your master. -Epictetus
• The moment you feel like you need to prove yourself, is the moment you need to be silent and walk away, regardless of your feelings. -Rachel Wolchin edited
• Every successful disengagement in altercations with the ignorant is a trophy which will incline the mind in that same direction.
• Many discords rely on one or both sides holding false presumptions about the other person's intentions.
• Everybody is dumber than you think they are, & everybody is smarter than you think they are.
• When one assesses you accurately, don’t reject it all because of the ignorance that came with it, you can take the truth filtered from the hatred.
• Everybody is a child consistently projecting our own insecurities into our interactions & anywhere else we can interpret them.
• You can't expect another to do much more than just what is right by them. -Captain Jack Sparrow edited
• Don't suffer over someone who is only thinking about themselves.
• Don't overshare because someone is being nice to you. -Unknown
• If you wish to convince another, it is generally just a plea to appease your own empty insecurity.
• You have enough problems of your own without minding business that never was yours to bear.
• Don’t accept the verdict of one who has no actual grounds to assume to know you, nor one who never live a single moment of your life, nor one you wouldn’t trust to advise you initially.
• When you are swayed to one view, you forget the other 8 billion people whose input is omitted.
• What you tolerate is training people how to treat you. -Unknown
• Hatred is only a projection of the workings of one's own mind.
• You inspire me to be nothing like you. -Unknown
• If one spends all day shuffling words around, they can make anything sound bad. -Rick Sanchez edited

Compassion

• Never is hatred laid to rest by hate, its laid to rest by love. -Buddha
• If you hate anybody in the world, that's narrow-mindedness, don't just justify your views, find something lovable and worth forgiving. -Ajahn Brahm
• Love has no meaning without understanding. -Thich Nhat Hanh
• Everyone is brothers and sisters in dumbassery, descendants of the earth, each a ‘me’, not one above inherent flaws, & causality.
• Hate is too strong of an emotion to waste on anything that you do not like. -Clara Oswald edited
• Forgive them for they know not what they do, delusions are real to the delusional. -Jeebus & DaddE

Limitations of words

• Words will never penetrate as precisely as planned, & sometimes won’t at all.
• Everyone has their defensive excuses, and nobody needs nor wants to hear it. -Proverb edited
• Many of us just want to talk to ourselves at other people.
• Learning to listen receptively is the essence of intelligent living. -Sadhguru edited
• If you don't have something productive to say, don't say anything at all.
• Knowing can only ever be confident thinking.

Self-care

• If you cant let go, then give it away, let them have it. -Ajahn Brahm edited
• Do not worry about perfection, just try not to be a piece of utter shit, and already you will have achieved much.
• Your feeling of inferiority/inadequacy, or of the beliefs of another; belongs only to you, is your responsibility & is not the fault nor problem of those you project it onto.
• Contentment is knowing what you are and are not capable of. -Unknown
• Happiness is when what you think, say, and do, are in harmony. -Gandhi
• Give without expectation, & avoid those who give with obscured expectation.
• Money was created to be spent, not obsessed over.
• Treat yourself like someone you love. -Glennon Melton
• Letting go does not cause anything to vanish, other than clinging.
• Existence is just a cosmic joke, remember to laugh & not pretend it was ever otherwise.
• Do NOT allow you to deprive yourself of what you would appreciate, until you feel it’s ‘earned’, spending forever not knowing that is what prevents the satisfaction.
• Put peace first, be your own religion.
• You are allowed to be okay without satisfaction.

Affirmations

• You must allow faith in your own judgement, it is the only thing you can know is not coming with an inherent potential for hidden predaciousness.
• The moment is smaller than your mind is making it.
• You don't need to earn existence or satisfaction.
• Whatever happens is never as bad as the fear.
• This too shall pass, it will soon be otherwise.
• You already are a full & responsible adult.
• Your perspective is not the only one.
• You don't need to know anything.
• You don't owe anyone anything.
• You are deserving of respect.
• Mistakes are just lessons.
• You are already home.
• This is good enough.
• You have enough.
• You are enough.
• You can change.
• You have time.

Mental Suffering

• Do not believe, justify, obey, attempt to satiate, or condemn any emotions, you would just be conceptualizing unstable sensations and guiding them into an utterly confused self-perpetuation.
• Knowing a real truth does not mean that it will nor need to feel like it is, emotions do not represent reality.
• Thoughts are formed dependent on the emotion that was already there.
• You are choosing to let it infest your world of consciousness, & do landscaping, when your experience was already free of it, & forgetting- rumination is no tool.
• Your mindset won't change until you do; decide to want to not want, that which you want, which disturbs you.
• Accept that you cannot accept it.
• Know which questions are not knowable, and strive not to know them. -Ursula K. Le Guin edited
• Move your body, don’t rely on thinking or waiting, there is nothing to prove, do something and mindset will follow.
• On unwanted thoughts; think of something else, examine the danger of the thoughts, pay the thoughts no attention, still the thought formation, crush mind with mind. -Buddha edited

Attachments & Aversions

• Anytime you're someplace you don't want to be, you create a prison for yourself. -Ajahn Brahm
• You are attached to ‘your goals’, you don't want lasting contentment, you want it to be ‘found’ hiding in your endless goals themselves.
• The more you fight the mind, the more the mind fights you, you only split it in two and start a war, permit discomfort.
• If you don’t know what you really want, pretend you did, and see what it would be.

Romanticism/Idealism/Generalizing

• Putting happiness/contentment/relief in a romanticized goal or wish outside of yourself, rather than just in enough, you will cling, then misunderstand, perpetually placing it out of reach with each and every grasp.
• What you see is all there is, in idealization, one cherry-picks an obvious factor and imagines it to be the entire tree. -Daniel Kahneman & Me
• Anything you lose by being real is fake. -Unknown

Conceit

• It is easy to be righteous when you plaster yourself as the victim, placing your own self upon a pedestal & stripping your own offenses.
• If you don't appraise others, you will be less inclined to appraise yourself.
• It is impossible for one to learn what they think they already know. -Epictetus
• Be content to be thought foolish, they were ignorant of my other faults, else they wouldn't have mentioned these alone. -Epictetus
• We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior. -Stephen Covey
• It will always be easier to focus on the faults of others rather than seeing your own.

Gratitude

• Want only all that you already have.
• Be grateful there is; ‘free will’, a healthy entire bodily system, 5 functioning senses, a competent mind, sleep, sanitation, clean water, clean food, a clean bed, adulthood, youth, shelter, clean clothes, refrigerators, air conditioning, hot water, no nearby war, freedom from slavery, morals, prisons, privacy, infrastructure, no debts, savings accounts, medicine, free speech, adaptability, free time, basic education, animals, psychology, philosophy, a functioning vehicle, monks, tools, historical knowledges, love, ook, contraceptives, impermanence, computers, vast & diverse information, garbage & sewage systems, nighttime, these reminders, ambience, night drives, humor, entertainment, & amazon shopping.
• Remember 5 more unique to now.
• Today is the first day of the rest of your life. -Charles Dederich
• Remember who you would be if you weren't who you are. -Tommy Shelby edited
• Don't put off until tomorrow the loving you can say & show today. -Bo Jackson edited
• To be alive in the here & the now is already an entire miracle. -Thich Nhat Hanh edited
• Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck. -Dalai Lama

Fear & Shame

• Courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that something else is more important than fear. -Unknown
• Fear of embarrassment is the only thing that makes it embarrassing.
• Self hatred is just an indoctrinated & misguided intention of *self-*care.
• Never make permanent decisions or conclusions based off temporary feelings. -Unknown
• When you fear, you create the conditions which weren’t ever there, literally manifesting the feared.
• Imagine the fear’s true consequences to the brink of horror to see if it was ever worth fearing, ever permanent.
• You are afraid of happiness because you've been punished for it too often, but you are safe to break the pattern now.
• The fears we don't face become our limits. -Robin Sharma
• You may never feel ready, motivation is fleeting, do it unmotivated, all you need is to get your foot in the door, act first & let necessity take charge or else nothing will change.
• Fear of being branded something, even by oneself, for doing anything agreeable, is no reason not to continue, you only live your life once.
• The obsession on the over & done with must be decidedly left behind in the moment in which it occurred to pave way for growth.
• When you find yourself in a hole, the best thing to do is admit you need to stop digging. -Proverb
• STOP trying to not have flaws, be proud of them, they are yours, regardless of the ‘negative’ connotations.
• You avoid looking inward when it is most crucial, but you will never understand with avoidance.

Imagination/Expectation

• Thinking won’t solve the problems accumulated by thinking.
• Let go of the illusion that it could have been any different. -Unknown
• No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen. -Alan Watts
• Do not hold any positive nor negative expectations of the unknown future, expect it to be ANY possible eventuality, & decide to let it be.
• You can always cope with the now, but you can never cope with the future, nor rewrite the past. -Eckhart Tolle edited
• What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. -Christopher Hitchens
• In failing to examine why an expectation exists, you fight a presumed inconvenience, which may not have ever existed.
• All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. -Blaise Pascal

Presence/Patience

• When the future is the new now, it's still now, & you're still waiting for the unpromised future.
• Being present just means to not be sucked into memories and fantasy.
• In what is felt must be only what is felt. -Buddha
• It is not the phenomenon which disturbs you, it is you which disturbs the phenomenon. -Ajahn Chah edited
• To be everywhere is to be nowhere, If you chase two rabbits, you will catch neither. -Seneca & Proverb
• The present moment is the only time over which we do have dominion. -Thich Nhat Hanh
• Heaven is a mindset away. -Nothing But Thieves

Acceptance

• The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. -Lao Tzu
• Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. -Eckhart Tolle
• If you resist change, you resist life. -Sadhguru
• If we weren't uncomfortable, we would never move, a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. -Proverb edited
• We must all suffer from discipline or regret. Discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. -Jim Rohn
• Everything out of control should be out of your mind. -Unknown

Questioning

• Would i rather be at peace and detach from my views, or strengthen my clinging & resentment?
• Who are we to judge when we see what we want to see?
• Am i imagining all of this dissonance?
• Is the part of you searching for more only an empty feeling without justification?
• Do you really enjoy what you idealize or just the expectation beforehand and the story afterwards?
• Do i actually want this, or am i just… doing it?
• Why am i letting myself suffer over this, is it worth it?
• If you can't handle the now, now, then how can you handle it in the future?
• To what purpose, to what end?
• What misperceptions are present?
• Are you sure you’re not projecting?
• Yes this is true,.. and?
• Who are you trying to convince; them, or yourself?
• Why find more to need when you need not?
• How long will that satisfaction actually last?
• Why don’t you want to feel something else, something better?
• Do you really want this or just think you should?

• “What are you afraid of losing, when nothing in the world belongs to you.” -Marcus Aurelius
• “You can also commit injustice by doing nothing.” -Marcus Aurelius
• “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows" -Epictetus
• “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” -Epictetus
• "He was ignorant of my other faults; else he would not have mentioned these alone.” -Epictetus
• “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.” -Epictetus
• “My accuser is my sparring partner, he trains me in patience, civility, and even temper.” -Epictetus
• “Whatever you cannot produce or preserve at will, lies outside your range, don't let your hands go near it much less your desire, otherwise you've consigned yourself to slavery and submitted your neck to the yoke. As you do whenever you prize something that is not yours to command.” -Epictetus
• “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.” -Heraclitus
• “A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.” -Seneca (edited)
• "If you don't know which port you are sailing to, no wind is favorable." -Seneca (edited)
• “What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.” -Seneca
• “You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire” -Seneca
• "We suffer more in imagination than in reality." -Seneca
• "To be everywhere is to be nowhere." -Seneca
• “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” -Socrates
• “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” -Socrates

Some of these look similar, and look or seem fake, if someone is finding a graph, or anything there should almost always be a website for it which can be commented as a reference, any numbers can look good if the sample is bad, so i think it would be more productive and meaningful to just add the links as well so we can verify and set our hearts at ease in trusted optimism ❤️

I'm curious how interchangeable the sects are, and if there seems to be a more natural inclination of any experienced monks going from any specific sect or into any specific sect.

For example, i heard that Thich Quang Duc went to study with the Theravadins for a short time and returned to Zen, however i doubt he ever planned on sticking with the Theravadin tradition.

But I'd like to know how often, if ever, that senior monks decide to move sects, or if the vast vast majority of them simply stay in whichever sect that they went into to begin with.

I thought of this (title) because of this quote:

“When a person can't find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.”

― Viktor E. Frankl

Basically, everything is a distraction from something else, so just be yourself as long as yourself isn't an ignorant & entitled piece of shit imo.

I am curious what the history is if any on the practice of monks castrating themselves, it is known that it will drastically reduce lust and has been practiced in history many times.

Also, i am curious if there are any official or accepted standard views on the idea of castration in the different perspectives inside Buddhism, is it actually a good thing in your tradition because it helps to reduce hindrances, attachments, etc. or is it seen as 'bad' in your tradition to remove it because the obstacles need to be there in order to be overcome mentally/spiritually, and not physically? or something else?

*I am mostly looking for an early Buddhism/Theravada perspective, but I am completely open to and love to see all of them.

We only are ever conscious of one moment in which all that can possibly be experienced is a moment of our senses (including the mind as a sense). There are many things which we can be conscious of, there are over 100 muscles involved in walking, and yet all the mind needs to do is project a mental image of it and insert effort, and we walk automatically unconscious of all of the technicalities of it, this happens with basically everything all of the time, I'm sure most people will understand this and not try to disprove it (because it's besides the main point following here, and is pretty obvious).

The mind chooses a refined and one pointed focus which is completely complex, but connected nonetheless and mostly temporarily separated from the more complex and more ‘subconscious’ or ‘unconscious’ (less lucid/’aware’) paths of the brain which continue working without a noticed consciousness on it (it’s not connected to the one pointed connected complex in the brain/mind, but it remembers that other contents of experience exist).

There could be consciousness on these ‘subconscious’, & ‘unconscious’ parts of the mind JUST AS MUCH as there is in the one-pointed & evolving organization in which we imagine to be the real ‘consciousness’, when in fact this is not consciousness, it is simply lucidity, it is the lucidity which is able to 'recognize' consciousness and is able to form new memories and set predictions. if ‘we’ were conscious but not lucid, we would not have the ability to remember being ‘conscious’. Consciousness does not think, consciousness is a slave to the mind which does the thinking, and is simply aware of the mind that does the thinking, it is the mind which believes its own one pointed-ness to be consciousness or self.

How do we know we are conscious, considering that we are conscious of the mind, the mind isn’t conscious of consciousness, instead what we are seeing is a mental image of consciousness. So how can the mind know that consciousness is there, especially when the mind can only know, not ‘see’? it must assume that it is conscious, regardless of if it is or not, & consciousness must be what is conscious of the minds mental image of ‘consciousness’ which is not itself the real consciousness.

It is the lucidity which is able to recognize this ‘consciousness’, so in the case of a philosophical zombie, assuming they simply could work without consciousness, it would be assuming that it is conscious regardless of it actually being conscious or not, and if it thinks that it is, then why couldn’t it still be just as conscious as all of us, as though we are all philosophical zombies which actually do happen to have consciousness regardless, just that it is the real consciousness, and not what we thought it was. If a philosophical zombie can believe that it is conscious, and we believe that we are conscious, doesn’t that mean there isn’t really a difference except that we actually have consciousness rather than just the mental image of it, and if we can never truly know consciousness directly with our minds, then why couldn’t consciousness simply be inherent, universal, and not separate. We are all working under the assumption that we are conscious, but can only know our idea of it above the real consciousness which sees that. It is the mind, not consciousness which imagines consciousness, & keeps us moving, consciousness is just- there.

Were there to be ‘separate’ consciousnesses, were you to place one’s consciousness into the body of another, they would be wholly unaware of it because consciousness does not think, the mind thinks, and the consciousness observes what is thought, ‘you’ (that person’s mind) would then think that they are them, and not ‘you’ (the consciousness which was transferred from you into them). You would be completely unaware of the switch, and everything would seem perfectly normal, because all that is known is the present moment, you can not be conscious in the past, you can only be conscious in the present’s memories of the past. for all we know the past could be changing for each individual person a billion times a second, and nobody would ever know, for our memories are changing just as well, and it is the memories of the past which make us think we are us, which allows the mind to discern where in time, & space that we are located.

We are biological computers, except that this computer is extremely complex and through natural selection, was continuously molded towards the preservation of the body and the continuation of the lineage, through delusions of categorization, of meaning, the mind is distracting us from the lack of meaning by presuming that a meaning exists while rarely questioning it because the mind is too busy fending for life and procreation working under the deluded inherited presumption that there is a reason to it.

The idea of consciousness being a thing to be measured or located is a joke, existence itself is consciousness, & is not able to be separated from existence as though it weren’t literally one and the same. The idea of the mind being apart from matter may be a completely inherited presumptuous delusion, assigning importance to that which is none other than simply cause and effect. perhaps the mind literally is matter, it most definitely is always projecting expectations of previous, present, and future combinations of just matter itself. even our abstract ideas and feelings can simply be nothing more than a weird projected idea of some internal 3D model, which means nothing, but somehow feels real. it would be like trying to separate one side of a coin from the other. maybe consciousness doesn’t ‘exist’, maybe its not even ‘inherent’, it just literally is*.*

The mind can only know what can be sensed, it is constantly only projecting, anticipating, & guessing what is happening now, in the past, and in the future in regard to these perceived objects of the senses, everything comes back down to the senses of the external, always down to only what can be known, to existence, & its ‘inherent’ consciousness.

*Please keep in mind this is all just theory and mental exercises for the most part*, i may come across implying this to be ultimate reality, in fact i only phrase some of it that way to get people to interact, because people don't ever care to interact with non-stubborn, & skeptical posts, so please interact as a human, without an agenda of 'proving' me wrong, or you right by any means necessary such as strawman semantics, i understand* i may not have written this extremely well*, it was my best attempt at verbalizing my extremely abstract thoughts which are mostly beyond language, so* if you want clarification, please ask kindly*. i personally do believe this to be mostly true, even if some of it sounds dumb (i probably just worded it wrong), however i know there are holes, and it's realistically completely unknowable, but still i think this is the most logical and safest bet as to what consciousness is.*

Philosophical zombie: theoretical human without consciousness.

We only are ever conscious of one moment in which all that can possibly be experienced is a moment of our senses (including the mind as a sense). There are many things which we can be conscious of, there are over 100 muscles involved in walking, and yet all the mind needs to do is project a mental image of it and insert effort, and we walk automatically unconscious of all of the technicalities of it, this happens with basically everything all of the time, I'm sure most people will understand this and not try to disprove it (because it's besides the main point following here, and is pretty obvious).

The mind chooses a refined and one pointed focus which is completely complex, but connected nonetheless and mostly temporarily separated from the more complex and more ‘subconscious’ or ‘unconscious’ (less lucid/’aware’) paths of the brain which continue working without a noticed consciousness on it (it’s not connected to the one pointed connected complex in the brain/mind, but it remembers that other contents of experience exist).

There could be consciousness on these ‘subconscious’, & ‘unconscious’ parts of the mind JUST AS MUCH as there is in the one-pointed & evolving organization in which we imagine to be the real ‘consciousness’, when in fact this is not consciousness, it is simply lucidity, it is the lucidity which is able to 'recognize' consciousness and is able to form new memories and set predictions. if ‘we’ were conscious but not lucid, we would not have the ability to remember being ‘conscious’. Consciousness does not think, consciousness is a slave to the mind which does the thinking, and is simply aware of the mind that does the thinking, it is the mind which believes its own one pointed-ness to be consciousness or self.

How do we know we are conscious, considering that we are conscious of the mind, the mind isn’t conscious of consciousness, instead what we are seeing is a mental image of consciousness. So how can the mind know that consciousness is there, especially when the mind can only know, not ‘see’? it must assume that it is conscious, regardless of if it is or not, & consciousness must be what is conscious of the minds mental image of ‘consciousness’ which is not itself the real consciousness.

It is the lucidity which is able to recognize this ‘consciousness’, so in the case of a philosophical zombie, assuming they simply could work without consciousness, it would be assuming that it is conscious regardless of it actually being conscious or not, and if it thinks that it is, then why couldn’t it still be just as conscious as all of us, as though we are all philosophical zombies which actually do happen to have consciousness regardless, just that it is the real consciousness, and not what we thought it was. If a philosophical zombie can believe that it is conscious, and we believe that we are conscious, doesn’t that mean there isn’t really a difference except that we actually have consciousness rather than just the mental image of it, and if we can never truly know consciousness directly with our minds, then why couldn’t consciousness simply be inherent, universal, and not separate. We are all working under the assumption that we are conscious, but can only know our idea of it above the real consciousness which sees that. It is the mind, not consciousness which imagines consciousness, & keeps us moving, consciousness is just- there.

Were there to be ‘separate’ consciousnesses, were you to place one’s consciousness into the body of another, they would be wholly unaware of it because consciousness does not think, the mind thinks, and the consciousness observes what is thought, ‘you’ (that person’s mind) would then think that they are them, and not ‘you’ (the consciousness which was transferred from you into them). You would be completely unaware of the switch, and everything would seem perfectly normal, because all that is known is the present moment, you can not be conscious in the past, you can only be conscious in the present’s memories of the past. for all we know the past could be changing for each individual person a billion times a second, and nobody would ever know, for our memories are changing just as well, and it is the memories of the past which make us think we are us, which allows the mind to discern where in time, & space that we are located.

We are biological computers, except that this computer is extremely complex and through natural selection, was continuously molded towards the preservation of the body and the continuation of the lineage, through delusions of categorization, of meaning, the mind is distracting us from the lack of meaning by presuming that a meaning exists while rarely questioning it because the mind is too busy fending for life and procreation working under the deluded inherited presumption that there is a reason to it.

The idea of consciousness being a thing to be measured or located is a joke, existence itself is consciousness, & is not able to be separated from existence as though it weren’t literally one and the same. The idea of the mind being apart from matter may be a completely inherited presumptuous delusion, assigning importance to that which is none other than simply cause and effect. perhaps the mind literally is matter, it most definitely is always projecting expectations of previous, present, and future combinations of just matter itself. even our abstract ideas and feelings can simply be nothing more than a weird projected idea of some internal 3D model, which means nothing, but somehow feels real. it would be like trying to separate one side of a coin from the other. maybe consciousness doesn’t ‘exist’, maybe its not even ‘inherent’, it just literally is.

The mind can only know what can be sensed, it is constantly only projecting, anticipating, & guessing what is happening now, in the past, and in the future in regard to these perceived objects of the senses, everything comes back down to the senses of the external, always down to only what can be known, to existence, & its ‘inherent’ consciousness.

*Please keep in mind this is all just theory and mental exercises for the most part, i may come across implying this to be ultimate reality, in fact i only phrase some of it that way to get people to interact, because people don't ever care to interact with non-stubborn, & skeptical posts, so please interact as a human, without an agenda of 'proving' me wrong, or you right by any means necessary such as strawman semantics, i understand i may not have written this extremely well, it was my best attempt at verbalizing my extremely abstract thoughts which are mostly beyond language, so if you want clarification, please ask kindly. i personally do believe this to be mostly true, even if some of it sounds dumb (i probably just worded it wrong), however i know there are holes, and it's realistically completely unknowable, but still i think this is the most logical and safest bet as to what consciousness is.

Philosophical zombie: theoretical human without consciousness.

Love: caring about one's 'wellbeing' and maybe wanting closeness to them.

A true & unconditional love would inherently need to be universal indiscriminate love, which may actually be possible, & the only exception, even though technically this still is a condition: in order for it to be loved, it needs to exist - but this is a stupid, trivial condition, and I'm disregarding it.

Assuming that even the 'sacred' mother/child relationship with 'unconditional' love can hold up even in the case of the child becoming a literal eternal world dictator who is hateful, genocidal, torturous, and a pedophile, with nothing moral or sacred held to them, the mother is still loving that child on the condition that they are her child (assuming it's a non-universal love); she is getting the idea of the 'sacred bond' out of the relationship.

Were this woman to have come to realize the empty nature of identification, categorization, or sanctity, there is a good chance she would not love this child anymore; this is as simple as a mindset switch, an undoing of societal indoctrinations.

Although, assuming that held fast, were she to have received a DNA test to find out this is not in fact her child, there is a good chance she would not love this child anymore. If she did, it would be because she raised the child, therefore still considering herself the mother regardless. And though you cannot take away the past, the issue here is that the love is still based on that condition of raising the child.

Even assuming a condition must be something which must be undoable, you could get dementia and forget, or find out that you were tricked into raising the child by some evil person/entity, or even find out that you're delusional and imagined the entire situation or aspects of the situation, in which case you may then still be able to decide not to love that child any longer.

There is always a leg for love to stand on, and most of the time that leg can be kicked out from under it, even if it lands again, there's another leg to kick, assuming that person isn't simply permanently stubborn nor delusional (still conditions possible to kick), or assuming that it's not a universal, & therefore a true, & unconditional love. Even in the case of someone wanting to prove that their love is unconditional, the condition is wanting to prove it, to themselves or others, clinging to an ideal. We can only know what the mind tells us, and as we know, the mind is inherently flawed.

Or if the 'unconditional' love is for your romantic partner, it is still on the condition that you get what it is you want out of the relationship, such as 'unconditional love', companionship, entertainment, meaning, adoration, vulnerability, trust, respected boundaries, being 'someone' to you.

I remembered a teaching from a now unremembered author saying something like, "Do you really want to love unconditionally? No matter how you treat me, no matter how you behave, what you become, I should always stay with you?" Of course, this idea misses out on the fact that you can love (care about) somebody and not be with them.

Sometimes, love' for some people is just a strong craving for their love.

I don't necessarily mean to say there is anything wrong with conditional love. We are all inherently self-serving in every act (imho, but beside the main point), and this should be understood and respected, not denied, or else everybody will live in a secret world of shame for not being as 'good' as 'everyone else', and probably exponentially - allowing such people to truly transgress against humanity with the excuse of "oh, I'm a piece of shit anyway." We each must take care of ourselves, and NOT expect another to, although it is understandable and respectable to want, or even need (in certain situations), another to. 'Put your own oxygen mask on first.'

Your love isn't special.

*Disclaimer: you redditors don't tend to react to my content unless i phrase it as a stubborn ultimate reality: Cunningham's Law: It states that the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer. so please understand this is mostly opinion, so be gentle; not a dick.

like in back to the future how the future stays the same until somebody from the future goes into the past to change something.

random ridiculous thought; assuming other time exists, if free will were real, its possible our past selves are continuously making new decisions and changing the future, but we don’t know because we are altering our memories as well, so maybe in the next second we will have an entirely new past but never know it.

just musing, be gentle please.

let me know what you all agree/disagree with, or if you would like clarifications 😄

!! !! !! If you're not very interested and/or just want a quick fix, just skim through to the bolded parts !! !! !!

• You are responsible for your problems, nothing is coming to save you.
• Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to be, be the change you wish to see. -James Clear edited
• We must all suffer from discipline or regret. Discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. -Jim Rohn
• You may never feel ready, motivation is fleeting, do it unmotivated, all you really need is to get your foot in the door, act first or nothing will change.
• It's never wrong or too late to change your mind, you are under no obligation to stay the same.
• Your mindset won't change until you do; decide to want to not want, that which you want, which disturbs you.
• Stop trying to not have flaws.
• The fears we don't face become our limits -Robin Sharma
• Courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that something else is more important than fear. -Unknown
• Your time is limited, & it absolutely does not come back.
• There will always be more to do**,** be and enjoy**, forgetting all that you’ve accomplished already.**
• You’ve had your entire life to try to find lasting contentment, & still have not found it anywhere.
• Emotions are just automatic, confused, & unstable drugs which always come down.
• You may never have the privilege of knowing that you are about to die, death will come on an ordinary day, in the middle of unfinished plans, and the world will forget you.
• Obsession is NO real way to escape stress and dissatisfaction.
• There will be numerous insurmountable injustices about & around you.
• You will be certain and still be wrong.
• You will have irrational fears.
• You will have moments of bias, comparison, ego, and ignorance.
• You will be misunderstood.
• You won’t always be rewarded.
• We all are selfishly driven.
• You will lose everything.
• You will never understand everything you wish to.
• You may never get closure.
• There is nothing wrong with you.
• No matter how much you worry or crave, eventually you will become completely disinterested whether willingly or not.
• You are not the only meaningful me, you're one me in an astronomical & ancient existence of animals who each have richly suffered the same as you or even more.
• In expecting no lack of satisfaction, you are consciously planning to suffer tenfold.
• If you think you just need a bit more, very little is stopping you from needing another just a bit more.
• You do things habitually because it takes less effort than breaking the cycle even if it means something more important.
• Boredom feels as though it demands satisfaction, but any stimulation resolves it just the same.
• We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people & identities, living for somebody else. -Arthur Schopenhauer edited
• Anytime you rely on another's approval, you are training the mind to care about a bipolar, limited, and deluded external.
• Anytime you're someplace you don't want to be, you create a prison for yourself -Ajahn Brahm
• You are attached to the feeling of will, you don't want contentment, you want it to be found dependent on your endless goals.
• The more you fight the mind, the more the mind fights you, you only split it in two and start a war, permit discomfort.
• Putting happiness/contentment/relief in a romanticized goal or wish outside of yourself, rather than just in enough, you will cling, then misunderstand, perpetually placing it out of reach.
• What you see is all there is, we use the information we have as if it is the only information. -Daniel Kahneman
• Anything you lose by being real is fake. -Unknown
• Thinking won’t solve the problems accumulated by thinking.
• Let go of the illusion that it could have been any different. -Unknown
• No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen. -Alan Watts
• You can always cope with the now, but you can never cope with the future, or rewrite the past. -Eckhart Tolle edited
• What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. -Christopher Hitchens
• In failing to examine why an expectation exists, you fight a presumed inconvenience, which may not exist.
• When the future is the new now, it's still now, & you're still waiting for the unpromised future.
• It isn't the phenomenon which disturbs you, it is you which disturbs the phenomenon -Ajahn Chah edited
• The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion -Thich Nhat Hanh
• If we weren't uncomfortable, we would never move, a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. -Proverb edited
• If you resist change, you resist life. -Sadhguru
• Do not believe, justify, obey, attempt to satiate, or condemn any emotions, you would just be conceptualizing unstable sensations and guide them into a totally confused self-perpetuation.
• Fear of embarrassment is the only thing that makes it embarrassing.
• Never make permanent conclusions, or decisions based on temporary feelings. -Unknown
• When you fear, you create the conditions which weren’t ever there, manifesting the feared.
• Fear of being branded something negative or positive, even by oneself, for doing anything agreeable, is no reason to not continue, you only live your life once.
• You avoid looking inward when it is most crucial, but you will not understand with avoidance.
• It is easy to be righteous when you plaster yourself as the victim, placing your own self upon a pedestal & stripping your own offenses.
• It is impossible for one to learn what they think they already know. -Epictetus
• Be content to be thought foolish, they were ignorant of my other faults, else they wouldn't have mentioned these alone. -Epictetus
• We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior. -Stephen Covey
• It will always be easier to focus on the faults of others rather than seeing your own.
• Mind your intentions, recognize the groundless & habitual defensiveness.
• Is this person even able to comprehend alternative perspectives?
• Let them have a distorted perception of you, & your thoughts.
• They have to live with themselves everyday.
• Instead of fighting the person, fight your narrow mindedness, give them the benefit of the doubt.
• Strive for mutual agreement, & unbiased truths, ignore ‘being right’ or proving them wrong.
• Destructive people wish to spread, but they are just reminders, not invitations.
• Engaging with an ignorant intending on destruction, you search for satisfaction in a predetermined fallacy, ignoring the insignificance.
• Any person capable of angering you is your master. -Epictetus
• The moment you feel like you need to prove yourself, is the moment you need to be silent and walk away. -Rachel Wolchin.
• Many discords rely on one or both sides holding false assumptions about the other person's intentions.
• When one assesses you accurately, don’t reject it all because of the ignorance that came with it, you can take the truth filtered from the hatred.
• Everybody is a child consistently projecting our own insecurities into our interactions & anywhere else we can interpret them.
• You can't expect another to do much more than just what is right by them. -Captain Jack Sparrow edited
• If you wish to convince another, it is generally just a plea to appease your own empty insecurity.
• Don’t accept the verdict of one who has no actual grounds to assume to know you, nor one who never live a single moment of your life, nor anyone you wouldn’t trust to advise you.
• What you tolerate shows people how to treat you. -Unknown
• You inspire me to be nothing like you. -Unknown
• If you hate anybody in the world, that's narrow-mindedness, don't just justify your views, find something lovable and worth forgiving. -Ajahn Brahm
• Love has no meaning without understanding. -Thich Nhat Hanh
• Everyone is brothers and sisters in dumbassery, siblings of the earth, not one is above their inherent flaws, & nature.
• Words will never penetrate as precisely as planned, & sometimes won’t at all.
• Everyone has defensive excuses, and nobody wants or needs to hear them. -Proverb edited
• Many of us just want to talk to ourselves at other people.
• If you cant let go, then give it away, let them have it. -Ajahn Brahm edited
• Your feeling of inferiority/inadequacy, or of the superiority of another; belongs only to you, is your responsibility & is not the fault or problem of those you project it onto.
• Contentment is knowing what you are and are not capable of. -Unknown
• Existence is just a cosmic joke, do not pretend otherwise.
• You are allowed to be okay without conditions.
• You are enough.
• You have enough.
• This is good enough.
• You have time.
• You don't need to know anything.
• Your perspective is not the only one.
• You don't need to earn existence.
• You don't owe anyone anything.
• This too shall pass, it will soon be otherwise.
• You are already home.
• Remember who you would be if you weren't who you are. -Tommy Shelby edited
• Don't put off until tomorrow the loving you can say & show today. -Bo Jackson edited
• To be alive in the here & the now is already an entire miracle. -Thich Nhat Hanh edited
• Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck. -Dalai Lama
• The only rules that really matter are these; what one can do, and what one can't do. -Captain Jack Sparrow
• You already are dead; living this unsustainable, fragile, provisional life salvaged, & lent by earth, irrefutably predesignated to a complete & necessary indeterminate undoing.
• Each person is just another center of an entire detached universe in which all that is known can only be us interpreting from our own limited impressions.
• Dopamine is released in anticipation of a reward. -Susan Weinschenk
• Who are we to judge when we see what we want to see?
• Is the part of you searching for more only an empty feeling without justification?
• Do you really enjoy what you idealize or just the expectation beforehand and the story afterwards?
• Do i actually want this, or am i just… doing it?
• Why am i letting myself suffer over this, is it worth it?
• If you can't handle the now, now, then how can you handle it in the future?
• What misperceptions are present?
• Are you sure you’re not projecting?
• Yes this is true,.. and so what?
• How long will that satisfaction actually last?
• Why don’t you want to feel something else, something better?
• Do you really want this or just think you should?

*i would like to sincerely apologize for the absolutist title- it was my best attempt at provoking actual readers, & interactions; additions, constructive criticisms, clarifications, etc. This is fairly opinionated and i would like to clarify that i'm not trying to pass every single thing here as a complete fact, even though i do find most of them to be facts or at least mostly true. it is ENTIRELY possible that i worded some of these in a way which only i can understand, so please take no offense if it seems like bullcrap, i truly hope you found information which was useful to you, and disregarded the rest which didn't ring true to you.