u/Plenty-Attitude-5823

Flow, awareness, presence, non-self, true self, oneness...

These and many others are all subtle interpretative frameworks that the mind tends to land on to in the spiritual path. They are necessary tools that aid the understanding and the seeing beyond the grosser interpretative framework of the self-construct, which the belief in is what causes the bulk of our apparent suffering.

However, the biggest freedom manifests when these spiritual views themselves are also questioned and seen beyond. Only then is experience allowed the total freedom to constantly construct and destroy these seeming structures without the self-imposed imaginary pressure to land anywhere in particular, or to maintain any one particular perception in time.

It's almost like a transcendental game of lego where the pieces themselves, their reality status and even the time and space where the game is being played in will all be made to look different at different times, completely changing the rules at its own whims.

And this post also inevitably outlines an interpretative framework that is liable to be shattered. It's what happens anytime we open our mouths. But I'm not convinced the solution is simply to 'shut up', then, as even that movement of intention will have its own set of ideas and assumptions behind it, which when they go unquestioned then easily becomes just another dogma.

I hope the mods will allow me to ask this.

I have some side cash and I'm very needy lately. I have been thinking of getting help from a professional as I feel a bit bored of taking matters into my own hands. I'm not expecting love or validation or friendship. I just want to be able to touch and feel a hot woman's body for half an hour, even when I know it's just strictly business for her.

Not looking for moralistic lectures nor advice to try and date normally. Just looking for advice from NEETs who have done it or know someone who has, and I want to know how the experience was and whether it was worth it for you/them.

Thanks.

This might sound dumb, but scrolling is the biggest thing that seems to pull me back from presence into mind identification, since I like many people have a bit of a compulsive relationship with it.

So since this is a prevalent issue nowadays, I was wondering whether anyone has succesfully inquired into this?

Not as in trying to get rid of it per se, but challenging the beliefs and thoughts around this issue and and achieving more clarity on the matter, less judging, etc.

Currently I'm trying a non-conceptual style inquiry in 'What IS scrolling?', and well, it's certainly a bit silly and fun and much better than the usual habitual self-judging for being an addicted mess.

Got anything to say on this?

Hello r/streamentry. For some context, I'm 29, I'm a neurodivergent person. I've been practicing seriously since 2017, never personally with a teacher but mainly using books, dharma talks and talking to other practitioners online as my guidance.

For as long as I remember I've always been terrible with people. It's like everybody else has always had 5 senses + the 'social' sense, and I was born without that one somehow. No matter how much I tried to develop social skills and fit in my childhood and teenage years, I always ended up as the outcast, the strange guy that nobody wanted to hang out with. I've never been in a romantic relationship with a woman before. I'm objectively quite slow-minded compared to most people and I can see that weirds people out in fresh interactions where they still don't know me.

I have never fit in with coworkers either and couldn't last long in the vast majority of my jobs despite trying my best.

So it shouldn't be a surprise for anyone reading that after going through all those bad experiences with people, that I've come to find my happiness in more solo type hobbies like reading books, nature, watching stuff, gaming, creative endeavors and now meditation in more recent years.

I LOVE meditation. I love the refinement of consciousness that happens, the increase in sensitivity, the insights, the opening to whole new ranges of conscious experiences that weren't available before, the release.

However, due to my past experiences, whenever I hear a teacher that I respect say that developing skill with people and helping others is where this is all going, I find it very off-putting. My mind cannot help but instantly relate people with discomfort, awkwardness, misery, isolation. The dozens of times where I tried hard to fit in to some group and it blew up in my face comes back to mind, and it makes me shy away from that sort of orientation to practice.

So I was just wondering whether anyone can relate to this issue or whether you have something you want to share regarding this matter. Thanks.

That's a strange idea... He seems to love to demonize thoughts in his videos and emphasize the pure sense experience, claiming it's somehow more real. But why? Where does he get that from??? That's just a choice born out of an assumption that 'the senses' are somehow more valid than 'thoughts'. And he's passing it as absolute truth to his followers.

He's mentioned before about not making value judgements about experience, but ironically built into his very dogma that he claims is not a dogma is this fundamental value judgement.

Isn't that 1. creating a thought vs. senses duality, and 2. clinging to one pole of that duality while passing it as non-duality? How's that supposed to reveal 'reality'?

Thanks to my mother's help (she helped me craft a nice resume), I could pass off as somewhat normal in interviews and get through the door on most low level jobs. BUT I could never ever keep these jobs, because bosses don't want a neurodivergent guy who weirds people out and needs anything remotely complex explained 10 times before he can do it properly, if that.

Honestly, putting myself in their shoes I'd also probably just fire me asap and hire the next guy in line who doesn't have any of these issues.

Maybe if I was the super-smart type of neurodivergent things would be different, but I've been cursed with being slow on top of it, which is a death sentence when it comes to fitting in with normies. People have ZERO patience in low-level jobs environments and they're mostly only looking for themselves. Not a nice place for someone of my attributes.

Angelo Dilullo is a teacher who makes videos daily. He will host retreats and sometimes do interviews with some of his students or with other non-duality teachers. You probably know him if you're using this sub. But when you look closer at his channel it turns out that most of the interviewees that he handpicks and the Q&As are usually with young, attractive women. Or mature women who are also conventionally attractive. Just scroll through his videos and look how disproportionate it is.

It makes me wonder because this is an influential person in non-duality circles and he's a man in his 50s. On his retreats there's this huge variety of people but yet he will always find a way to gravitate towards the attractive women and isolate them for private interactions.

It's also widely known that he's entered a relationship with Violet who was a student in the past, she then helped him run the retreats but after some time he then dumped her and expelled her from his community causing immense trauma and pain.

It's not as bad as what other teachers have done in terms of misdemeanor, but he's still using his influence in the community to satisfy his own desires while remaining massively popular, and it rubs me the wrong way.

Obviously there are clear examples of the flipside: DFs that would take one from fodder to nearly YC level just by virtue of eating it like Kaido's, BB or some strong logias.

But what about the opposite? Can any DF make your combat ability weaker?

When Luffy first met Kaido he literally could not damage him, that's how far apart Kaido's durability was from Luffy's AP at the time which was YC1 level.

Could Shanks or BB pull a similar feat in letting a YC1 pummel them to their heart's content and come out completely unharmed? What do you think?

Those lazy bastards just sleeping all day hooked to their devices. They need to get their shit together and wake up to reality. What's your opinion on this highly controversial topic?

Only when you're on the 'outside' of this circle can you see how much of society revolves around trying to look good to get validation from the opposite sex and finding partners, with the aim of being physical with them.

The vast majority of people have been operating from this paradigm and engaging in such activities since high school probably and I bet it doesn't even cross their minds to conceive of a life without it. That would be absolute insanity.

Yet here we are, the outcasts of society that either nobody wants romantic involvement with, or too anxious, depressed or closed off to be able to realistically pursue it.

I'll be 30 in July, and I don't know when this shift occured, but ideas of sex and romance have long since been delegated in my mind as just fantasy and fuel for self-pleasure at best. I have stopped even considering the possibility that I might actually ever go out there and pursue it in real life with another real person.

It didn't use to be like this; as a teen and early 20s I was still clinging to ideas of finding 'the one' or someone who will make everything alright but that seems like pure delusion to me now given my situation.

Are you on a similar boat? And what are your thoughts on this matter?

It's like the problem isn't even the surfing; my very fucking BRAIN seems to be custom-wired for addiction. If there's even the possibility of doing something ''fun'' like consuming any sort passive entertainment, my brain will latch to that activity like a castaway from the titanic to avoid doing the less immediately interesting but important things that I deep down truly want to spend my time doing.

I nuked scrolling on my devices with the help of my sister and parental controls (this is my 1st time using reddit in a week+ from her laptop, and she's monitoring me), but my old pleasure seeking tendency is still as strong as ever; it just seems to have shifted focus to movies now.

How many more things do I have to nuke until I finally leave myself no choice but to do the work? I'm exhausted. I want to be a productive, useful person even if it's unpleasant at first, but apparently just wanting it is not enough as I find myself addicted to things again and again.

This is frustrating, and I'm exhausted from being constantly bombarded with all this easy and available entertainment options that just end up stealing my time and energy.

I will nuke everything and live like I'm in the 80s if I have to, and it honestly seems like my brain is pushing me in that direction the longer the time goes on. I just can't have any access to this shit it seems, I simply cannot have a healthy relationship with readily available passive entertainment.

I removed access for a few days and felt so good, my mind was clear and I had plenty of energy. I've done this for short periods multiple times in the past.

Yesterday I thought that it wouldn't hurt to check reddit just a bit, I felt so good and in control, so I asked my sister to enter the password for the parental control that we set for me, and long story short I ended up falling into one of the most disgusting binges of my life, pure brainrot and I felt 0% control over myself. By the end of the day I felt absolutely exhausted and drained after like 16 hours of non stop scrolling

Now I'm starting to come to the inevitable conclusion that I'm just incapable of having a healthy, balanced relationship with these things like other people no matter what I tell myself. My brain seems to work differently.

So maybe it's time to remove access in a more permanent way, if I want to keep my sanity. I know for a fact that I CAN live without surfing. I've done it before, and I can do it again.

This time I'll tell my sister not to give me the microsoft family safety password after a few days when I ask her. And if she does, then maybe I need to find someone else who will help me and not give in.

I hope this will be relateable to some, and I wish you guys and girls luck on your own quitting journey.

I'm 29 and I look kinda normal at first glance.

Lately sometimes I've been getting women to give me openings to extend conversations when I'm walking my dogs in the park, but I always find myself cutting these convos short myself out of fear of revealing my utter lack of social skills or ability to come up with interesting thoughts about a topic or witty responses like other normal adults, past the first few stock phrases of normal interactions.

I look like a man but my mind's still one of a dumb stoner teenager, and it's embarrassing being among other 'real' adults my age. If they knew that I were slow they wouldn't be trying to talk to me. Let alone if they knew that I was a NEET still living with mom at nearly 30.

I'd rather be the one to walk away first than to try to open up and thoroughly embarrass myself, or worse yet be rejected. I think that would genuinely destroy me.

Sometimes It's very painful to me that I find women attractive knowing that I'm unable to act on it due to the way my brain is.

If Chrollo believed that fighting him was a bother and a distraction and just wanted Hisoka out of the way, why didn't he take care of him in a more indirect way, without having to risk a 1 on 1 confrontation?

On paper (heh) he certainly has the perfect ability for that. What do you think?

Assuming you know his ability beforehand. How would you get past his insane speed and one-shot power?

Come on, give me your most creative takes r/HunterXHunter

Setting up parental controls on my devices like a freaking kid and having a trusted someone change the password is the only true way that this has worked for me. Before, I'd been chronically online since basically 9 y.o. I'm 29 now.

Anything else that I've tried have just been temporary strategies that were easy to get around once the motivation waned and old behavior patterns start kicking in.

You don't need to go nuclear, you can set things up in a way that you're still allowed a couple of hours a day at first. It will still force you to fill your time with other activities.

With parental controls and/or radical environment changes you have no choice, and you only have to make the decision once as opposed to fighting urges 20x a day and hoping that you will somehow come out on top.

Having this condition means that I will never be able to have interesting conversations or discussions or to genuinely connect with anyone in person. It doesn't matter how many conversation tricks or pegs I learn; I can never make up for this massive disadvantage.

I'm always two steps behind in a conversation and I can literally sense new people I meet checking out and trying to scurry away once they realise I'm slower, when they had initially been open and cheerful because at first glance I look normal. It hurts a lot, especially because it's something that I cannot fix.

Experiencing a romantic relationship with a woman is of course completely off the table as well. Nobody wants to date Forrest Gump. My body finding women attractive and generating those kind of urges when it's simply not an option for me in this current modern culture feels like a cruel joke of the universe sometimes.

The best I can hope for is to kind of be accepted and included in some group out of pity, but because of the way my brain is wired I will never ever truly be one of them.

I'm sure some of you will relate.