I am reading Peters Unnecessary suffering book as well as I watched numerous of his latest Youtube talks and podcasts and I attended the recent online workshop; I keep hearing him mention the importance of controlling your thoughts. He usually explains this to mean just stop your thought. Stop doing the thought. There was one youtube video recently a month or so back where someone asked him what does he mean by that and if its like letting go of thoughts versus actually mentally stopping it and Peter said yes. Im now confused because in the book and other media he says to actually try to stop any further thoughts from popping up. To me stopping a thought and letting go of thoughts are two very different things, because the former involves me doing an activity (the stopping of a thought). and usually requires my concentration. The former results in silence for a brief second but its more mentally taxing and the thoughts can come back louder whereas the latter involves a more-so "non-doing", like in vipassana, it involves me not reacting to the thought in my head and remaining equanimous. The thought doesnt stop but sometimes i feel like im less controlled by it. Basically, I need some clarification on this topic. Thanks.

This one day event was very useful. At 68 years of age, I'm not going to quit my job and leave my wife for 8 months to be an apprentice. I am fascinated by the idea of that level of immersion but I won't do it. That's why this one day dive into "4 principles" was so welcome. I felt I got a glimpse of what the apprenticeship program is about (which may or may not be true). I had several insights regarding my dishonesty with myself, how un-aligned with my goals I have been and most importantly, my practice of dropping out when achieving a goal gets difficult. It became clear to me for the first time HOW I get in my way. Kudos to Corentin (I hope I spelled the name correctly) who led the workshop. I'm impressed and grateful. The work with Cheng Hsin has changed how I live and operate in the world.

Hello, everyone. I have been doing contemplation for several months now. What is play What is relationship What is meaning What is culture Is it practical for me to contemplate on "Who/What am I?" as a start? Or shall I get good at contemplating on the "easier" ones first before I tackle the grand daddy of them all (Who am I?)? Thanks in advance.

... may sound weird and scary, yet I find it deeply empowering. This insight from the community meeting nr. 59 is one of my key takeaways from the program so far. Essentially everything I do is in the service of the self, satisfying its desires and avoiding any perceived risk and discomfort. It is like this crazy dictator whose every whim must be fulfilled. Realizing that the self doesn't actually matter all that much is then liberating. I can do staff that I want to do or that is necessary to accomplish a goal and not worry about the possible negative consequences for the self. F.ex. I can go and praise the colorful jacket of an unknown lady at the bus stop, even though I risk being seen as a weirdo and embarrassing myself or her. Who gets hurt when I encounter rejection, negative judgement, or some such? Just my self, and, as I've realized, it doesn't matter all that much. Similarly with its desires: I can satisfy them, but it is also perfectly fine to ignore them, if they are not in line with more important stuff. Again, the self is not an absolutistic ruler and I don't need to do everything it wants. So liberating! So empowering!

“There doesn’t need to exist a territory for there to be a map, even though a map may arise from a territory.” Having a thought or concept about an apple does not necessarily guarantee its existence, even though an existence of an apple allows for a concept or representation of it. Just something I thought Id share something that occurred to me recently. Thank you.