Hey all, I wanted to prose a line of questioning because it's something my mind has been grappling with a bit lately. How exactly does one get something completely independent of, or, "outside" of one's mind? I'm starting to have a sense that it can be done. As in, I'm noticing the amalgam of conceptual framework in my day to day life and how I am constantly creating my reality, and it opens up my mind to see what is actually past, or actually prior to, these creations. I dusted up on an ability to really contemplate from this notion, and wonder the "answer" to real experiential questions, to try to get a look PAST or before these concepts, like what is really true of who or what I am, instead of "do a thing and hope something happens" which, in a weird way, was a lot of what I was trying to do when I would try to contemplate. As for the "how" to grasp past these mental projections, (I know we're not supposed to create a method, but bear wit me,) my idea is, firstly, to stay in task, and also, I'd like to go deeper into not knowing because that feels hugely pertinent to this. One, emphasizing the "not" part of "not knowing," like not being attached to any idea, fantasy, obviously belief, or even what I want to turn out for myself. These are all just more concepts it seems, and not "what I'm trying to find." It gives me the unbiasedness to actually LOOK. Then the other "part" is wonder. Grasping that these concepts are not what I'm trying to find, try to "look" or "find," creating more openness to what is true now and really take a look and try "to find" out what is true in the matter. Regardless of creation. These are the things my mind has to grasp onto at the moment, since it feels very zen in a sense to try to get something "outside of yourself" or conceptual stuff. Figured I would put this on the new help and questions category. I know it can be weird to ask questions about something that apparently has no method, but I figured I'd take a shot in the dark

I was looking at what true listening entails. It seems to me that the more I pay attention, the more evident it becomes that I'm not particularly good at it - not so much in the conventional sense, but in a deeper way. Imagine someone is communicating a profound insight to you - whether it relates to consciousness work, transformation, or something else entirely. What do you do with it? Do you immediately accept it, reject it, believe it, disbelieve it? Do you hear the words, filter them through your mind, recall past references to what's being said, and then conclude that the communication is now understood? Perhaps the first sign of poor listening is this very impulse or predisposition to claim that you've already understood the communication. This seems to be common. We don't realize that we may have failed to listen, that we haven't experienced the insight being shared (or at least not as profoundly as we could have). So how can we better "listen," especially in this context? What even is that about?

Hello, new to the community here and looking forward to getting started! Which book would you recommend reading first? Thanks!

I'm having a dawning realization on just the nature of what I think is a lot of people's problems are and things that get in the way of learning as well. I'm noticing that a lot of crappy stuff that goes on that creates suffering in people's experiences and maybe inhibits people's abilities in learning stuff is just having a complex mind. As in there's just a bunch of shit being juggled around time to time. Like how you want to live your life you might have a million and one ideas of what it should be and this and that. Maybe making it hard to choose. Or if you wanted to learn something you might just start juggling around a lot of concepts trying to "figure it out." Been then there's just a simplicity in just paying attention to what's going on. Juggling around concepts and coming up with ideas seems to be the "thing to do" a lot of the time, but it kinda seems like the solution to a lot of our sufferings might honestly lean in the other direction. I think even in learning stuff too. Simplicity in living can look like an ease where you don't have to second guess yourself, and decisions can become clearer just by questioning or living. Simplicity in learning can look like the material ITSELF becomes the teacher, and your paying attention to the act or reality of it is what becomes the lesson. Less preconceptions I can even notice it in "combat," or even social interactions. Just move your body, mess around, do the thing. Stop "thinking" about it so much and actually participate. Funny how something so simple and in your face can be so powerful. Just doing the thing. Or when socializing, just get the dude across from you. Don't dramatize it or make crazy shit out of it. Just get him. Not even to mention how much more freeing of a life it can feel. Simple and direct. Reminds me of a quote somewhere that went something like "Zen is the de-symbolization of the world." Could just be a useful direction in general. Can feel a bit contemplative at times. Could be the direction in which contemplation "leans." Outside of all the "concepts," or "chatter." Just what is actually true

Basically been grinding peters podcasts all over again and again, and everytime I ended up with this weird sense that i'm just not getting it, watched "how to stop self-destructive behaviour" one like 7 times already and It's just glimpses in my own experience of how much I actually grasp in there, but oh boy "why people hate being mundane" hit me like a truck. Basically what I did I've just noticed that there's such a thing in a first place, secondly that we run from it, and lastly we live our whole lives like this, funny that many people doesn't even consider about this, exactly like me, been doing this whole life. So i've sitted with it for more time and i've just started to connect the dots from all of the podcasts, like I could see that thoughts are distractions(self-made), all of the action we take is distractions, everything is a distraction when it comes to this, then i noticed emotions, i even laughed cause how can be emotion happening in nothingness without me doing it. Wanted to share this so much, cause it feels very profound when it comes to this work, now I can start integrating this into my daily life not just moments where nothing special is happening. anyone knows what i'm talking about? or i'm just fkin crazy, cause this one seems like root of everything, of every problem of every emotion you don't want, like just go and live from this state, in this state these thing has no possibility to happen cause they're just not there. And if you're further then this I would love to get some directions to look further, but for now i will keep looking at mundane until i get everything there is from it. Biggest question for me right now is why do we run from it in the first place and what is it even. Lets get back to work, also i'm grateful for answers and this community, peace✌️