Someone here

Lol I prefer women with tons of makeup. White teeth (Hollywood smile ) and a perfectly symmetrical face and a lean fit body (not into fat ass and big tits ) But what does that have to do with smoking ?😅

@Eothasian could be . But me personally, I have no problems regarding my diet .its just the smoking thing .

@Eothasian it was because of his heavy smoking habit.

Smoking cigarettes is one of the greatest joys I get in life . I just adore the nicotine smell and taste in my nose and mouth. I get a high out of it . And If I should do what feels good to Me..then that means I should continue to smoke . That's how I trick myself .of course its needless to say or cite the negative consequences of smoking and what it does to your lungs and to your whole body really ..and every smoker knows that very well. But continues to smoke regardless. I have a smoking addiction. Trying to quit since 2018 but always falling. I realized I was deluding myself. I can keep repeating the cycle of "just one more cigarette" for the rest of my life and will still want "just one more cigarette". It's getting to intense phases. Nowadays I smoke 7 packs a week or so. My uncle just had a heart attack recently because he is a heavy smoker as well. I need to stop or I will be following his path. It's getting to the point I wake up at night to smoke. I Considered scaring the absolute shit out of myself to change my relationship and perspective on smoking. Because whatever my attitude is towards it now, clearly isn't strong enough because I keep relapsing. When I say scare the shit out of myself I don't mean just to glance at all the warning labels and recall common tropes. I mean really immerse myself in the consequences and become truly aware of what smoking does, can do, and WILL do to me. I better be sure it WILL happen. Of course any smoker can "know" of all those things, and most do. But they don't care because simple acknowledgment and knowledge of all those things is just a game the ego plays with the mind to distract from with the problem. Having knowledge of something is not the same as being aware. People who are aware of the dangers of something don't participate in it, or at the very least they can. Thoughts ?

They can overlap but they are not equal to each other . In my book..truth is simply direct experience. Happiness is an experience within direct experience. So truth is more inclusive than Happiness. You could say Happiness is a subset of truth . Let's just suppose that truth is an awful thing or bad news .would you sacrifice your happiness to know the truth at any cost or would you deny the awful truth to live in delusional happiness? Curious to know how would you answer this one. The value measurer is you of course. Please let me use words like "you " and "me " and "I" without questioning my existence 😅

Happiness VS Truth.. Which has more value to you?

I was expecting this kind of answer from you 😆. Imo Your True Self is a little tiny flame of this Universal Reality that is Life itself, Consciousness itself, Being itself, Love itself, Light and Fire itself, God’s very self. Thinking creates the separate self, the ego self, the insecure self. The God-given contemplative mind, on the other hand, recognizes the God Self, the Christ Self, as being EVERYTHING. Literally all of existence. All of reality .If I'm ALL of reality..the whole shebang..then how could be an "other " to me ?

Here's Leo Gura's deleted video on solipsism. He claims in it that I (the viewer) am the only "conscious thing In existence " and that all other people are my mere imagination and they don't have independent existence on their own outside my consciousness of them . In the video he defined "awakening " as the realization that you are God,the only conscious entity in existence. And here's the Wikipedia page on solipsism: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism I wanna know your opinions on solipsism and how it relates to non-duality and awakening.

@BlendingInfinite You know you can achieve your dream when everything you do gives you an immense happiness, when you feel determined and self confident in what you do. That's not how I feel . Our strengths should escalate positivity in us. When things you do improves your self efficacy and pushes you forward instead of dragging ya back…that's when you know you can kick your dreams off and attain your goal. I Analysis whether i have potential to achieve my dreams and high? If it is not…i should polish my skills and make it shiny. Life is not a readymade coffee. Some brewings are always needed.

. I love the quote from Abraham Hicks " Reduce your workload by 30% and increase your fun load by 30% and you will increase your revenues by 100%. And you will increase your productivity by 10,000%." (If there could be such a percentage.) More fun, less struggle more results on all fronts. We’re brought up to believe you have to work hard for anything worth having whereas the more you just enjoy what you do the less you achieve. And it's about achieving not enjoying.We tend to also think we have to work hard at happiness too. There’s nothing hard about being happy it is changing our thinking that may be hard initially as we have to shift our thinking habits and recognising it’s all about how you think. How you think affects how you feel and that affects what you attract into your life.

@BlendingInfinite If what makes you happy is easily obtain, then you don’t have to work at all to obtain happiness. And if what you’re trying to achieve can be easily done by you, then it wouldn’t be hard at all for you to succeed. The thing, however, is that people measure their success and happiness by comparing it to the success and happiness around them. Even if they were to achieve their goal, if they see that someone has achieved more than them, they’ll feel like their success isn’t very valuable since someone else has achieved more. The same goes with happiness. In first world countries, billionaires are the wealthiest people. But in third world countries, people who has access to water, electricity, and other technological resource are the wealthiest. People define the worth of something by comparing it to things around it. And since gaining more happiness and more success mean you have to do more, happiness and success then requires hard work.

I have come to the realization that the secret to genuinely appreciate anything is to know it has value .even if we are still not sure what value it holds . . And the only real secret to this thing so generically titled “ HAPPINESS “ Is to understand it’s not a real thing. What I mean is when any emotion or state of being encompasses so many variables , and require major external influence , it simply needs to be seen for what it is. The secret to happiness is not just one. My opinion, don’t shy away from hard work and struggle. The more effort you put to gain something the more pleasure you will feel when you actually get there.. On the other hand, if you can get anything like a Ferrari or a yacht without working our ass off to get it , don’t be surprised when you can’t feel the joy and pleasure. Even if you do feel some amount of happiness it will feel shallow. Why? Simply because you can’t cherish it as there was no struggle to get it in the first place.

Well I'm pretty sure that I hate my state of life in this present situation where I don't have everything I want . So that's why I'm trying to change my life situation. But i expect great results without putting in the necessary effort and thats where I fuck up . We all want to achieve something in our lives. We all have goals that we set, yet oftentimes we let them disappear in the background while wasting our time in mediocrity. Getting mediocre results because we live a mediocre life . But what does it take to really achieve anything? How can you go about accomplishing a goal that you’ve always wanted to accomplish? Well, in the past, if you’ve set some goals and you didn’t follow through, there’s a reason for that. There’s a reason that we throw up our hands in silent resignation. Most of us simply want something and we want it now; we don’t want to have to work tirelessly for it. So, how do we go from simply saying we want something, to actually following through and achieving anything we put our minds to? How do we push through when all we want to do is give up? These are the questions I'm trying to answer for myself in the meantime.

Well, I'm not so sure about that . Personally I choose to put in great effort as I desire big results. My goals are a stretch and always involves new skills, new beliefs, new ways of thinking and I’ve found that it takes commitment and effort to get past the discomfort until it feels effortless. Others choose to set small goals or goals that don’t require much effort. My question to self would be what is the purpose of me having dreams and setting goals and how much effort am I prepared to put in. If im prepared to put in great effort, then dream big. If not, don’t.

What do you mean ? I do, if I want to become a professional philosopher or a philosophy professor.

I want to become a philosopher .or a philosophy professor. That's my passion . But I know that's not gonna happen. I study business in university. And I can't become a philosopher with a business degree . So that goal can't be achieved. And the other goals as well ..I don't believe I'm capable of achieving any of them . I'm too lazy and I don't take the necessary steps towards my goals.

Getting a job . Making money .buying a house and financial independence from my family .getting married. Raising a family .buying luxury items .etc

Like I'm not man enough. Or I'm not worthy enough of having great things in my life because I'm a lazy ass who wastes his time everyday smoking and playing video games instead of working on my career and goals etc . So I feel like I'm not putting in much effort into crafting the life I truly want . And you know..you always get in life what you put into it .and I'm not putting much. So I'm not getting the desired results.

Because from my childhood and school I always felt less worthy than other boys . And this habit of looking down on my self and judging myself as unworthy remained with me as I grew older . It's a habit I guess .

I often doubt my self and my ambitions. I doubt that I'm fundamentally capable of achieving everything I ever desired for . Like I'm not "worthy " of achieving those goals . I have a lot of limiting beliefs and stuff like "I'm not good enough " and else from this ilk . How to remove those mental barriers and really open my mind to the possibility that I am in fact capable of transforming my life into the life I truly want ? I haven't made dreamboard yet ..I just type the stuff I want on my ipad . I'm very lazy and I procrastinate a lot and I get lost in too much theory and less taking action. How to deal with all this ? Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

The sentiment that money can’t buy happiness has been around for decades. Often, those who are struggling with their finances will scoff at it, thinking that they would be happier with more money, less debt, etc. Don’t get me wrong ,having money is helpful. Knowing that your bills will be paid each month, that you’re working towards paying down your debts, and that you have extra leftover to save and spend can certainly reduce stress. I think You have to be happy in the first place, adding money certainly takes some issues out of the blender of life, but without being truly happy inside the money will not solve that issue. In my practice, people tend to come to me and say if I could only get my debt resolved and have money I’d be happy. We resolve the debt but that doesn’t mean it makes people happier, it sometimes just is another thing people want to get done like a project. I think The reality is that happiness is internal and comes from a deep understanding of your true self and that takes time for many people to come to terms with understanding what they need and want.

What really affects our happiness more than how much money we have or make is our attitude toward money and the way that we handle it. So it is very important to develop the right attitude toward money and keep in in a healthy place. If you stick to the belief that money directly determines happiness, you can get stuck in a cycle of constantly wanting to accumulate more. More money, more stuff, but never feeling like it’s enough.

Thanks for the replies guys ! I think The challenge with “money can’t buy happiness” is that it’s only partly correct. When we think typically about spending money, we tend to think about spending money on stuff : a new car, a new TV, the latest headphones and so on. However, as human beings with complex brains, we also adapt to new things in our environment remarkably well over time. That “new” TV? At some point, you get used to the larger size, the high-quality definition, the excellent sound quality, and it’s just the TV now. That “new” car? At some point, you get used to the heated lush seats, the backup camera, the great satellite radio, and the other great features, and it’s just the car now. Psychologists call this the “hedonic treadmill” .we get used to new things, and they become “old things” and we decide that we need even newer things to replace them. I think Another reason that buying stuff won’t make us happy is that we tend to compare ourselves to those around us our family, our neighbors, Hollywood stars, people in ads, and so on.

@MazE if not all the rich are happy nor all the poor are sad , why do people spend their time running after riches and who waste their lives and their chance of welfare and happiness in their lifetime ? Likewise :It is said that money is the root of all devils ; many envy their neighbours , brothers , sisters or even thier parents , or feel frustrated only because they can't afford all that is displayed in shopwindows . Therefore , Are we free or obliged to be rich or poor by destiny since we open our eyes in this world ? and if the richness and poverty are two exams humankind involved in in this world , which one is the best to be rich or poor ? so why we don't have equal status since it is calculated by destiny as a symbole of the almighty unknown force

In our society in this era ,so much attention been paid to the ways of how to earn money .We live in a world that depends completely on money ,and so The language of money becomes the common language that everybody learns from an early age .Many hate each other just because of money , many love each other just because of money ,and many impose themselves just because of money . Money becomes the family whereby one feels security as well as the weapon whereby he or she feels existance .But does money bring happiness ?are all rich people happy ? Most people assume that “things” will lead to more happiness than “experiences.” Physical objects..such as the latest iPhone, handbag, or car etc last longer than say going to a concert, taking a cooking class, or going on vacation. Buying things does make us happy, at least in the short term. In the long-term, however, we habituate to new things and even though they may have made us excited and happy at first, eventually the item becomes the new normal and fades into the background. What do you guys think about this topic ? Is the magical key to happiness is simply more money ?or is the subject more nuanced than that ?