Cathal

the lowest teaching is not using the highest teachings to attain to not needing teachings to see that for oneself conventions must exist, mendicant!

You feel guilt because you are still identified to your cravings as yourself. In the case of anger, there is just view attachment to not eating meat. This is what Buddha talks about with wrong view and that's why there's always failure in educating people so we tend to give up and think 'I shouldn't try to help, it doesn't work' but the reality is there is an energy of anger from subtleto gross (think blue haired screaming femboy) to protect ourselves from being wrong and take elation in being right, this is delusional. I agree on the inspiration, but to be an inspiration you cannot be insecure about what you're saying because you will never really say it and touch anyones heart, because it's not really deeply in your heart but created in thought form like all wrong views, @arjuna Like I said, I myself would devour a cow for my survival, but I sit here 20 mins from a supermarket overwhelmed with abundance and health options, why would I then choose to eat an animal if I don't need to? Because, it tastes good, and I prefer the pleasure of my taste and my social comforts over the suffering from the cow - my emotional centers have not really been formed enough because I am not confronted with that suffering - the antidote here is to investigate the truth about these things and give up the lies that bind us to our comforts and causes suffering to ourselves and so many other beings.

there really is nowhere to go and nothing to do, until that penetrates you there is only layers of desire playing out disrupting the eternal

There is no right or wrong, there is no good or bad, but step on a baby and see how it feels inside of you? Your mind can only weigh things in duality, use your heart and ask yourself is this really okay what i'm doing? You have so much power to change the world just through your decisions to the right thing, even if everyone around you eats meat, you stick your ground So the questions you're mainly asking are can I be healthy and thriving at my peak performance without animal products? I think, if you really want to know the answer to that you will have to research quite a bit yourself, if you really care about the suffering of animals and planets then i'm sure you will find the answer - but the research is pretty obvious as to regards to that, we as people just have to do it the right way and take the right supplements to avoid problems

Being enlightened doesn't mean you suddenly comprehend japenese and spanish, nor do you comprehend the impact on the planet by eating meat. There is no 'bad' karma for eating an animal, there is no bad karma inherent in anything. But once you become aware that you no longer need to eat meat, that you can easily supplement anything your body needs, then what remains is you are choosing to cause suffering because you prefer your comfort over the right action. Now, karma comes in, cognitive dissonance arises, you start lieng and bullshitting all kinds of things 'well this holy man does it so I can do it' ' this culture believes this so I can do it' 'i'll be sick if i don't eat it even though it's just something i choose to believe instead of actually researching it' I mean cmon man, grow up and make your own choices Make your own heart your authority

Be here now, there is absolutely nothing to do If you can do it this moment, you can do it the next Why are you frustrated you forgot? You investigate this present moment, what is here and now? Ah, a hindrance you say? Something unwholesome? Throw it out, introduce something wholesome "What a nice breath this is." "Wow, there really is nowhere left to go.." "I can actually choose to enjoy this breath." "Wow, i'm actually safe and secure, there's nothing left to do" You forgot for a moment, you were thinking about something unwholesome, wanting to go somewhere, craving to become Oh! Now you remembered, you returned to the here and now and woke up to being lost in wanting! Time to relax that tension, ah now where was I...This breath, ah yes, wow this feels so nice.... Over and over and over and over and over Remove the hindrances, then we are fit for investigation, dukha nirodha - the entire teaching of the Buddha https://www.youtube.com/@DhammaratoDhamma Or would you rather just investigate dukha hmm, no samatha just vipassana? Let's go mahasi style baby and note this dukkha until we go so far into it.. We have a dark night of the soul! "It's not enough to just wake up, we have to get out of bed" We have to, as the Buddha said, gladden the mind, the KEY step western practictioners could benefit immensly from! Metta metta metta

Please take the time to visit Dhammarato on youtube, he will really help you out and is incredibly understanding. He teaches for free, has an active Sangha (online community) and is the real deal

It just is, what is, so what is is always the truth, now is the only thing there is, not your yesterday's meditation experience or a 5 year old ayahuasca trip story of the Truth, this is the truth, what is now

It's a practice you will spend time developing and it's especially tough to get the ball rolling, but i have done it and seen myself transform, there's many things you can also do to lets say give support to your non-reactivity, it was actually at the core of how the Buddha taught anapanasati, to introduce the gladenning of the mind - to actively relax bodily sensations that arise, it is not an aversion but completely facing it and relaxing it, you are taking control - it transforms the habit of tensing up with anxiety which only aggrevates and prolongs it, the more you surrender to what arises and let things be the way they are, over time you will see a radical transformation

Stop reacting to it and see it as impersonal, a condition you were conditioned into. If you struggle with it, try to fix it, change it you will not let go. Letting go is to stop reacting, to be mindful when it arises, to stop trying to defend yourself and let go of controlling what is out of your control. Let go and you will see in time, it won't hit you as much

I just wanted to write about my experience visiting a monastery. I ended up spending 3 months recently at a forest thai wat in the tradition of Ajahn Chah. It has radically changed things for me, I am going to put up a few pointers as to how this may be beneficial for you. I want mainly emphasis and try to express how we in the west have been conditioned in a certain way that doesn't exist not even mildly to the extent it does in Thailand, as many of you who do psychedelics know your potential to be selfless and loving and a real friend towards others and the polarity to that in your regular day to day state of dealing with your repressed nuerotic delusions and projections onto 'others', you can see childhood traumas come up again, see parts of people you thought you forgot about 20 years ago come back in some way or another, your karma is going to be popping off my friends - going to a monastery will drastically develop your awareness around your 'social selves' or that part of you that comes online around others, that tenses up and walls of and rejects, that projects pushes away, judges and scans for threats and so on. The whole of the unconscious is here right now, it just needs a certain mirror for you to see it, communities are a room full of mirrors. Maybe you will see that you do infact still hate your ex gf? That this part of you, the day to day one that walks around in a social environment is a huge hindrance to maintaining a wholesome state and not falling over and over and over into the 5 hindrances. We often talk about causes and conditions and how they arise parts of the mind, and when you live in a community tailored for spiritual development - for a little bit it can be like high-school all over again or being at your parents home, it's such a radical dynamic that to just experience it is absolutely mindblowing. The most important insight is that of understanding just how fundamental it is to develop Sila (morality/ethics) and how it affects your actual meditation. It is really difficult to explain this until you see yourself being in an actual community for a little while. Dana - the sharing experience; being in the west, we don't really experience sharing, we are ruthlessly climbing on a hill of bodies trying to make a living and don't have a clue what Dana is. It's so weird, when you are shown unconditional hospitiality and care, you actually want to give back and that feeling is incredibly important to experience - the development of generosity and unconditional giving is essential imo. Meeting those who have been practicing for 30/40 years and senior monks such as Ajahn Amaro can be a transformative experience in itself, these people can have such a profound impact just by being around them and speaking about your life/practice - they can point out things you are completely ignorant to, point you towards things you cannot see and make you feel what it feels like to be in the presence of actual unconditional love. The Sangha (or spiritual friends) are fundamental to everyone's path and we ought to put effort into making and maintaining companionship so we don't fall into delusion or isolation and develop very important parts of ourselves that shouldn't be left behind. Patience - is a really a powerful virtue to develop, enjoying the way things are despite how they are, being here with the way things are... most monasteries will have a degree of sensual restriction such as no tv/internet/music/noble silence/meal times and so on and you might be very suprised to waking up to how many habits you have regarding this. It will develop your ability to be here with reality and help you see how much control you actually have over your own actions. As Daniel Ingram said I believe, that it is more beneficial for someone to instead of meditate 1 hour a day for a year meditate for 1 hour for 6 months a year and do one 7 day retreat, retreats and environments with other practitioners can create a group energy and inspiration to push through phases of the vulnerability to sloth and torpor we find in our regular homes and touch into territory that requires a certain amount of striving. I see now how important it is to find a place we can visit often, a place where we can find like-minded people and practice diligently together and discuss our path to truth that isn't online - see online and in-person are just two different environments and are incomparable, It's so crucial and the main thing I hope you take away from this post. So my last word here is to do yourself a big favour and find that place of yours that you can take refuge in and strive in your practice. may you be free from suffering

Interesting, I wonder if meditation, considering it's alteration on increasing grey matter regions in the brain would have ever been talked about has a possible solution or aid to those who are affected by a lower nGMV

Vegetarian. Veganism is an ideaology that people are way too emotionally attached too. I don't eat anything that simply does not make sense to eat, despite how convienent or tasty it is, it also requires one's own willingness to investigate their own actions which comes naturally as your heart opens more and more and you want to do better for yourself and others. The fundamental problem is not a distinction between the dairy and meat industry since they are really just two sides of one coin, it is human consciousness which largely rooted in patterns of what we call culture, or let's say even more accurately, habits we inherit which no longer really work as reality changes so rapidly, so to seperate and begin splitting these as somewhat seperate doesn't make sense. Is it morally worse to eat a a gorilla and a worm? Well my own view is, the more capable a being is to experience its own suffering then if I had to choose, I would eat the worm before the gorilla since the gorilla is more capable of experiencing suffering. Now the argument usually comes up as how do you know that? We humans are generating huge amounts of suffering due to our cognitive capabilities and how we have been conditioned and the ignorance to the impermanence, no self and suffering of reality. So I can make the assumption that gorilla has the capability to suffer more than that worm, and if I had to eat a carrot or a worm I would eat the carrot, because that worm has more capability to suffer than that carrot, how do I know? I don't, I try my best Indigenous tribes who are hunting animals for their own survival are doing so for their own survival, we have evolved far beyond needing to consume animal products for our survival many years ago but continue to do so because of habits. It is quite literally, just a habit. I really have no anger towards anyone who consumes animal products, it's just a question of making the right connections in the brain as to understand what you are eating is very much a destructive thing and if we were confronted with it, as in if instead we walked into a restaurant we walked through the slaughterhouse then the resaturant, we most likely choose not to eat that being. In the end, it is law that governs most of our belief systems if you investigate yourself enough. This rights and laws have no basis in reality, they are all conventions we are emotionally attached too, so understanding that these questions about my right to do this doesn't matter, we just as individuals have to make the best choice to do what is good over what feels good, in doing so we will transform ourselves and the world. At least, that's what I believe. The thing is like when you actually care you just give up your own views and opinions and look at facts for what they are and you are willing to be wrong, to change at any given moment. If I choose how I emotionally felt over factual data, I would want to be in a mental hospital for the safety of others. I am really glad that you are investigating this for yourself, it makes me smile to know people want to do more good. ❤️ It's all fun and a bit of a laugh to make jokes but at the end of the day when we sleep all that really matters is the actions we have taken and not the thoughts or jokes themselves

There is really just the change in the relation to the self-concept through practice, the self-concept may arise despite meditating for 30+ years but with actual insight practice you naturally let go of clinging to 'I/mine/self'

If you care even the slightest about yourself and anything living on this planet you have to take responsibility to just give it up now, we are approaching that time we have to take action today, now, in this moment. Even if you fail tomorrow, you just keep your intention pure to give it up, over and over you will eradicate your destructive habits just like in meditation, in fact spirituality and vegetarianism are synonymous, responsibility is spirituality = to take one’s reality into one’s own hands, to understand your karma is your karma alone whether you create good results or bad results for yourself, you just investigate your ignorance and go at your own pace. We must choose the truth of goodness over what feels good, for the more expanded your awareness becomes the more you realize how impactful just being alive can be, just not eating meat you are having such a beautiful healing presence in this world, you will get a lot of backlash, you will be faced with uncomfortable emotions, confrontation from others, just let go and stand side by side with what is good. Slowly your body will heal its lifetime of digesting meats and slowly the seed turns back to its saplings on the land’s cut down to feed this lifestock – just as in meditation, letting go of the conditioning falls away and the being returns to the deathless being of now.