Posts by wearyhawk83

jademarlin26 said:There is nothing free about making a choice. Being conditioned by options isn't freedom. You move freely when you aren't overthinking it. If you are constantly thinking, "now I'll go left"... "now I'll go right"... "actually, maybe I'll just go straight", you aren't moving freely. One learns best through personal experience, and martial arts serve as an excellent testing ground for many spiritual theories. When you get hit, you realize you’ve imprisoned yourself within your own choices, effectively paralyzing your ability to act. When you act freely, everything flows smoothly. To achieve that flow, there is no left, no right, no up, and no down.

If I am driving to visit a friend on the other side of town and I take that route countless times, there are no intersections, no turns, and no decisions. I simply drive and arrive. However, if you follow me in your car watching my every move, suddenly there are intersections, traffic lights, and turns. In this scenario, you are practicing concentration and observation, while I am practicing free movement.

If a centipede had to contemplate which leg to move next—in other words, if it had to make a choice—it would never move at all.

So, does that mean an animal is more free than us, even though they're stuck in a way worse spot in life?

If I’ve got one option, I’ve got no choice. If I’ve got two, I’m stuck in a dilemma. Three options and suddenly it’s a trilemma! But seriously, who actually had enough options to even call themselves free?

jademarlin26 said:No matter how many choices you're given, there is still no freedom. The issue isn't the quantity of options; it's the very act of choosing itself.

Honestly, this feels like nothing more than some linguistic gymnastics to me. Isn't freedom literally defined by having choices? Think about it: we become freer in direct proportion to our ability to recognize what drives our behavior, allowing us to pivot and shape our future to match what we actually want. At the end of the day, if you think those choices are stripping away your freedom, you’re still free to just call it quits on life altogether. I really don't think we can ever be "unfree," and if I’m being bold, I’d say freedom is just part of our DNA—it's just that very few people actually have the guts to use that rusty old tool.

Who actually had enough options to claim they were free?

An animal doesn't have options because it isn't even aware of them. It’s "free" to be a snack for a hungry tiger. But the second you gain the ability to build a shelter to hide from that tiger, you've clearly leveled up in the freedom department.

Having zero options—or lacking the awareness to even realize it—means you can't grasp concepts like freedom or any other abstraction. That’s why I think when we talk about freedom, we have to stay within a certain framework. Anything outside that frame is just "absolute," and once you go there, words lose all their power and become totally useless.

If we’re talking about freedom within its own context, then I’d say freedom is the ability to understand the mechanics that drive us and the world around us. Once we get that, we can develop desires that align with the nature of life and eventually fulfill them by simply living out our true selves. If a gazelle is built to master the art of stealth and sharp instincts, it finds fulfillment by leaning into those traits—death only happens if it gets sloppy. Similarly, if humans are designed with the potential to uncover the truth of existence, then our mission should be fulfilling that exact step: following the realization we discover.

Rachel Stewart36 said:hiddenhound3, a total 🙏 for this whole thing—specifically this part here:

In my opinion, instead of this "either/or" thing, we're talking about "simultaneity"—meaning, it's not that both *can* be, it's that they fundamentally *are*.

If I'm reading you right, you think "penetration itself" merges both forms? Like, knowing another person is a form of penetration, but since all knowing is self-knowing, it's really just about "opening" oneself to oneself and to the other (being the penetrated). 🤔

Look, you can't have penetration without both a penetrator and someone being penetrated. It absolutely merges both sides, but not by swapping roles—it's more like the roles just totally dissolve into one another!

When you’re fully checked in and giving 100%—whether you're the one leading or following—that whole sense of "self" just melts away. You lose track of your daily grind, and even the act itself stops feeling like two separate things happening. Honestly, the more we grow up and understand how life actually works, the more we realize that true fulfillment comes when we stop playing roles. We aren't just participants anymore; we become the experience itself. Perfection isn't about the people involved; it's about the flow. Nature tries to show us this all the time, from the way faces reflect our energy to that deeper, abstract level where we finally sync up perfectly with someone else's vibe—or even our own—to create one shared reality.

Let’s be real: forgiveness is basically an illusion. You can't change what happened—the past is set in stone, period. To me, forgiveness is just a word we use to describe how well we handle life's curveballs. It’s all about acceptance. At its core, it’s driven by our desire to actually live out our potential, and if things line up, the byproduct is showing some grace to the person who messed up. Honestly, being able to forgive is just a massive indicator of how much we've actually grown up and learned to deal with life's messiness.

Hannah Diaz said:Yeah, I guess maybe instead of saying "awareness," you could say "enlightenment"—like looking through the darkness toward the light... it feels a bit more religious than that, maybe? Or am I overthinking it?🤷

And honestly, being "indifferent" is basically just having a dead soul. People like that are basically "walking corpses."🙂

Look, there’s a massive difference between being enlightened and just shining a light on a problem. The problems themselves are already illuminated! People totally know they shouldn't be speeding through residential neighborhoods, yet they do it anyway and cause accidents. People know there are millions out there who don't have enough to eat and are starving through no fault of their own, yet we still see tons of food wasted. We hoard stuff we don't even need and pay pro athletes salaries that could literally feed every hungry person on the planet.

At the end of the day, people *know*. If everyone just decided right now not to hurt anyone else—nothing more than that—even if they didn't go out of their way to help anyone but themselves, we'd instantly have the peace the world is dying for. And if we all just committed to giving one genuine smile to one person every single day, the whole world would flip into a chaos of love instead of this chaos of everything else. People know the truth; the light has been shining for ages, so what are we doing with it?

Unlike just exposing a problem, true awareness is about building that bridge between the individual and the responsibility for their own actions in that light. Light by itself is just a seed that can grow into something bigger, but most of the time it doesn't sprout because we aren't creating the right environment for it to bloom.

Individually, we can't be held responsible for a hungry kid in Africa, but we *can* be responsible for our own actions that indirectly or directly fuel everything we claim to hate about the world. If we actually want peace and love, why are we constantly stirring up conflict? Why are we spreading dissatisfaction without any intention of changing? Most importantly, why do we keep fueling everything we want to root out just by staying silent when we communicate with others?

Just stay neutral given the current situation, and things will shift regardless of you. Be the kind of person who doesn't hurt anyone, and you'll be contributing to peace. Be someone who loves while refusing to cause harm, and you'll contribute to love. And if you can find ways to point out someone else's blindness in a way that they truly get it without feeling attacked, then you're truly being a decent Human Being.

The real issue here is awareness. Most people actually make things way more dangerous by trying to sweep everything under the rug instead of facing it. But once people actually realize what's going on? Nobody can just walk past and ignore it anymore. They start looking for solutions and taking action. Every single one of them.

Hannah Diaz said:wearyhawk83, why do you always jump straight to the negative? Who's doing the insulting? I was just laying out the facts... the ones that actually exist, even if we try to hide them... I get what you're getting at, and honestly, that's exactly my point... we're talking about the same thing.😉

Being human isn't easy... and yeah, maybe we are pretty pathetic.

I'm just calling it like I see it!

I usually go for the negative take because people tend to overstate positivity and shove all that extra "baggage" under the rug, thinking it’ll just vanish on its own. Newsflash: nothing ever just disappears. We need to be crystal clear that toxic crap isn't actually part of being a positive person. If we don't, we’re going to end up exactly like the people we see today—folks who only do good things when there's a cash prize or an emotional payoff involved. It leads to this messed-up reality where "love" somehow includes physical abuse alongside a kiss, and "happiness" becomes nothing more than a hollow substitute for money, sex, a fancy degree, some mental health struggles, and four failed marriages.

No way! Negative vibes aren't some mandatory package deal that comes bundled with the good stuff.
I honestly believe we have to call out all the nonsense and harmful lies floating around. If we’ve reached a point where we feel like we have to overcompensate by showering everyone with constant praise just so they don't notice how much things are rotting, then we are in serious trouble. Like, deep trouble. Look, there’s nothing wrong with highlighting the good stuff, but when everything else is absolute chaos, we can't spend all our time putting lipstick on a pig. We can't just close our eyes and pretend the problems aren't staring us right in the face. You have to acknowledge the issues, face them head-on, and actually fix them. Too many people are playing it safe and being cowards about it, and honestly, we're the ones enabling that cowardice by refusing to speak up!

Of course people get annoyed when I bring up the heavy stuff. It’s because they already know it's there, and talking about it stirs up all those uncomfortable feelings they've worked so hard to bury. They like to play this game where they pretend that if they just close their eyes and ignore the mess, it'll magically vanish. Newsflash: problems don't just disappear because you decided to take a nap. They’re still right there waiting for you when you wake up. Look, when it’s time to celebrate life, I am all in. I love a good party and I’m the first one to cheer. But when it feels right to call out the absolute garbage side of things? I’m gonna say it. If it feels like I’m talking about the "smell" too much, that’s not on me—it’s just a reflection of exactly where we are right now.

That’s where all the resentment and bitterness come from.

John Jones3 said:Actually, you are—because you're projecting everything onto me. You need to look at yourself instead. What I wrote might actually help you pull back the curtain on whatever is keeping you in the dark.

Thanks for the help!

John Jones3 said:If you’re going to claim people should focus on themselves instead of me while simultaneously preaching about Oneness, you’re basically lying to yourself—there is no distinction between us in Oneness. We are all one, which means my experience is yours too, provided you actually open yourself up enough to learn from it. There isn't some arbitrary distance between me and anyone else here; I'm just sharing what I've lived through, though apparently, hearing someone's actual experience is an issue for you. Would it be better if we spent ten posts beating around the bush instead of just using plain English to say how things work? It really is that simple—you open the heart chakra (the third is the easiest starting point), then gradually move through the sixth, then all seven, and the path just unfolds without needing some rigid manual.

I am not the topic of this discussion.

Hannah Diaz said:I mean, everything is subject to something, right? I guess the whole point for us humans is to actually become *human*—and I don't mean just existing at some primal, animalistic level or worse. We're meant to reach our true potential, the way we were originally designed. That’s where spirituality comes in, I suppose... it's the tool that lets us function as conscious beings so we can actually know the creator and, by extension, finally figure out who we really are.

Why would anyone even insult animals?

An animal eats because it’s hungry. They don't kill for sport or find joy in cruelty, they don't trash their environment, and they don't know what hate is. They aren't petty, and they won't hurt anyone just because they're having a bad day or because some astrological alignment is off.

The animal kingdom lives in a state of harmony that humans will never achieve—and honestly, never have. Humans are so pathetic that we've managed to convince ourselves our hearts are massive and noble, even though they're really just made of flawed, messy matter. It's just that nobody wants to face that reality.

John Jones3 said:I don't think I need anyone's permission to mention it—it just came up naturally during the debate, which, let's be honest, is what this whole discussion is about anyway.

Look, knowledge, enlightenment, and all that good stuff aren't contagious diseases you can just pass along to someone else. It's more like a level of personal growth that only the individual can actually achieve themselves. There's nothing to "give" because everything is already there.

If you've actually reached enlightenment, you'd know that. Your whole focus should be on the truth of unity—helping others clear the fog from their own eyes so they can finally see themselves instead of just staring at you.
That way, you wouldn't be wasting breath on useless talk that just makes people recoil from what you're saying. When you speak, you naturally create a divide between yourself and your listener, even though you should know deep down that those distinctions don't even exist.

The people who really get it use methods that bridge gaps rather than creating them.

hiddenhound3 said:Whew!

Look, I am genuinely happy if you truly are enlightened and if you inhabit your own essence—if that is indeed who you ARE—but I have to admit that I remain skeptical. I know plenty of people who are deeply spiritual and possess an incredibly high level of self-awareness, but they didn't reach that state simply by reading spiritual books. They achieved it through decades of active, rigorous pursuit and work. Yet, not a single one of them would ever dare to claim they are enlightened. Those are powerful individuals whose mere presence provides a sense of revitalization.

I assume this also implies that you bear responsibility for those around you who are not yet enlightened. Tell me, what does it actually feel like to be enlightened?

There’s something seriously refreshing about this perspective. No matter how powerful a person thinks they are, we can't possibly grasp the full scale of reality—we're just seeing tiny fragments of the bigger picture through our own limited lenses. So, instead of constantly hunting for better glasses to sharpen the view, wouldn't it be way smarter to just find a way to ditch the prescription altogether?

John Jones3 said:Not really—I consider myself enlightened, and I haven't "ridden" anywhere.

Modern society is exactly what you described, but global peace and stability could actually stem from mass enlightenment. Just striving and devouring spiritual books is worlds apart from actually living it—that’s where people trip up—too much reading and not enough actual work on oneself. That seems to be the core issue today.

So, you’re basically out here acting like you’ve reached total enlightenment or something!
If you’ve already reached enlightenment, then why even bring it up?

frozennomad0 said:An obsession with the number 3. 😍😍😍

Are you all familiar with what happened during his "breakdown" in Chicago?

"He could hear the ticking of a wristwatch located three (😍) rooms away from his own. The soft landing of a fly on a table would create a deaf-ening roar in his ears. A carriage passing by several kilometers away would shake his entire body. Even the whistle of a locomotive thirty (😍) kilometers off would cause his chair to vibrate so violently that the pain became unbearable. It felt as though the very Earth beneath his feet was constantly trembling. To get any semblance of rest, he actually had to place rubber pads under the legs of his bed.(...) During this period, his pulse would spike erratically, jumping from barely perceptible to 260 beats per minute."

-"In the darkness, I possessed the senses of a bat; with a terrifying sensation in my forehead, I could sense the presence of an object at a distance of 3 (😍) and a half meters."

What is your take on this from a spiritual perspective? Extrasensory perception, perhaps?

Honestly, I’m definitely not just taking everything I read at face value! 😉 If you think he had some kind of superhuman sensory perception, you're way off base. Not even close!

If I remember correctly when it comes to all that math stuff, Nikola Tesla once said: "If you only knew the magnificence of the numbers 3, 6, and 9, you would have the key to the universe."

Jeremy Davis7 said:Grace;

Who actually says they’ve "moved on" from that mess? Honestly, it sounds like you’re convinced he just kicked the bucket and went to some better place.

I'm with you on that one.
It’s kind of wild how we just breeze past the fact that, one day, the lights are going to go out for good. We go about our business like we've got forever, acting like we aren't all just ticking clocks. It's easy to ignore, I guess. Just easier than facing it.
Most people who cling to this whole idea of an immortal soul? They act like it’s just some simple system reboot. Like you just hit a button, everything resets, and you're back online. It's such a shallow way to look at it.

If they keep thinking like that, they’re going to end up making some seriously reckless calls in life. It’s all surface-level stuff. They aren't actually thinking—they're just skimming the top.
They all love to talk about how death is going to "reset" everything. A great equalizer, right? They sit around dreaming about "starting over" through reincarnation, or—for those who don't buy into that whole cycle nonsense—just drifting off to some "peaceful place." It’s always the same old comforting fairy tale.

They say nothing in this life comes for free. Honestly? They’re right. Everything has a catch.

Free will? Yeah, right. As if.

Trust me, I know how this goes. It’s always going to hit you right where it hurts—your wallet. Especially around here...
Why would anything be any different outside of the bedroom? Honestly. It’s all the same mess everywhere else.
We carry our baggage everywhere we go. Doesn't matter where you land or what shape it takes—it just follows you. Always.

If that was supposed to be some high level of consciousness or the state of a soul... man, I don't even want to know what the bottom looks like. Here? The misery just keeps rolling on... it’s hitting the other side too. Specifically, those people who still haven't found what they're looking for. Peace. People spend their whole lives hunting for peace, and most of them never even get close. Honestly? Even death isn't a guaranteed escape. Sometimes, the torment just gets more intense, hitting you even harder once everything else is gone.

Most likely.

It really all comes down to how he crossed over—the nature of the transition itself. Was it violent? Sudden and jarring? A suicide? Or was it one of those peaceful, quiet departures? Honestly, that kind of thing can be a pretty solid indicator of what’s waiting for him on the other side. The other side..

What's that supposed to mean? You think I don't have an opinion on this? Honestly, I’m just sitting here wondering how we even got to this point. It's all a bit much, isn't it?

What’s the point of living a "perfect" life—you know, hitting all the marks, eating clean, staying out of trouble—if the exit is going to be a mess? Does it even matter how flawless you were on the inside if the way you go out is violent, sudden, or just plain agonizing? Or maybe it's the opposite... does a "peaceful" end somehow validate a life well-lived? I don't know. It feels like a cruel joke. You spend decades playing by the rules, only for the universe to decide whether your final act is a quiet fade-out or a total disaster. What's the connection there? Honestly, it feels meaningless.

Look, I don't see any real difference between the guys staring down death on a battlefield and the ones fighting a terminal illness in some hospital bed. It’s all the same. Whether you're facing a bullet or a diagnosis, that raw courage? It’s identical. It's just different flavors of the same grim reality.
The way you die might change, sure, but that doesn’t mean you’re suddenly experiencing some "other plane of existence" the second your heart stops. It's not some cinematic transition to a different dimension. I'm not even talking about people who take their own lives—those folks just trying to escape the grind—but for everyone else? It's just lights out. No magic, no grand reveal. Just nothingness.

P.S.
Keeping your eyes on the prize—on that bigger picture out there—that’s really the only way to live. It keeps you from drifting. It acts like a compass, keeping you focused on what actually matters instead of getting lost in the noise. Honestly, it helps you stay grounded. You can participate in the world, sure, but without that perspective, you just end up being consumed by it. And trust me, nobody wants to be that guy.


I’m just sitting here counting down the days until it finally happens. I don't care how it goes down or what it looks like. People might think I'm being naive or whatever, but honestly? I can't wait.
Like a coiled spring. Ready to snap.

🙂

Here’s how I see it, though.
To me, that doesn't sound naive—it just sounds off. But hey, being "off" doesn't mean they aren't being sincere.
A person who actually knows what's up isn't sitting there impatiently waiting or wound up like a spring. Honestly, they just ride the wave with total peace, because they realize that inner calm is the only thing that actually matters.

They aren't out there wishing for anything, not even that specific moment, because they get that nothing comes from nowhere and there's nowhere else to go. They just exist right here, right now. That's where the magic happens, while everyone else is too busy worrying about the end of the road.

I was actually at one of those just yesterday!

I’ve actually felt that final flicker of life slip through my own fingers. In that exact moment, I felt everything all at once—this heavy sadness mixed with total peace, a rush of pure life, and a deep sense of humility.

casualeagle82 said:Look, my bad, maybe I went too far. But you're basically contradicting yourself here: you claim life has no meaning, yet you act like you’ve actually found some. If there's truly no point to any of this, then how—and why on earth do you think you've stumbled upon one?

Apology accepted!

As for the whole "meaning vs. meaninglessness" debate, let's save that for another day in a different thread. Honestly, I wasn't even trying to convince anyone else—I just wanted to be real about how arrogant and contradictory I can be sometimes. Better to be honest about it than to pretend otherwise, right?

Catch you guys in the next discussion! 🙂

casualeagle82 said:Quote: I wrote my post from the perspective that there is no point to existence, which is just my personal take. Most people don't get it.

Are you kidding me with this sentence???? Are you guys actually trying this hard to sound deep, or are you just illiterate? "The nonexistence of the point of existence." Seriously, you're starting to overdo it with this stuff (if I can even call it a thesis)...

Just talk like a normal person. Stop acting so high and mighty.

Maybe you didn't catch my drift, so let me break it down simply. When I mentioned writing from "the perspective of the nonexistence of the point of existence," maybe the wordplay just rubbed someone the wrong way.

Basically, I was saying my stance is that life doesn't have an inherent meaning. That definitely doesn't mean I haven't found my own purpose. I added that second sentence specifically to shut down the idea that I'm just being pretentious or playing philosopher—it's not some shallow attempt to act smart.

Look, it’s not cool to tell people how to act unless they’re actually causing trouble, but it’s also worth pointing out when certain phrasing comes off as disrespectful to the person you're talking to.

casualeagle82 said:quote: Just because someone lives off the grid, stays awake 24/7, and spends their time on things most people would call useless, doesn't mean they aren't spiritual or following what others call "the heart." You have to separate the essentials from the noise. It's about knowing the right time, the right place, and the right way to act.

I’m 100% with this. If our quirks—no matter how weird, pointless, or even messy they seem to outsiders—are what actually make us happy and fulfilled, why shouldn't we lean into them? Ignore the judgment and the confusion from everyone else. The whole point of being alive isn't just existing; it's finding the stuff that actually makes life worth living.

My post was written from the perspective that there is no inherent "point" to existence, which I know most people find impossible to wrap their heads around.

P.S. Hey, when you're quoting someone, it's way easier to read if you include the full block. That means you shouldn't strip out the parts with the angle brackets. For example:

casualeagle82;29708752 said:. Also, to make sure the quote actually works, you can't forget to include the closing tag at the end:

If you want to quote someone without including their name, just highlight the text you want and hit the quote icon in the toolbar right next to the bold and italic options. It's the 15th icon in the row. You can also just manually type

before the text and

after it.

Gregory Jackson said:So, yeah, that’s just my way of paraphrasing the general vibe of it. But, man, I see people just don't get it, so let me try explaining again: the quality of your consciousness—which is, I mean, a pretty undeniable sign of someone's personal growth—doesn't actually depend on specific actions or things you're doing in the moment. Most of the time, we're just unconscious, or we aren't really "there," just kind of running like machines following some pre-set program. And when we're in that state, we end up creating all this psychological mess, tension, and pain for ourselves. If you can actually maintain awareness—that state of expanded consciousness where your thoughts, mechanisms, or reactions don't cloud what's actually happening—then you can do that in any situation. Just... I don't know, try playing a video game for four days straight without stopping, or try working at full capacity with total awareness for that long. It's a brutal spiritual challenge. And just so I don't have to deal with anyone else misunderstanding me: honestly, staying conscious for even fifteen solid minutes is a huge feat, let alone trying to do it for four days while doing anything at all.

What you're talking about now is a different beast entirely. It might not be a direct pivot from my original point, but the subject matter is definitely different.

I'll weigh in on that, too. Playing a game for four days straight while being "conscious" is not the same thing as what you're describing. You're assuming that how "deep" someone is is directly tied to how much awareness they have, which ignores intention or motivation—and those are massive factors. In fact, they're everything.

Playing games consciously for four days is mostly just a reflection of having too much free time, nothing more. On the flip side, killing people while being fully conscious for four days would be a reflection of pure malice, not "spiritual depth."
Being a spiritual person through your actions requires more than just being aware. There's a whole element of love involved, but since people seem to miss the mark on that, I won't dive into it right now.

Gregory Jackson said:Come on now, you really can't jump to those kinds of conclusions based on just one little episode, I guess. He wasn't even playing before or after, so there's nothing to talk about regarding an actual addiction. There is way more going on here—staying alert, "fighting" through the fatigue, "battling" the boredom... all of those things actually require total awareness and wholeness and some pretty serious mental work. But I suppose to someone looking in from the outside, it probably doesn't look that way at all.

Gregory Jackson, if you're struggling to see my point, it's because you're lacking a bit of critical thinking—and honestly, maybe a little awareness right now too.
In your last post, you basically identified with your teacher and felt this massive need to defend an obvious lie by trying to pass it off as something normal or even "spiritual":

my ex guru spent four days and four nights continuously playing Lines, you know, that simple game where you line up five colored beads.

On the flip side, you totally missed that I wasn't even trying to shade the guy, I was just calling out his poorly worded response, basically, how incomplete it was.

Just because someone isn't eating, sleeping, or living in total harmony with nature—staying awake 24/7 while doing things that seem pretty useless—doesn't mean they aren't spiritual or acting from the heart, like people love to say. You've gotta separate the essential from the trivial and know how to recognize the right time, place, and way to act.