Ideas that have changed my life
I saw a great post the other day from Sneak Berlin about some of the great ideas that have shaped his outlook. I figured I would do something similar and talk about ideas that have shifted my own. This will be a living document and continually updated with ideas that have been impactful to me.
You can only control a few variables in this life
There are very few things in this life that you can actually control. Many people spend a lot of their time focused on things that are completely out of their control: other people, sports games, what people think of them, how the world is going, the weather.
You can immediately change your life for the better by focusing on the things that are withing your control:
- Your mindset and how you look at the world around you
- Your presence
- How much you put yourself out there
- Your efforts
- Your health (to an extent - you could die tomorrow or suffer a catastrophic injury despite all of the efforts you put into health)
- What you allow into your life (people, music, news (or lack thereof), books and media consumed, etc.)
- How you spend your time
In controlling what you can control and letting all else go, you will see how much better your life will be, how much less anxiety you will have, and the inner peace that comes is worth it all.
Consciousness is Never Ending - it is Ubiquitous
I have been going down the rabbit hole of the Hard Problem of Consciousness as of lately as well as a deep dive into Theological studies. What I have come to see is that we have been exploring the same phenomena for millennia - and I believe that we had it figured out (to the extent that a human being can understand God) long ago.
Read the Tibetan Book of the Dead - the belief is that you don’t really die when you die.
You experience True, unending consciousness. Most people will not realize what this is, and move to reincarnate into a body as quickly as possible. If you are an adept meditator, you might (just maybe) continue on in your True Nature.
Recent books I’ve read and things that I’ve explored if you feel like going down a rabbit hole:
There is much that I could say about this, you can watch me talk at length about it on my Youtube channel.
Time is the most valuable thing
Since my daughter was born, this is more and more evident to me every day.
The time that we spend becomes how our lives are defined.
If we spend it in creativity, in building, in helping others, the life that you will live will be tremendously fruitful and beautiful. If you waste time on the minutia and shallows, you will find yourself unfulfilled and always looking for more.
Sin is distraction from the ultimate path of your life
There is a path in your life that you probably subconsciously and consciously know you should tread. Every distraction, every blip on the radar that is not on that path is what I would refer to as ’sin’.
Sin is missing the mark. It is distraction from the ultimate self. It is eschewing God’s plan for us, and going about life on our own terms instead of walking with Him. You know what you should be doing RIGHT HERE AND NOW, are you doing it? If not, you are sinning. Start living in direct accordance with the Highest Self.
Stop sinning and start winning. That’s going on a t-shirt.
There is infinite possibilities from this moment forward.
Hilariously, this thought came up in a conversation with a great friend of mine. “So you mean to say there is a version of me that never jerks off again?” is the jest of the comment made. I laughed tremendously hard but it also struck the chord that there is a highest and best self out there that I could aspire to be. So why would I not do the things today that would bring me one step closer to meeting Him?
I started asking many of my friends that if they believe there are infinite versions of themselves (this requires some stoner thinking), then why are they not that best version? Many have gone on to change their lives in meaningful and great ways.
Become Nobody
I encourage people to find out who they truly are.
Everything else is a waste of time, a waste of the Ultimate Self.
This means dropping political affiliations, identities, ideas of separateness. If we were to all do this instead of looking at the outer appearance of a person with prejudice and preconceived notion the world would be a very interesting place. As everyone is concerned with sexuality, race, religion, or whatever else - be concerned with Who you (and by extension, everyone) actually is: One Soul. Nothing. Everything. The Ultimate.
Strip away your preconceptions, cease judgement of others (as by extension, you are actually judging yourself), let go of the idea that others may have of who and what you are, and actually become Who you Are.
Heaven is in the Moment
Get comfortable with paradoxes
Much of life is duality. There is truth on both sides of the equation. You have to see both sides of an equation, playing on one team or the other is a way to lose yourself, participating in the pitfalls of other people’s ideas of what is right and wrong. If you are comfortable with paradox, you come to see that all life is perception - how you see and interact with the experiences and Universe around you.
Nearly nothing at all is black and white. But, there is also Truth (with a capital ’T’), that is Universally applicable. In and of itself, this is a paradox.
All the answers are within and without
If you silence the chatter of the world, you begin to hear this Truth.
You have to be prepared to see the answers in all of life, in nature, and within yourself. Nature replicates that which is within, and within replicates much of nature.
Beyond this, your worldview is a manifestation of the inner workings of your mind and spirit. How you move and interact in this material space are reflections of the inner You.
Self help is one of the worst things you can possibly do - it makes you look again and again outside of self for answers that you will only ever find within you. It makes you seek answers for things that you already know to be true. “Wow, I should go to the gym and stop caring what other people think of me!” My friend, if you needed to pay for a course or a book on that very simple idea, you are in trouble!
Instead of help the self, self realize.