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✌️

A very common way to approach life is to adopt a "more is better" attitude. When we are stuck, we look for more techniques, more routines, more methods… Basically, 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. But if we're honest: after years of reading and learning, is a lack of information still the problem? I'd argue that, usually, knowledge is not the actual limiting factor. The real issue is that we always had a 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗸𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 to begin with. Even if we received, say, the "Ultimate Textbook" on how to live life, the following things would still happen: - Not really knowing what we want - Setting goals but not acting on them - Being stopped by external conditions and turning them into excuses - Constantly "shooting ourselves in the foot" in small or big ways Even with the perfect plan, we'd still waste massive amounts of energy fighting our own internal contradictions. That’s a structural problem, and there’s no way to fix it with surface-level techniques found in self-help books. We need to go deeper: we need 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀. Next week (Saturday, Jan 31st), we’re running our 𝗻𝗲𝘄 6-hour interactive online workshop: The 4 Principles for a Free and Powerful Life. It’s about identifying the core mechanisms at the root of your everyday experience. When you align with these principles: - 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 emerges: You know where you’re going - 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 disappears: You stop fighting yourself - 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 open up: You realize you may not be as stuck as you thought - 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 and 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗼𝗺 return: You stop leaking energy on things that don’t matter Most productivity "hacks" stop working the moment we become internally stressed, or when too much external chaos appears. Conversely, principles are 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 looking at what causes stress and chaos, and learning to navigate 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵. We're keeping this workshop affordable to make it a strong entry point for anyone new to this work. Even if you've worked with principles before, we'll approach them from a completely different angle, helping you integrate them in ways you likely haven't explored yet.

All, I think I'm beginning to have a powerful realization on how people's preconceptions seriously hinder and get in the way of the work, as well as limit our ability to uncover the communications that facilitators, workshops, books, and other materials are trying to make. And it seems to be whatever "thing" we may "hold" "Cheng Hsin" as in our mind. Essentially, anything, and I mean anything, that takes our "perception" away from the "current state of affairs" and our ability to be present & listen to what is presenting itself as true Now! An example. Say someone in the Cheng Hsin martial arts instructs you, relax. You could have a whole thing where you extrapolate what that means in your mind, maybe you have it like it's this big "other" thing, or is something "spiritual," or maybe it means a lot or is "important," or the ability to do it is beyond you. But then in your experience you have an ability to just relax. And that could throw you off, going from one to the other, because it could look nothing like the concept you had of it. But unless you make the distinction, you don't really get to "begin" the work. You'd have had the concept pinned in your mind as the work, without even realizing you're engaging in something that's actually getting in your way! So then here we see why it's important to be honest with yourself. You'd likely never have made the distinction of real relaxing until you dropped the idea of it and found it in your experience. Also keep in mind I'm just using martial arts as an example here. The dynamic that I'm trying to show extends beyond that. Honesty, as an experience seems like it aligns our attention and mind to the most present reality we have in front of us. It's funny in a way because there's that "overlooked obvious" quality. So, it seems like the best way to "find" Cheng Hsin is to "throw it out!" (The concept) It's funny because I've heard that before but realize saying that is a mouthful! The material takes a much different form

So last sunday brendan tried to explain a distinction is vs isn't. This whole week I was trying to understand what this means in my own experience and I faced few things i want to share and contemplate about. So basically when there was some situation in my life which felt "heavy" in my mind like getting overhelmed by my own thinking, i've tried using this as a calm down mechanism, like i've tried using "is" as primary state over isn't so my mind just stops from going even more into thinking. Then i've noticed that this itself felt like some some suppresion or ignoring my mind state as it is right now, it's like my mind itself tried to calm it down by using "is". Main difference is that in these situations it feels like i'm ignoring what comes up even tho everything in isn't is kind of unnesecary, it still feels like i'm somehow suppresing it. Like i'm ignoring my mind so mind itself doesn't feel ignored. Then i rewatched peters video of "how to stop self-destructive behaviour like for the fifth time to see what i'm missing into my integration. It seems to me that "is" is kind of state which you cannot get tuned into by wanting it to do something for you, cause it comes from the same place where things isn't right. It's like my own mind tries to use these hearsays, to stop thinking, but that doesn't resolve the problem, cause it itself is a same thing. "is" is just now as it is without needing to do anything about it. My mind seems to complicate itself by using beliefs and assumptions that feels "higher truths" even tho I don't comprehend it by myself. It's like my own mind plays these games again and again and again just using different faces. But again there's this problem comes up where i tend to fall into self-destructive behaviour like smoking ciggaretes, which i don't want in my life, but peter also explained that this whole frusturation happens as i understand from imagined future scenarios, like I have to be this monk like stop having these all sorts of addictions. Also he tells about the social domain which all of this comes up in the first place, like drinking coffee, smoking and etc is did only to be kind of accepted into our social domain, he mentions that living in society has it own consequences like what i've mentioned. For me it's a war between what i want to become(imagined scenario of future self) and what i want to do now(smoke a ciggareete for example, it feels wrong yet right at the same time, also there's a third voice that says drop all of this shit off(but it's also minds work. It's like what i've come up with it's always my mind doing these games on me even tho i'm the one whose doing the mind(according to peter). Even now my mind by writing this wants some clear way to get rid of itself, is just another face, another method of staying alive, another way of saying "hey something is wrong with me", "hey, im special I cannot smoke a ciggarete, am i so weak that even i(special) cannot resist from smoking?" it's like i'm living in a society so i have to have identity, which has to be protected and saved, and when this doesn't happen i suffer, and if it feels save then I face into destructive behaviour, cause I need something noticeable to fix. Mind is just so smart on deceiving itself, imagine using this power for something greater then bullshiting yourself all day long. Maybe i just need to understand that i will die no matter what I will be, i'm not special, i'm not unique, i'm nothing, just a grain of sand in a desert, but this leads to nihilism, like i'm worthless, what's point of trying, why do anything then, but it's always mind doing it's shit, can't i just smoke a ciggarrete for a damn sake and not go into existential shit my mind comes up with 😂