I’ve been noticing something slightly disturbing about spiritual teachings. For any teaching to survive, it has to attract people. And to attract people, it almost always has to offer some kind of “goodie”. Freedom from suffering.A better life.Authenticity.Peace.Enlightenment. Something the ego wants. Because if a teacher simply stood up and said: “Let’s pursue truth for its own sake, even if it destroys everything you believe and gives you nothing in return.” Almost nobody would show up. So teachings package truth with incentives. Even teachers who deeply care about truth still have to do this. Take Peter Ralston as an example and this community. This work clearly points toward something very serious. But notice how the entry points are things like improving your life, ending suffering, authentic experience, workshops, courses, books, etc. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s probably unavoidable. It just reveals something about us as humans. Most people don’t come for truth. They come for something they want. And maybe, if they stay long enough, truth sneaks in. Which brings me to the funny part: Even writing this post… I can see the same mechanism in myself. Part of me genuinely wants to explore this dynamic. And another part of me hopes people resonate, like it, comment on it… so I can collect enough points to reach Level 2 in this community. So even this reflection isn’t free from the same incentive structure. Which makes me wonder: Is it actually possible to communicate truth without any incentive attached to it at all? Or is some level of “goodie” always part of the game? -Talat

On the exercise to select a characteristic (limiting) behavior I want to change, I'm not sure if I could work on the more subtle behaviors I want to change, not the more gross ones like anger, sadness, shyness. I am interested in understanding my behavior of: zoning out, distractibility, boredom, etc. These things I believe are hindrance for my growth and focus/concentration/contemplation. Do these things qualify as limiting behaviors that I can free myself from, or do I just stick to the anger, sadness, cracking a joke all the time ones? Thank you in advance.

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I recently completed a 10 day silent meditation retreat, and on this retreat I had the realization that what we call the "mundane" is actual a beautiful place to be, possibly the best place to be. When most people sit alone with nothing to do they go to boredom, loneliness, self conflict and fantasy. Yet when we move through those things or stop doing them, we become present. We rest in Being. There is nothing to do but listen to the sounds, breathe, rest in awareness. This to me is the pinnacle of existence, just Being, presence. Yet, most people see this as hell, so they go on chasing trivial things. Yet to me the real hell is being a slave to some idea that you need to be someone, or live a unique exciting life and be special. Recently i've been contemplating "specialness" and dropping this whole pain in the ass notion that I am somehow special or unique and it's been a great relief. Thanks for reading.

Lately I´m wondering about a perceived "stupidity" in myself. Its like a dullness or a foggy mist that clouds my perceptions. What creates "stupidity"? Is it born from ignorance? Lack of love? Selfishness? The drive of self-survival and to persist as a certain "self-object"? I can see that my listening skills are affected by that. It seems like a part of me just does not want to hear truth. Any ideas?