Hey,

This is my first time really being involved with a forum and it's been incredibly helpful so far.

I'm just wondering if anyone on here who has experience with forums in general has found one that deals with everyday success (particularly financial).

Figure it's worth a shot.

(Won't make a habit out of non-dharma-related posts, promise).

Adam

Hi Adam,

I do not know specifically of forums, but given your stated aim, you may find it valuable to dive deep into the blog of Tim Ferris. Each post usually has a considerable amount of interaction (relative to the norm for blogs, anyhow). And you can probably find your way to forums by asking / researching more there. But regardless of whether or not you dig further, note that I think I've probably learned more from his posts alone (not to mention all the resources I've been pointed to from other reader's comments and the like) then I did while earning a college degree in business (majored in computer information systems; added emphasis given to marketing / management). I'm not sure if the two are actually comparable though...anyhow, the point is that the information is high quality.

Trent

Wow! Great find. Thanks Trent.

Trent,

I've been reading through Ferris' stuff for the past few weeks. Also reading his books. Thanks for advice.

Adam

I don't know any forums, however from personal experience I can say that the less ego (self-importance) you operate with, the more things tend to go your way. People are attracted to you, situations work out, you get the job, the traffic lights turn green, your stock goes up, etc. On the flip side, if you operate with a lot of fear and desire, you're rooted - nothing goes your way. So if you believe this (or better, prove it to yourself) then the next thing would be to choose a path that gets you a bit beyond your ego.

Personally I like Carlos Castaneda's writings. They are very similar to a lot of the stuff on the AF website, the content of which is very good, but the style realllly irks me - you know, all that "first person in history" stuff he employs. Did Richard meet everyone in the history of the World? No. Has he met Castaneda and his predecessors, who obviously achieved the very same thing? No. Why would he talk that way? I still don't know.

Maybe have a look at this and compare it to the AF stuff: they are talking about the very same thing I believe. The parallels are striking. I just prefer CC's style.

http://www.prismagems.com/castaneda/djintro.html

Hi CCC,



Could you provide some links and explanations as to why you think the material on the site you linked has anything to do with what actualism is on about? I browsed just a few random samples and I was hard pressed to find anything that could even be close to similar...

Here are just a few very obviously odd things I caught:







Trent

I find this very interesting, as when I first was exploring the pce, and the eternal sense of nowness, and here-ness, it reminded me don Juan's 'stopping the world'. But shouldn't this topic be a separate thread?

John I've removed my posts from here so as not to clutter it up, and started a new thread comparing Nagualism and AF.

i liked steve pavlina back then when i was in college.
stevepavlina.com
i dont know about now, but he had lotsa nice podcasts.

i like the podcast '100 ways to motivate yourself' by steve chandler. something i played now and then to kind of jumpstart and motivate myself and get things going.

Well, I don't think I have any recommendations about what you are looking for (regarding financial success). And, I think you might have to be more specific to find what you want. For example, this website has been recommended to me several times:
http://www.warriorforum.com/
It's definitely about making lottsa cash, but only from an internet marketing point of view. So, you might want to narrow down your niche a little.

Also, I know Rich Dad Poor Dad has a forum:
http://www.richdad.com/Forum/forum.aspx
And Millionaire Mind is a popular one too. But, I think when you go to the general "get rich" forums, the advice is so general as to no longer be useful and you won't find so much of the down-to-earth discussions such as you find here. (that's my experience anyway).

Not related to money, but web forums which have a similar high standard for pragmatism, openness, and lots of contributing experts, I can suggest three more forums:

http://board.crossfit.com/
Crossfit is for general health and fitness with an incredibly pragmatic point of view.

http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/forum.php
This site is about building strength through weightlifting. Mark Rippetoe answers questions there, and his answers are both helpful and sometimes super funny.

picking up and seducing women:
http://www.fastseduction.com/discussion/
Although some people may question the morality of such an activity, I spent a lot of time on this forum and learned a hell of a lot.

I have a particular affinity for people who prefer pragmatism and results over dogma and popularity, so I really enjoy communities like this.

I've also gotten some good tips from Steve Pavlina and Tim Ferris along the way. As a general note, I might say that probably whoever is hosting a discussion on making money probably has their own financial interest at stake. So, just something to be aware of.

Wishing you massive success! he he...

- Daniel

ps. I used to be a life coach too. I'm not sure how great I was at it, but people definitely paid me for it. So, if you ever want to ask me a question, feel free, and I'll give you whatever answer I may have.

Hey DNY,

I'm a fan of Steve Pavlina as well. I found most of the comments on his forums pretty vapid though.

I'll check out Chandler.

Thanks!

Adam

Hey Daniel,

Thanks so much for providing so much info! I'll put these links to good use.

I've also spent some time learning to pick up women. I can't see anyone being justifiably opposed to this kind of work from a moral standpoint as long as the practitioner is honest with the women he is pursuing. Women want to date and get laid too, it's just that they want the men they're boinking to act in certain ways that they perceive as "sexy" first. In that sense, we're almost doing them a service by learning these techniques and attitudes! ;)

Thanks again,

Adam

CCC,

I found the Casteneda writings interesting and profound.

I particularly liked the concept of "seeing."

What I have come to realize is that this "reality" is remarkably open to interpretation, that there are many ways of perceiving time and space that do not want for a "sense" of "logical" congruency.

I prefer to stick to the Buddhist vision of things right now, in the interest of consistency. However, looking for similarities between the various systems is always interesting.

I do believe that the simple act of "seeing" in a deeper and more accurate way somehow influences the world and causes it to respond to your more favorably. The law of attraction comes to mind here, which is not something I believe in fully but am open to based on personal experience.

Anyway, thanks for the insight.

Best,

Adam

When I was in Maui I watched a Tv-show with this lady about personal finance:

http://www.suzeorman.com/igsbase/igstemplate.cfm?SRC=SP&SRCN=yfb_login1&GnavID=95&SnavID=57

She made more sense in less time than any personal financial adviser I have ever heard. That said I don`t know much about such stuff and I haven`t read her books.

For success in any sort of achievement focused endevour I think NLP has a lot of good stuff. NLP has some powerfull visualisation tricks and a lot of stuff in it that can help you become very motivated clear in your mind about what you want and effective in going about getting it.

Even though he and his books are cheesy as hell I have heard very good things about Anthony Robbins material from people that have good judgment when it comes to other things and are also meditators.

You might get all the same benefits from meditation, I am not sure about that, but cogmed.com has a program that is prooven to boost your working memory significantly. Working memory has a strong correlation with a bunch of other skills important for success in life and in a career and indeed those studied showed improvements with school work and social relationships and self control. I would try it for some time to look for improvements. My guess is that you get a lot of the same from meditation but that there still is some extra benefit from training working memory from this angel as well.

Image streaming is a technique purported to boost creativity and brain power a lot. I tried it a bit and can certainly see how it would do that. From my experience it is certain to do something good to your ability to generate ideas and to your verbal thinking and arguing abilities.

I think there are big differences between different styles of meditation and energywork with regards to how they influence wordly success. The concentration and added brain power from shamatha/vipassana will help. However, it is the root chakra that is related to material concerns and success and the manipura chakra and the dan tien/hara that is most correlated with achievement success and drive etc. Being ungrounded is probably the worst thing that can happen for your abilities to achieve. It makes you fluffy unfocused and unconcerned with the world and with people. In qigong organ theory the lungs are key for confidence and assertiveness the kidneys for drive and memory and will power and the spleen for logic abilities and the heart for realtionships with people etc. So doing something that takes care of these things better than just doing vipassana is a very good idea IMO. NUmber one would be standing meditation to really build a strong root. That will be of substantial help in the long term I think. The wuji posture used by most beginners also takes particulary good care of your kidneys and spleen and are as such extra good for your puroposes. If you add in something for balancing the organs such as six healing sounds or inner smile you`ve got yourself covered when it comes to having all these thigns in excellent shape over the long term. Acording to my teacher once you get good enough at standing meditationa nd stand for long enough it naturally drifts towards becoming standing vipassana. At least you can easily make it that way.

The secret smile meditation could also be very usefull. It makes you relaxed, confident, happy, loving and blissfull. Excellent for getting your mind in the right place for both meditation and for success in life. Once you have a fair deal of mastery over it you can just go into secret smile state and run it for a minute or three and you are back to feeling that way even though you weren`t feeling that good a couple of minutes a go. You can find instructions for it if you seacrh for it on thetaobums.com

Thank you very much for your insight, CW. I will check out these suggestions.

Something that I need to work on is my understanding of the relationship between vipassana meditation - that is, understanding the depths of reality, including the 3 marks of suffering, impermanence and not-self - and more conventional means of ending suffering and developing enhanving my experience of life in a positive way.

I have arrived at the point where I am consistently able to coax myself out of negative mental states and infuse my body with energy and drive. I use different techniques for this, including The Release Technique (also known as The Sedona Method) as well as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

Sometimes I question the value of Vipassana, meditation and even Buddhism itself. Sometimes I believe that I could arrive at a sort of ideal state by just using simple conventional psychological techniques such as The Release Technique and CBT to the point of mastering them.

However, My intuition tells me that there is a deeper relevance to vipassana and Buddhism, that it can help me in a manner that is more significant than merely mastering my emotions and leading a successful life.

(beyond the obvious brilliance and profundidty of the Buddha's teaching, I believe there is a practical result that is somehow more valuable than mere conventional happiness. I would guess that this has something to do with the problems that he was originally addressing: old age, sickness, and death. Let's face it, no matter how happy or successful we are in the conventional sense, these problems cannot be solved on the same leve. I think I am answering my own question here. That being the cawe, the question becomes one of emphasis and timing. Should I master conventional methods first and then move on to deeper issues, or should I shoot for vipasasana attainments with all the effort I can muster. Also, should I emphaize one over the other generally?)

I think that Kenneth Folk's framework of the "3 gear transmission" adresses these concerns of mine, and hope to have a conversation with him at some point.

Anyway, thank you for your suggestions. I will investigate them further.

Adam

PS - Tony Robbins rules!

I would just like to add that my main issue has always been, continues to be, self-discipline.

Despite the fact that I am able to put myself in active, strong, and focused states of mind that are free of depression and oer forms of conventionally suffering, I still fail to remember to access these states on a regular basis!

I am filled with frustration as I reflect on the amount of time that I spend in negative mind states! Waking up in abad mood, I spend all morning wallowing in unnecessary negativit, when the whole time I know from experience how easay it is to just "snap out of it!!" (I would like to add here that it is not always easy for someone who is depressed to just snap out of it. Depression is a realy thing. However, given the appropriate training, it really does become that easy - just snap out of it! Just be happy! It really is that simple ...)

Despite my access to happiness I dwell in unhappiness, mostly out of laziness, perhaps out of some unconscious fear that I am largely unaware of. I am not sure whether I need to "change" something at a deep level in order to increase my willingness to dwell in happiness, or if I just need to keep trying.

I really suspect that I am facing a severe lack of self-discipline. I was very spoiled as a child and self-motivation is something I never really needed growing up. Now I often feel like a football player in the big game who spent the off season sitting on tthe couch while the other guys spent it in the weight room. My discipline muscles are severely underdeveloped.

For this reason I believe that my issue lies squarely in the realm of Sila work. I know the right insigts and I have pretty good concentratione. I just lack the mental habits to apply my knowledge and attainments. Frustrating to no end!!!!