TL/DR - Goal: explain the idea of mindfulness to someone who maybe hasn't quite wrapped their head around its use as a tool and what it's really about. I wrote this after I read a quite highly up voted comment the other day:

I'm interested in Zen idea of an empty mind, but it directly conflicts with my work. I create things, and conceptual thinking is an important part of my process.

I see how you could throw conceptual thought out the window if you're a consumer, but I don't see how you could do that as a producer. Nevertheless, I practice it, but I don't take it to its illogical end of total empty-mindedness. I wish I could, but my goals don't allow it.

I find the Zen idea of a beginner's mind to be quite beautiful.

""In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." - Shunryu Suzuki

What does it mean to have control over your thoughts?

What does it mean to understand your own mind?

How should you react when something terrible happens to you and it's provoked by someone else?

The last question is almost cringeworthy. It is because humans almost want to have and keep this need to react, this need to have something, to anything. If you're like me, the questions I asked last, out of those three questions, maybe once did make you cringe, or might make you cringe right now.

The thought of someone spitting in your face... a random coworker, neighbor, or student walking up to you and spitting right in your face. Your first reaction is violence. This is completely normal, rip his fucking head off while you're at it.

And this is self respect kicking in. This is the need to survive kicking in. Animal instinct. Our minds need to hold onto something and having value for ourselves is a big one that we like to hold onto. Having an ego in part is what makes us so hungry, it's what makes us consumers, and everything else in between. I think pure depression would ensue if we allowed ourselves to let go of everything. At that point, we mine as well have all stayed with our cheating exes and even watched her fuck other guys. But, truthfully, none of it needs to be so extreme. Because even the heaviest weights can be countered using balance of equal magnitude.

Look at it this way;

When you come to TRP and start to learn game, you learn this "one size fits all" approach. "Don't text!" And; "woman are like this, so do this." And; "say less, be mysterious by doing this."

And after some time, you realize you have swayed "far left," and almost all of the right wing may have disappeared. It is so amazing how TRP can help you do this. To sway you so far left. And this is truly a great thing. Because, as time continues on maybe 6 months, a year, two years... the idea of TRP starts to settle in, and you start to feel very comfortable. It becomes who you are. You become this way. That is, if it's something you believe in wholeheartedly such as myself. And this is great because you're taught how to deal with life, how to deal with and handle women, and what they're about.

And you are always growing, there is nothing static about humans. Learning is what makes us. You are always changing and always adapting. Your body does this amazingly, and sometimes it's a bit harder for your mind. However, if you look deep enough, core tenants that make up who you are, have never really changed. All you've really done is applied what you've learned (no matter the topic.) to make yourself better at whatever it is that you're doing. I am not saying people don't change under certain circumstances, they do. What I am saying is that even with change, there is a core that remains buried in most. For example, those who have had an actual drug or drinking related problem, it's probably best they stay away from all things related to keep themselves safe because, that problem is very real and will most likely return (sometimes with a slow onset, other times much faster.) if that person doesn't keep their eye on it.

The only difference;

They've accepted it as a problem, and they are working to fix it. This is what will keep that "sober" person, sober. If they drop their guard and start to play against this old friend of theirs, it could come back faster than they'd know how to handle.

So those of you that are procrastinators, there is something in you that will always chase you, that will be in your shadow forever. You need to stay one step ahead of that shadow. You really can't out run it, but you can know that it's there and keep a forward pace on it.

In time, that shadow will become your friend. When you accept and know your weaknesses (your shadows.), you can work with them and much less against them. To play the game with them. Most of the time, you wouldn't walk up and say "want to fuck," to a random in a restaurant. Not because you fear the denial or backlash, but because you know that you must play the game, and even play a little to her tune. But sometimes these shadows are hidden. They appear to be nothing. They come alive and completely cover up that core self, the one with the true intentions and desires and do so with intense amounts of nonsense.

They are so good at masking themselves, they sometimes even pose as you. This is why watching your thoughts (shadows.) is one of the most important things you can start practicing. And even this process has a shadow that covers it sometimes; laziness or ignorance. Or the, "I don't need to practice this thought process, it's really not that helpful." In essence the very solution has been masked when this thinking occurs. When I say watch your thoughts, I don't mean sometimes, I mean; every chance you remember to, always. It starts to become habitual after the hard part of remembering to do it passes. Because of course no one is freaking out when it is bed time, they only are as the spit hits their face. The easy situations are easy to practice mindfulness during, it's the times when we are wrapped up in our emotions that it's hard to.

So what am I getting at?

We assign value to things. We determine this value based upon life experience. Someone who has been a Chad Thundercock his whole life may not see much value in TRP. He may say, "tell me something I don't know?" That is, until he stumbles across it after a figurative ass whooping from a slutty ex girlfriend. Then Chad wants to hang out here and learn everything it has to offer, all because he was ignorant to the know how to start.

And just like some of you who have came to TRP and went far right or left, you most likely brought some balance into your life and went somewhat left. Although, just like in that somewhat "life changing experience" when you found TRP, there was still something at the core that existed to bring you back towards the left, even if it was only one or two paces. And if one or two paces is your center now, then that is your center.

But it is the questioning of where the center is that brings you there. All of these shadows can chase and chase, but when you feel a sense of calm come over you, a sense of somewhat "unaffected emptiness," and it lasts some time, you are at your center. This is why newbies stuggle at TRP, they're searching for this balance, this center and rely so heavily for advice on how to make it there. You have in essence identified the shadows and come to terms with the idea that you will need to spend your life, one step ahead of them.

And when you realize this, life is a lot less about how you will do this, or what your plan is about, and it is a lot more about how you can get good at noticing these shadows, even the one telling you that it isn't necessary to spend your life watching at all... that it isn't because you're perfectly fine.

Lessons Learned

The mind will never be empty, not unless you're dead. Not even in the wise old Buddhist monk. If it were, he'd never need to sit in meditation again. This is a never ending learning/practicing process, even for those who devote their life to it, that's because there are no actual pinnacles. Pinnacles of it, would make the purpose nonexistent. It is only the approach and understanding of your own mind that allows for this "emptiness."

The point is not to throw the idea of conceptual thinking out the window, it's to know when it is that you're thinking conceptually. This idea seems hard to those who haven't worked to master it. When I first started to practice a year ago, the idea of pure mindfulness itself made me turn my head sideways. Today, life is amazing with it.

I will leave you with this last point;

imagine for a moment your view of the world, the view coming into your eyes, is playing in a theater, remotely. There is some strange wireless connection that actually plays your thoughts in real time somewhere else. In this theater, only one is allowed admittance, you, only there are two of you. One watching the screen, and one living what is taking place on the screen.

The one you that is watching the screen can also see all of the thoughts the person is experiencing, all of the emotions. Only, he does not have an opinion and remains as detached from the situation as the theater is from his mind. His job is simple, to watch. This is where you, and only you, sit. No shadows, no ego, no laziness, just you.