What's up friends,

I hope you are doing well.
Some of you might know me from my old PGC. I took a rather long break from poker to focus on mind-training.

Now I am back.
For the next year or two, my goals involve utilizing this great opportunity to earn some capital. I will start playing 1kNL as my main game and include 2kNL soon.

In this PGC I will keep track of my progress and of course post some graph-porn.

I hope some of you will find some motivation & inspiration through this. Feel free to ask any questions, I will respond when I find time and update weekly.



Love,
Wey

ps: for anyone reading this who wants to get into mind-training and take it seriously, I recommend The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa. If you want to just check it out and dabble around with it, I recommend https://unifiedmindfulness.com, and then to move to TMI when you want to take it to the next level.

Current weekly goals (start Monday 15th April):
- 4 Body-Workouts
- Run or Swim every day
- Finish reading: Buddha’s brain & The Ultramind Solution
- Establish a nutrition plan to optimize nutrition-related wellbeing
- 20 hours of poker

My current daily routine looks as follows:
- 5 AM Wake-up
- Drink health-shake
- Cold-shower
- 90 Minute Mind-training
- Poker
- Lunch
- Reading
- Gym/Swim
- Open-end
- 8 PM prepare for sleep
- 9 PM Sleep

Except for Tuesday’s, which I reserve for my girlfriend. We currently often frequent a Japanese onsen-spa to allow us some deep relaxation.

First gl

Best of luck, hope this thread lasts longer than your usual ones!

Let's go

Can you explain your: 90 Minute Mind-training ? and how do you prepare for sleep ?

gl gl with goals

Mind-training = meditation
I prefer using mind-training since meditation has so many connotations nowadays that are inaccurate.

Sleep preparation: no electronic devices, clean up, dim-lights, get ready for bed, relax/meditate/spend time with my partner.

Thanks.

Do you sleep with ear plugs ?

Graph for last year? How many hands have you played?

You created like 4 p&g threads and gave up on them why did you do that? Do you think it was a mental game issue? Because I can't see how could you quit poker to "focus on mind-training" when both go along together and clicking buttons once in a while is really fun.

Not firing shots, just trying to understand why you quit playing to focus on that, it's outrageous to think meditation could take all your day. Unless you got into some serious illness like depression it's hard to understand that.

Gl

Maybe 200k? Not sure, check out my last bigger PGC.

Hmm, I only recall making 2 PGC threads in the last 2 years, out of which one had 13 pages and the other one was mainly intended to get 1k zoom running.

When you make proper progress in meditation, you go through profound transformative shifts in the way your mind constructs reality. In this case, my progression was almost unheard of, and poker was simply too unimportant to take time out of my life. Besides, the mundane temporary pleasure that is sometimes available through poker becomes extremely pale in comparison as you progress towards a more fundamental experience of ultimate reality.

I was indeed spending an "outrageous" amount of time on gaining a deeper understanding of reality, and it was well worth it.

Thanks.

glgl

can you do this mind training without any sort of drugs

Sub´d. Interested especially on the mind training and self optimization part. Hope you´ll give lots and lots of details about that as time progresses.

Best of luck to you.

in 4 head shaving

good luck!

The correct term is neuroplastic training. Is meditation all you're doing? Are you using mantras in this, do you use affirmations or other methods to rewire you brain for better habits? Anything beyond meditation?


Just curious cuz I've been into this stuff for a minute and am curious what others are doing in this realm. The big thing I use it for is to rewire my brain for better habits emotional or otherwise.

In for life coaching

Sub.GL*

Inviato dal mio SM-A320FL utilizzando Tapatalk

Dude, it sounds like you have reached another level. What did you learn from such unheard of progression?

Also curious : why bother coming back at all to poker at all? If it's so dull compared to doing breathing exercises all day, why not just do that?

guess he still needs money to allow him to spend more time developping the spiritual side of things

Not sure if serious, but yes.

Self-optimization and mind training Primer

There are three aspects to it:
1. Optimization of operational strategy
2. Optimization of processing efficiency
3. Optimization of perceptive mode

The Buddha referred to these as training in Virtue, Concentration & Wisdom.

You are mainly referring to the first point, which, among other things, include mindset related reconditioning. This is important to operate more efficiently in conventional reality, set proper goals and become more proficient at reaching them, and overall function better as a human being.

This is the self-optimization aspect of what I am currently doing.

When I talk about mind-training, I strictly speak of the latter two categories.

2. Optimization of processing efficiency
The entire reality you are experiencing is constructed by your mind. In fact, layers and layers of mental fabrications lay on top of the raw sensory input you are receiving through your sense organs. An untrained mind is incapable of discerning these, and they are seen as solid. Increasing your concentration power, or what I prefer calling processing efficiency, allows you to see through your sensate reality more clearly.

The main benefits are:
- An increase in the amounts of perceiving moments vs. non-perceiving moments of consciousness allows for greater moment-to-moment clarity
- You become less and less a victim of mental fabrications, in other words, you start experiencing reality more and more at the cause instead of the effect
- You become more proficient at attaining supramundane insight, which is insight into the true nature of reality


3. Optimization of perceptive mode
Due to the way our biological evolution took place, before attaining supramundane insight, our minds operate based on assumptions that are fundamentally flawed and cause suffering. The main two of which are:
- "I am a separate entity in a world of other separate entities"
- "My happiness depends on the content of my experience"

Supramundane insight occurs intuitively through direct observation of your sensate reality, which causes your mind-system to break through the flawed fundamental dualities it was previously assuming to be real.

As the accumulation of insight progresses, permanent shifts in your perceptive modes occur. Over time, the way your mind constructs reality shifts from a processed "what is happening?" to an unprocessed "this is".


I could do a more detailed write-up on the way I experience reality nowadays if people are interested. From a practical side, I assume the most sought-after quality is that I no longer experience any kind of suffering.

As you progress through the stages of insight, your intentions and actions are less and less moved by self-interest, and are more and more guided by compassion and wisdom. Compassion naturally arises as you gain a deeper understanding of the true nature of reality, as reality is absolutely whole and completely interconnected.

In the long-run, I have some ideas through which I hope to benefit the world that I would like to see realised. In the short-run, poker is the best way for me to earn capital.

Super interesting thread already! Would be keen to hear more about how you practice meditation/"mindtraining" day to day and any tips. glgl

also interested on what you do specifically for mindtraining, I asked about the drugs because everybody I talked to who have reached a deeper level of awareness said they took drugs at some point

If someone were to kick you square in the bollocks, would you experience even the slightest amount of suffering?

Describing my personal meditation practice is rather pointless, as it will not be of practical relevance for any of you, at the moment at least.


Nonetheless, for those interested: In my formal sits, I am currently working with Jhanas, which are states of meditative absorption. Specifically, I am interested in the formless realms: infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, neither perception nor non-perception, cessation of feelings & perception. You can do some googling on those, but as I said, this won't be of any kind of practical relevance for now. They are called Jhana 5-8 and Niroda Samapatti.
During daily life, I am playing around with persistent moment-to-moment centerlessness and agencylessness.

As I wrote in my OP, for those who want to get into it seriously, I highly recommend The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa. If you want to start with a lighter approach, check out unifiedmindfulness.com


Drugs have to be distinguished into psychedelic variants and non-psychedelic ones. The latter are completely useless and should be avoided.

The former can help you have some interesting experiences that can expand your view and make you realize that your understanding of the world is not as complete as you once thought, and as a consequence motivate you to pursue some "higher truth". Many people seem completely transformed after some psychedelic breakthroughs. While these cases are indeed remarkable and often beneficial, they are often "merely" mundane changes. For supramundane insight to occur, a certain degree of unification of mind is required.
Furthermore, it is very possible, and often the case, for people to just develop a so-called spiritual ego, in other words, their positionality has simply shifted, but the rigidness in their new belief system is similar to the prior one and is not based on truth, but on their interpretation of their experiences.
This does not just happen with psychedelic experiences, but can also happen to advanced meditation practitioners.

Essentially, this is why we have so many "gurus" spewing bull****.


Edit: @Jaznin. I would experience unpleasantness, which is a quality, but no suffering, which is a mental state. So in the case of such an event, I would be rather unphased by it. It might seem like I am in pain, but my sense of completeness and perfection inherent in every moment would be untouched. However, I would prefer it not occurring. I will probably write more about this should I make a write-up of my conscious experience.