vBlog: Eckhart Tolle and Nathaniel Branden Fight. With Guns.

24 Comments | Category: Dating Tips-Inner


Whatsup Guys, coming at you one last time from Wisconsin before my long journey begins.

I head off tomorrow to San Fransisco, and then out of the US for the next 3 months.

I haven’t had a serious travel adventure like this in probably 3 years, so I’m anxiously looking forward to the long trip.

This vBlog shows how I have been slowly developing my video editing skills, and thinking more about “B roll” and what to add in the mix to keep the vids fresh and not just me standing in front of another landmark for 10 minutes.

I should be able to get some real cool footage coming up in the different environments I’ll be traveling to, so looking forward to that.

As for the rest of my life, I’m back on it pretty hard in the club, getting lots of new insights from new found success.  SO JAZZED.

My online business is starting to jump off pretty nicely again, and I’m going to be starting a NEW self development and business related blog so I can get really into that stuff as well, while keeping this one more within the dating niche to make sure I don’t dilute the content too much.

I also have been hitting it hard in the gym, and starting to get JACKED.  Jeyah, nice to finally develop working out into a full on habit, not gonna let that one fall off this time.

Sweet!  Today I want to give you a video that explains a problem many guys have when they get into self development.

The dissonance between being motivated, and incorporating a more Eastern philosophical “Every thing is as it is, and be cool with it” mentality.

Tony vs. Tolle

The question that I used to get from guys was how to incorporate both the Tony Robbins “Achieve!” mindset with Eckhart Tolle’s “Just be present and enjoy the moment!” concept.

Now that I’ve gotten more into Branden and Rand’s philosophy of being highly productive, with high self esteem selfish type of guy, this, just like Robbins advice, superficially jives with the Eastern “be in the now” mentality.

But on a deeper level, there is an immense corollary between the two schools of thought.

The Eastern philosophical example I use in the video is the Zen koan:

“You can wash the dishes to wash the dishes.  Or you can wash the dishes, to wash the dishes.”

Meaning that you can do a task because it is necesarry, i.e. you have dirty dishes that need to be cleaned, or you can do something, be mindful of it, and enjoy the process by being fully present, and enjoying that connection of full attentiveness to your reality.

This is “being in the now,” this is “full presence.”

Yes, you can achieve it sitting in the woods and meditating, but it can also be achieved by being a highly productive individual.

This is why people are drawn to sports, or playing live music, because it forces you into the present moment, and this is where true creativity lies, in that presence where you are solely focused on the task at hand, and amazing shit comes out of that focus.

It doesn’t mean you have to chill back and do nothing; but do EVERYTHING, and do it awesome.

This is the same concept I talk about in the Mind Excellence article.  Doing everything you can as well as possible.

Extreme Self Esteem

From here, the better you get at focusing your attention on the task at hand, the more confidence you have in doing that task properly, as well as reinforcing your ability to ALWAYS maintain your focus on whatever demands it.

That creates true self esteem as you learn to control your focus more, as opposed to living dependently in reaction to your environment.

You are in control, taking full responsbility, and develop the trust in yourself that you will have the right answer.

And, as I’ve said before, if you screw it up horribly, as long as you acted from the total knoweldge you had available, you shouldn’t identify with the result, identify with the fact that you CHOSE to act, with the best intentions you had possible.

Pick up the pieces, analyze the rubble, and move forward with more knowledge, and take confidence in that you just reinforced to yourself that you always take action, with 100% conviction, and increased your knowledge to better deal with the situation the next time it happens.

Alright.

See ya next week, I’ll probably be writing this in a sea full of blonde hair, the land of the Swedes.

Yes………..

Any suggestions for future vids?  I’m still tweaking so always looking for new ideas to improve the structure.

Enjoy!

 



24 Comments

Diego

Awesome. My focus nowdays is to “Relax and Enjoy myself WHILE I´m taking Action”

This way i know i can´t sit on my butt and do nothing rationalizing that i´m being present or meditating somehow, I force myself to be Mentally Detached, separating mind from emotion and just doing what i KNOW that must be done (ex. approaching, some tedious task, etc.)

I like the music of your videos, who is it from?

I´m not going to be able to make it to brazil :( couldn´t jive the dates with my workload, but i´ll do it in argentina.

P.S: I have several friends that are interested in RSD stuff because they have seen me sometimes pick up girls and i´ve told them that most of what i´ve learned is due RSD. Is there a minimum of people that is necessary to gather to take you at least a day to Chile or your schedule is written in stone?? (We can do it in my apartment if necessary, i don´t care, hell you can stay there if you want to)

Cheers

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Boris

Would be awesome to see some in field hidden camera clips to get an idea of your body language and tonality :)

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Roque

I didn’t fully understand the “dirty dish” example. Did you mean one can wash the dishes to wash them or one can wash the dishes to wash them while at the same time being present and at the moment?

On that subject though… I have truly been paying more attention at everything i do instead of having dumbass thoughts interrupting the activity, one just does what one does, and when you finish you usually just end up happy (your true default state).
–yea i’ve been reading some eckart… lol

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VD

Funny, among the believers of the philosophy of determinism there is a popular idea that says that even though everything is determined by the principle of cause and effect since the beginning of time, we as human beings have the privilage to still have one choice, and that is the ability to choose our environment.

What you talk about in your video still fits into that idea but in a more deep way, narrowing the idea of choosing our own environment into the idea of we have the freedom to choose what we focus on.

And it makes sense because what our conscious awareness focus on is what really constitutes our environment regardless of our physical location at any given moment.

Here is a short video I found from an organization that teaches Jewish beliefs that talks about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufkrJkVqems

Awesome share Brad. Nicely done in summarizing Branden ideas.

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Tom (San Francisco)

Haha, your backdrop totally owns Owen’s videos. Hunting rifle, red hat, in the snow.

Yeah, I’m hitting cool realizations by reading different books at the same time. I used to be all “no just read one at a time” and now I realize that books are like people…they influence you…and well, would you be like “No I’m only going to hang out with Brad for the next 3 weeks, and then with Tom for the 3 after that”? No, you hang out with a buncha people and get the influence all at the same time, and its…better…from what I’m seeing lately.

Current combo’s been Jed Mckenna + Millionaire Mind shit + random Internet Marketing stuff + obviously pickup/RSD stuff still.

Heard about your party in SF and that tix were $200 lol wtf. Have fun :)

–Tom

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jRe

Hi Brad
what’s the book of N. Branden that you recomends the most and that condenses the main points of his work? The Six Pillars?

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Lance

Ay, Brad… great video. I think the key to a happy life, and also having success with women, is enjoing and living in the moment. However, when one sinks into a more reclusive headspace, which is not in the moment, it can be difficult to achieve these things. So, do you have any exercises or recomendations on ways one can train themself to be in the moment?

P.S. Important qestion: What brand is that coat you’re wearing in the video? It’s pretty sweet

Thanks!

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    Brad Branson

    Good questions here guys. I’m out and about but should be able to get to them later. Thanks for all the comments!

    Reply

Marc

In a philosophy fight, I’d say A.H. Almaas wins hands down. He makes better sense of psychology than Tolle does, and makes clear the connection between “self actualization” and “enlightenment” better than anyone else I’ve ever read. Also he doesn’t require any firewalking or jumping off of things :P .

Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard were absolutely right about a great deal of things, but generally hated life and made for terrible philosophy.

Oh, and Christopher Alexander’s “The Nature of Order” series is also fantastic, and explains a lot of the things Ayn Rand described in “The Fountainhead” architecture. It goes far beyond that, however, reaching into the very nature of art and beauty, and the nature of existence. Those books are full of pictures and as a result they’re unfortunately VERY expensive, but if you can afford it it’s an even more profound read than Rand.

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John

Dude.

Let’s hear your workout routine.

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Andras

“Any suggestions for future vids?”

You could start by replying to comment questions in vids. Could be a nice and edifying Q&A i think. Solid vids by the way. Now that I was rejected by an introverted cutie I had high hopes for weeks, I’m quite a reader of your (and Tyler’s) material again.
My eternal dilemma is: how do I handle these introverted, unresponsive student types who seem to be resilient to PUA mind tricks? Most excellent gf materials for this very reason, but the toughest nuts to crack.

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    Marc

    Well that’s easy. Chill out, relax, and stop trying to use “PUA mind tricks”. Oh, and maybe have interests. Quality girls have interests, and the student type is likely (especially with the quieter ones) to have interests, and it makes you seem less one dimensional if you do too.

    Also, if you’re too loud or too energetic you can have an extremely nerve wracking effect on people who are more calm and quiet without realizing it. Especially if you are attractive and the girl is shy, if you’re too forceful or wired then you’re likely to scare her off.

    Reply

      Andras

      “Well that’s easy.” Nope, it’s not easy. Those vapid ADD party girls and these quiet, party-hating students are so vastly different, they are almost not of the same race (both can be pretty hot though). I wish it was as easy as just scaling my tone levels down to their levels. But I need to match their very realities, quirks and all, persevering for week after week per single girl. And it’s 100 times the challenge over whatever the club scene can throw at me.

      Reply

        Marc

        Very true, although it sounded like you wanted an easy answer. The truth is that what you require is to “be more authentic”. Party girls are themselves inauthentic and often do not require it, but the quieter, more interesting type will be much more sensitive. Of course, “being more authentic” is equivalent to saying “being more enlightened”, and requires at minimum that you recover and become congruent with various aspects of your essential self. Most relevantly, the aspects of love, joy (curiosity), compassion, and peace. And yes, that is very difficult; it requires that you confront and fully accept many of the various senses of deficiency which have come to take the place of the essential aspects you “lost”. I’m afraid you’re unlikely to find any of that in the club.

        Reply

          Andras

          True. You’re basically talking BlueprintDecoded/Tolle — which is a good thing, in this context anyway. Ironically, the more pickup experience I get, the farther I drift from the night club scene, and more into the arms of these party-hating super-sensitive student types. All 3 of my long-term relationships involved these deep girls by the way. Those typical party girls are very creepy in a way in their inauthenticity; what do they even do all day outside the club circuit?..

Bill Rey

Yo Brad Brad!!!! Curious if you could post a small reading list of the current books you’ve read/are reading that you recommend.

Thanks bud!

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Neon Eon

Bradley,

perhaps you could superimpose some text on the screen as you introduce a new idea. and then as you explain it maybe break it down in outline format as you “detail it out”.

I think that would help keep the listener’s thoughts organized and also give more of a sense of progression for the video.

of course you don’t want to clutter up the visual itself so there would have to be some balance there…

just my thoughts

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Polarize

I know this is random, but how would you tie these ideas with having personal boundaries? What are your personal boundaries? How and when do you enforce them when people cross them?

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    Marc

    @Andras lol you know I really have no idea. Maybe they hide in the walls like roaches or something.

    @Polarize: Don’t know if that was directed at me in particular or not, but I see boundaries as being connected to the essential aspect of strength. If you’ve ever gotten really, really pissed off to the point where it actually stopped being unpleasant and sort of transforms into a hot, firey, energetic feeling, well THAT is strength. However, while strength is very boundary-like, it seems to me that if you have no ‘boundaries’ (in the specific sense) to cross, then nobody can violate them or offend you.

    Overall, the most appropriate response depends more on WHY they’re trying to ‘cross your line’ and is not really a one-size-fits kind of deal.

    Reply

Colt Gunner

Great post Brad, reconciling 2 slightly disparate philosophies.
I am wondering how this reconciles to a world where we need to multi task. How is it possible to be present to the moment and be fully focused on the task at hand when you have so many other things that are pulling at your attention? How do you better compartmentalize so you can for example: in one moment be focussed on work, the next moment answering a completely unrelated question from a coworker (or a phone call etc.) and then being able to return to the task at hand? Basically the question is how to be present, in a multitasking world?

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Jason

Good article. I check out your articles past ones or new ones before I go out and approach girls.

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Chris

Great article, clears a lot up in areas where I was confused. Thanks
Have a great Euro Tour!

Reply

Henrik

I guess what I was trying to say yesterday is how do you go from Tommy Lee to the jazzdrummer.

Actually I hadn’t heard about you before the workshop but I was so amazed of your level of awesomeness
that I couldn’t phrase my question at all. So I just wen’t “I….lost…the …fun” HEHE. Anyways,
I’m up to speed, read some 20 posts here and looked at the 21conventionvid and I have to say damn, you are exactly where I wan’t to be, the Internally Validation thingie is totally my sticking point.
I mean, I’ve had AMAZING sucesses over the last years and I all the girls want me, but I compare myself to other great guys constantly and honestly, when u stood there talkin’ part of me was thinking, damn after all this, all the girls who love me, all the nights out when I’m the center of attention, I’m totally worthless compared to this guy. It’s weird, all of my life I’ve tried to live by the fact If you wanna become better at something, hang with people that are better than you, use their approved techniques and become superawesome.
But nowadays I only hang with sucessful guys, gorgeous girls, and It’s like my frame of reference is so much bigger than it was when I was young, cute and naive.
Maybee the challenge should inspire me, but sometimes it just makes me feel “I’m just a small fish in a big sea”

/2nd row, sthlm workshop

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Andy

I love the sounds the rifles make!!!!!

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