LarryW

Interesting ... I came across non-dualism after the others, although initially confused because if you're being literal and pedantic (a fault of mine sometimes ), it also covers 0, 1, 3, -1, 0.5 well, any other number except 2. I'm currently contemplating an idea I read in Don't Cupitt's book 'The Religion of Being', he says that pure Being is uncountable because it is prior to language, prior to numbers and maths etc. Maybe that's what nondualism is getting at? But what the heck, all names for Reality are flawed, even Reality, so go with what works at your stage of development and helps you move on, until you jump out of abstractions like these altogether and discover viscerally that you are It.

Would it help to look at this the other way round? All of us here have embarked on a personal development (PD) path, which are very individual, and many of us started by trying to find a way out of chronic suffering. With many ups and downs, twists and turns, making many many of our own mistakes before learning from them. Why did you start? (That's rhetorical, don't tell us if you don't want). Be patient with your loved ones through their struggles, and support them though their self-defeating choices. Being that loving presence through thick and thin with just an occasional nudge towards PD works better in my experience than logical arguments and telling them I know what's good for them. But there's no guarantees, you need to know someone very well to understand why they persist in resisting growth. Welcome to the forum too, by the way

I've found Do Nothing an effective technique, I guess all meditations are just different ways up the same mountain. Keep it up, 1 hour a day is a good amount too! Really hope it starts to pay off soon.

@Raptorsin7 you passed your Biology degree, that's a big achievement. You put in what, 3 years of dedication, organisation, self-discipline and focus to accomplish it? What has changed since that time to lose your sense of purpose? Why did you do the degree, was it a dream and ambition for your future? I'm curious because in my family and school, going to University was expected and I ended up doing a science degree because I was indoctrinated it was the right thing to do, and I've never used it since. Or could it be the structure of the University which helped to keep you on track, gave you that scaffolding to organise yourself, which is now missing? I know Leo promotes people starting their own businesses but I'm pretty sure I'd be lost without the structure and hierarchy of the organisation I work for, I guess I'm institutionalised like that Perhaps like me, you need some stage blue-ish organisation to belong to, at least temporarily until you find your own way.

"I felt like a huge failure" "I feel ashamed" "feeling like a total defeat for me." Sorry to hear you're going through this and I hope the new job works out well for you. We are our own worst critics aren't we? I know it's tough when our ambitions are thwarted, but when it happens to someone else it seems easier to have sympathy. I suppose it's to do with our imprinting from childhood, but if our practice can teach us compassion for ourselves as much as others it'd be a great help. What meditation do you practice? Maybe something which focusses on the heart would be helpful, like loving-kindness, compassion, or heartfulness. Just a thought.

@Raptorsin7 Let's see if I've got this. You have a great deal of insight and understanding of your problems, and of course you want to be happy. But you have this apathy and laziness etc so your lifestyle is hermit-like. You're going for a short-term easy lifestyle of sitting around at home instead of confronting your difficult feelings and entering a long-term plan to achieve your vision of greatness? This reminds me of an addiction, going for a short-term fix of pleasure instead of the delayed gratification of self-development, like when I wanted to give up smoking but always wanted to put off quitting for just one more day of nicotine. There's lots of great advice from people here on what to do, just like I knew all the theory behind my smoking habit. But turning theory into practice makes us confront our feelings, which may seem like inner demons, but feeling your feelings head on is the way to go, rather than avoiding and procrastinating. Laziness is the ego's way of diverting us from feeling the truth.

@Hardkill thanks for the explanation out of interest, is the primary stage legally required, or just the internal rules of those 2 parties? The other thing which comes across to me - at least at this current stage of the main election - is how much of the debate is about personalities rather than policies, even though I'm sure they must have full manifestos. But I guess that's the same anywhere.

I can only admire you Americans for your stamina through the long election process, which takes a whole year doesn't it?

I know how being unemployed can sap your energy and enthusiasm over time. Do you have any spare time to take on a little bit of responsibility, nothing major maybe just organising a night out with friends, or helping out an elderly or disabled neighbour with some gardening, shopping or taking the bins out etc? Something where you can help others and be missed if you don't turn up. Where you need to put in some effort and get a bit more involved in other people's lives and build connections and friendships. Little things like that can spread happiness and improve your confidence. Is your social life affected as well?

We used to think that light travels in straight lines, till Einstein spoilt it and said that space-time is curved by gravity. Crystals have straight edges don't they?

1) Becoming financially independent. very wise to want to earn your own living, do you have a plan? 2) Mastering both the ego and non-ego self. (I have no idea how to do this) this means spirituality, yes? There's lots to learn and practice here too! No rush, take your time. 3) Reprogramming my subconscious mind. (I guess I heard Leo would make a course about this) I agree with JosephKnecht here, what's your problem? Enjoy being a teenager while you can, and make the most of the opportunities open to you

@Dodo me too, I'm not really going to start arguments with fundamental rationalists, though it's been useful to thrash this out for the benefit of my own inner rationalist and put it in its place. Reason does have its uses after all.

How about this: subjective vs objective existence is the usual naive realist duality we live by most of the time, but it's a creation of our thinking, a model of reality. Same thing with real and imaginary existence. I don't deny awareness, but if you look at the arguments in this thread, it's awareness which is used as the ground for describing existence itself, therefore it looks like awareness (suchness) is prior to existence/non-existence, real/non-real, subjective/objective etc etc.

@Inliytened1 "When we refer to materialism here we are talking about realism." There's a devil here in the details of the definitions, causing me to have sloppy thinking. Darn, if only I'd done that philosophy course at uni instead of stats! But I do perceive the important distinction is between separation and unity. @Dodo where I differ from you is here: "sensations and perceptions are made out of Mind," I'd say that perception and suchness is prior to mind; mind is the idea we create to explain our perception and put it in a container, so to speak. BTW I don't believe in matter any more than mind, both are maps to help us navigate life, but aren't actual. @Someone here "Yet you insist that whatever is occurring within the mind is unreal" Not quite. I'm trying to get materialists to follow the logic of their position to transcend itself and burst out into mysticism. If I can, which is unlikely. Having said that, what do we mean by real/unreal? Surely it's linked with the theory of realism? In that case, no, my awareness isn't real, neither is the tree outside my house.

@Inliytened1 I think I'm in danger of conflating materialism with realism. Realism is the idea that objects exist beyond my conceptions. Therefore there's a separation. But I don't understand where your separation arises with materialism, if mind is separate from matter, that's not materialism is it? @Dodo a neat theory if true. But, just because something isn't in my awareness, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. (Sorry for the triple negative!). How about if physical and mental reality are actually the same thing, just understood in different ways. Matter is aware and mind is material.

out of interest, I wonder how many alternative healers follow up their patients and keep good records on what does & doesn't work, with a view to making improvements. And preferably sharing their results to compare with other healers. But I guess that's a different model.

@Inliytened1 "Materialism grounds itself in a physical objective reality separate from you. " If so, what is the 'you' made of? As I understand it, materialism says that consciousness is an emergent phenomenon of matter: matter is the basic ground of reality and there is nothing separate from matter. What you're describing sounds more like a matter/mind duality, which is the more populist philosophy, even if it's not always very well thought through. IMO a true monistic materialism differs from idealism in name only; whatever 'IT' is, the basic stuff of reality, it has the appearance of both matter and mind. "But when pressed a materialist cannot answer the question of where did physical reality come from. " Yes, it seems that way but is an idealist any better at explaining where consciousness comes from? Or where God comes from? I guess this problem is due to our belief in cause & effect occurring in time, where we need a chain of causes and effects.

Materialism is a metaphysical theory of oneness too, my suggestion would be to fully embrace their materialism and become a purely physical being. Maybe they can experience no-mind? They don't really believe in the existence of mind anyway. I don't see why materialism can't be a route into mysticism, just like the idealism that's popular here.

My suggestion: if you follow the spiral dynamics model, recap on the early stages and find out what you've missed in your development. We're all born into life as stage beige babies, and need to learn the lessons as we progress. In my life, I tried to jump straight from blue to green without integrating orange, then had a crisis and ended up retraining as an accountant to get my career on track. Nobody now bothers about my earlier mistakes, it's ancient history and most employers here only care about my previous few assignments. Try and find a good career advisor to help with choices, training, job applications rather than just firing at random. Pause and take stock, have compassion on yourself, and don't panic. Things will work out if you learn this lesson of humility and let other people help you.

Tue 22sep20 Meditation I'm getting back in the routine again of 30 mins per day, with 'Just being' style sitting, but getting a problem with tunes going round my head. It's distracting me from mindfulness of the present moment, and is perhaps my ego giving a little backlash. It takes me the first 15 mins or so to just settle down and relax my mind to stillness. I think I need some more concentration sitting to eg on the breath to bring me back to focus. I still like Diana Winston's meditation style Spectrum of Awareness which covers the range of focussed - choiceless - natural awareness which covers the landscape from dual to non-dual awareness. I've signed up to Sangha Live where she's one of the teachers there even though it's more of a Buddhist approach than I follow these days. Although there are some other courses there like the Enneagram, so I guess I shouldn't be closed minded about things. Reading Finished 'The Meditation Manual' and now reading 'Zen Mind Beginners Mind' by Shunryu Suzuki. More of a Zen classic and he was one of the main masters bringing Zen to America. However, it shows me how much Zen Buddhism was stuck in its cultural groove 50 years ago so I'm reading it with a pinch of salt, so to speak. Do I flit around too much in my reading & influences? Well maybe, but I'm trying to strike a balance between being too narrow minded/inflexible; and too broad and woolly minded.

I'm starting a journal (my first foray in the forum) to record and explore my spiritual and general life progress. Bits of assorted philosophy etc. Is there a path to the truth, or is the truth a pathless land? Mostly at the moment I'm focussing on my meditation practice, but I'm doing other things like yoga, breathwork, nature mysticism, letting go into spontaneous experiences of grace etc. First issue: what to do about my ego, my small self? I've got the notion that we need to firstly build up a secure sense of self before seeing through it and calling it illusory etc. Are we losing our egos, or expanding them to merge with the Universe, or just finding a healthy and relative place for the psychological ego within the Absolute Reality of (being)? A wise friend of mine once said that we spend the first 20 years of life being messed up by society, the second 20 years realising we are messed up, and the third 20 years trying to do something about it. This journal is to share me attempting to unmess myself! But I can see in this forum plenty of folks speeding up this trajectory and sorting themselves out quicker than this. I used to be a Christian, used to be a Buddhist, used to be an atheist, but I can't settle on a label or path - now I'm just a free spirit doing what works for me. Freedom and discipline - another thing to explore. In my ideal world I meditate for 30 mins twice per day, but ha ha I'm too weak to keep that up. My yoga practice is similarly hit and miss. This journal will be hopefully a way to commit myself to the path, and if anyone reads this it will give me a supportive nudge to keep going. In my dreams - ie when singing in the bath - I sound like this (it's a religious song so bear with me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpYGgtrMTYs Another great operatic song - who listens to Maria Callas these days? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYl8GRJGnBY Oh God, the sad songs always get me Love to you all, Larry.

Awakening allows you to see all life as one, therefore 'your' future life & karma is not separate from anyone else's. In fact, our present life is inseparable too, but we can't see it yet. Your efforts supporting others raises the wellbeing of the whole community, which is your true self anyway. similarly, meditating to raise your own consciousness is also good and productive for everyone else

I have both a high pitched sound in both ears (or perhaps inside my head), and a low pitched hum in my right side (Worldwide Hum or Taos Hum). There's lots of theories for both, I even came across a reference in one of Ajahn Sumedho's (American Theravada Abbot here in the UK) books. It's good to read the discussion here too, but in the end I just accept it as a phenomena of the reality we are in. I'll do something about it if it causes a problem, like getting to sleep, otherwise it's just more 'stuff', like the random visual patterns I get in the dark - is there even a name for that?

Hi, interesting question. Depends on what you include as meditation, but for me I do this: * sitting meditation - cross legged on the floor in the bedroom (with cushions & a blanket to get comfortable) * walking meditation (occasionally) - indoors anywhere * daily life mindfulness is in whatever I'm doing at the moment. I have some joss sticks and a couple of singing bowls for sensory support, though I only use them occasionally. Plus I sometimes bow after the sitting meditation. Also a Buddha statue, though I don't use that so often anymore as I'm more eclectic in my inspiration now. If I'm out travelling somewhere I will try to do my sitting meditation on the train/plane etc (looking like I'm asleep). How about you?

Have you seen this thread from last year, it's something to start from at least: