gettoefl

For me there are two attitudes to life - gratitude and entitlement. I deserve all this and please feed me more despite hardly having lifted a finger vs. I have been afforded an incredible opportunity at the best time ever and I am in awe and humbled that I get to reside in this astonishing body. Entitled people blame their providers and want to quit when the chips are down while grateful people are standing on the shoulders of giants and marvel at the sweat blood and tears that brought them to this moment in time. And which you are is a choice.

Until you are of age, everything you do is imposed.

Reality is not two, right? What we term “awareness” and “appearance” are just two ways of describing the same happening. From one angle, reality is awareness knowing; from another, reality is appearances arising. And they are not separate. By identification I mean taking what arises, that is thoughts, feelings, even the sense of self, to be what I am. Observing them isn’t the final step of course, but it loosens that identification and sets the stage for the dissolution of separation. I agree that you can then identify as the observer, but even that can be seen right? So for me it’s not about holding onto the separate observer, but gently seeing that whatever I can notice isn’t ultimately what I am.

Does the anger experience exist? No. It is me pretending to be God and claiming you have sinned and are bad as if that could be true. No such situation exists. It seems to exist - because yours truly enjoys cosplaying God and smacking down other separate selves. It's an obstacle to Truth. Truth allows this but knows nothing of false stuff. Anger doesn't exist save in silly dreams. Your anger is why you didn't awaken.

Read The Disappearance of the Universe or the Lifetimes when Jesus and Buddha knew each other.

To solve the world is child's play. God's play is to dissolve it. And re-dreaming it. And tweaking it. And admiring itself. All in a day's work.

I actually agree with the majority of what you’re saying here, in particular that there isn’t a separate “controller” self managing thoughts. That part resonates. Where I see it slightly differently is this: So when a thought like “I am anxious” appears, I’m not ignoring it or suppressing it. And I’m also not trying to replace it. I’m just noticing: In other words: So the shift isn’t: But more like: On the emotional side, again we agree that fear, contraction, etc. can be felt directly. That’s important. But even there, the practice is: So instead of: it becomes: And interestingly, that doesn’t suppress anything. It actually allows it more fully, because nothing is being resisted or claimed. So for me, meditation isn’t about controlling thoughts or dissolving into them, but instead: Not by force, just by seeing clearly:

I get what you’re pointing to, but I see it slightly differently. It still seems like there’s a “you” that is either creating thoughts or stopping them. In my experience, thoughts don’t need to be controlled or explained that way. They just emerge. The key shift for me isn’t whether thoughts arise or not, but whether I take them personally and give them meaning about who I am. So if the thought “I’m anxious” appears, it’s not something I created or something I need to push away. It’s just something arising in awareness. My practice is more like: not adding more to it, not building identity from it, and letting it pass on without interpretation. When I don’t add meaning, things naturally loosen. This is not because I made them stop, but because nothing is being held onto. So it’s less about controlling thoughts, and more about not taking them as a “me.” What I find is, when nothing is taken personally, then nothing is truly separate.

Meditation is stepping outside the imagined reality - which is quite simply my interpretation. The mind itself doesn’t switch on and off; it keeps moving, but my one freedom is to not follow its meanings. I then see what is arising without adding anything to it. In that moment, identity loosens, because identity is nothing but added meaning held in place. I don't seek to stop thoughts, but to stop being the one they are about. For example, if the thought “I am anxious” appears, I notice that as a movement in awareness, not as a statement about what I am. I don’t engage or correct it, just subtract what was added. Then I return to the simple recognition: nothing missing is what makes nothing separate.

Never a better time to be alive and all we do is argue bitch complain ad nauseam how bad it it how blighted the world how blameworthy God is. We did nothing ourselves to cause the wars the famines the corruption. I am innocent and others not to mention God are wholly to blame for my woe.

I like to read and study the darkest of the dark. I want to understand. And I have come to. I devour all true crime and deviant personality studies - I volunteer in the prison and work soup kitchens and shelters. There is a reason people get where they get. They were treated deplorably and they dish that out on others as being the only response they know. Hurt people hurt people. The more awake you become you move from I mind what happens to I care what happens. You see everyone as broken wounded fragile. You recognise I could be them very easily. There but for grace go I. I am willing to go through shit if need be. I will take a bullet to the head if it will save a hostage's or a child's life. Reason is I believe that would be a force for good in the perpetrator's mind. Could be a turning point. My life does not mean anything now that I see.

Boredom is the belief: something is missing, something is lacking, let something here be different. Peace is the recognition: nothing is missing, nothing is lacking, let everything here be as it is. The shift is this: I no longer take myself to be someone in lack. I withdraw this meaning I myself added. I chased excitement for so long that lack became the default. But it was something I always brought to the table.

I need to forget humans and focus on myself. My life is hard due to self inflicted wounds. I can't lay that on God. If I work on me, I can wake up. Then I can be used by God to make the world a less shit place. The saving of the entire world is in my hands. Will I step up is the only question.

Anger is me trying to violently impose my worldview on you as if I had any clue about you. You don't need to change. I do.

For me it is as follows. There is nothing bad that can hurt me and nothing good that can help me. I look around with forgiveness and disenchantment, the former means don't worry about something because it's all good and latter means don't hope for anything because it's all bad. The world is a passing dance of mist on water. Nice enough, nothing special. Engaging the world with this mindset allows one to be unstoppable, untouchable and unmovable. Allied to this one sees one is not a doer, a chooser, a thinker, a feeler though doing, choosing, thinking, feeling happen naturally and smartly. I don't take credit. I enjoy the fruit, the wine, the song, the dance. The following nicely encapsulates such a mood. Forgive the typos needless to say.