mandyjw

It just means those people have a lesson for them that they aren't ready to learn. Spiral dynamics is a spiral, not a hierarchy. There's no looking down on anyone, only integration.

Being called a devil is a compliment around here.

@Etherial Cat It doesn't sound non dual but the ego is the "chooser" so it says Notre Dame is sacred but McDonald's is not. So it's more true to say that either both are sacred, or both are not. Does that make sense? Of course they are both sacred and not sacred at the same time but the problem arises when we say one is and one is not.

@Nahm Because they don't feel loved.

@Nahm There's nothing more horrifying than Ronald McDonald.

@Nahm I'm a few french fries short of a Happy Meal. I guess french fries aren't really good for you anyway.

@Etherial Cat She knows exactly what she is doing. Marilyn Monroe is even a theme in her work. She's a brilliant artist. We can't pick and chose what is spiritual and what isn't with non-duality. Either everything is sacred or nothing is.

@Nahm

Everything is only what is is for you the perceiver, in this moment. It's never fixed. There are no rules, no absolute truths. The way you feel about someone or something all depends on what it does for you. Logic is an attempt to disassociate with feeling. It's the illusion that you have the power to tell it the way it is for everyone across the board. That requires a fundamental misunderstanding of one's self.

I live in stage blue rural America. There are some stage green people who live here to escape stage orange, it's easier for them to get along with stage blue than stage orange, especially since they know they are doing good here . Those are the people who were my best teachers and mentors growing up. But they offend most of the stage blue people. They could even learn how to transcend stage green from stage blue but they don't see the opportunity because they believe they are superior. You have to be a chameleon. Watch people and really know in which ways they are open. Then you'll know just the right buttons to push and how hard to push them.

She's the real deal. The lyrics to just about all her songs are spot on. Know what the guy in the video has tattooed across his head? "War inside my head"

This is sort of a variation on my thoughts in yesterday's post about the difference between mockery and spiritual teachings. You are the dog crap on your shoe. You are the janitor. You are the President. You are your body. You are dead. You are alive. You are beautiful. You are ugly. You are a banana. You are Big Bird. You are the color yellow. You are the color purple. You are colorless. Don't you have to do this sort of thing at the same time as you say "not this, not this" ? Because you ARE, you ARE it all. Isn't that nihilsm when we say neti neti and don't also bask in the beauty of everything and infinite abundance?

I just went running and meditated on this some more. It's colder than I thought, the wind is blowing cold rain on my face, thoughts like I didn't dress for this, or feeling pained come up and I disidentify and I become the rain too and it feels good. So I know how to disidentify but i also identify with things outside me. Maybe this is a stage, or maybe it's it, I don't know. A car goes by me too fast, I feel annoyance, and I remind myself that I am that car, i am impatient and inconsiderate of others in my impatience sometimes. I try to experience everything, my body, my breath, what I'm seeing, what I'm hearing, the sound of the wind. I can narrow in my focus on one and intensify it. I can't focus on nothing. Coming back to nothing breaks my focus but it immediately goes somewhere else, within sensing and feeling. I only use not this not this with thoughts, never sensations or feelings. With those I go with the flow because disidentifying puts me BACK into thinking.

I hit a brick wall of ego backlash or depression or something like that. I had just started a mediation practice, I'm getting over the flu and I have young kids. It become very obvious to me quickly that too much focus on my "spiritual journey" means neglecting my kids. I was reading about the five hindrances and it made sense to me intellectually, but I didn't care. Buddha ABANDONED his wife and child to go off on a spiritual journey. Who am I to think that I can go about a traditional path of meditation and dedication? I can't. I can't abandon my kids. I can sit in meditation and stay still for 30 minutes but it's much easier to meditate than it is to listen to a 3 year old scream and be patient with her for God knows how long. Self care is knowing that some days I just cannot expect myself to do both. I decided to do a 180 and totally waste my time today and I watched clips of Borat on youtube when I take breaks from cleaning. A Jewish man trolling and pretending to hate Jews and be from a country he's misrepresenting and making a total racist mockery of in all possible ways, making sexist and horrific comments to everyone at the least appropriate times. He's provoking reactions that show how closed-minded people are in their idealism. Once in a while there will be this amazing person he encounters who takes it all in stride, lovingly corrects him and treats him with respect and love. Those are my favorite ones. It dawned on me that maybe this wasn't actually a waste of my time. What's the difference between complete mockery and spiritual teachings? Aren't we trying to tear down beloved and cherished beliefs in this work? Is there a danger is taking yourself too seriously? Is there a danger in not taking yourself seriously enough? I don't know anymore.

@tsuki I'm really sorry that that happened. Hope you are feeling better. This just got me wondering, have you done kriya yoga or played around with moving energy around in meditation? I think one of the catalysts yesterday of my terrible mood was meditating and I was messing around with moving energy up and down my spine. I ended up with an awful headache and it lasted the entire day. It and some other events that day resulted in my wanting to throw spiritual work out completely, and I still haven't sat to mediate since. I'm going running, my stomach hurts really bad again today but I need to do a type of meditation that I trust and have a long history with. PS. Am I allowed to post 80's songs in a journal titled "Sacred Space" ?

It's all about balance, harmony and working together. It's not about cowbell or no cowbell. It's about just the right amount of cowbell in every moment.

@Aakash Focus on what you want not on what you don't want. If you feel like you're not organized, focus on a part of your life that is organized and glean lessons from that about how you can organize the rest. Whenever i would focus on losing weight, i would obsess over food and eat too much. If I instead found that i really enjoyed going running I'd lose weight without thinking. Spiritual development is the same principal.

When you focus on a deficiency, you ARE that. When you focus on what is whole you ARE that.

@Aakash @Serotoninluv Hear the cowbell? This is the for real recording. With cowbell. Don't fear the cowbell.

@Mu_ It's ok to believe that you everything as long as you aren't selective. The ego picks and choose which it think it is and isn't. Believing that you are everything and believing you are nothing is the same thing. Some people may find it easier to believe that they are nothing and to believe that they are everything because believing that you are everything gets, really tricky. The mind gets attached and repulsed and it wants to pick and choose. Believing that you are nothing is a great way to erase attachment and start with a blank slate. But then you have to go on with your life and interact with things. It's important to understand and experience both as a spiritual practice. One thing I do a lot while running is I'll get stuck no a thought of judgement and I'll say one way or another "I'm not that." but then I lose myself in something I AM. Like my breath or a tree along the way. That's what's so beautiful about life and consciousness, it's all here for us to experience, in its fullness indiscriminately.

@Aakash "Jesus said, "If one who knows the all still feels a personal deficiency, he is completely deficient."

We are Will Ferrell in the "more cowbell" sketch. We screw everything up and make everyone mad, but we're an integral part of the joke so it's all perfection.

I'm telling you, God and realizations are EVERYWHERE. Humor is a great place to look. When I was a kid I was obsessed with Calvin and Hobbes. I learned so many spiritual lessons from those comics. Can you imagine though, in the time of Jesus, what a stir he caused? A disruption to the well known "song" of thinking and religion in his time? His message must have seemed very jarring and disruptive to the Pharisees.

You're always perfect. Welcome back.

Aww. That's God too though! Live life to the fullest.