mandyjw

This is beautiful.

I mean the mind's capacity to think and hold ideas. I've noticed that many intelligent people are very identified with their mind and so they are prone to mind caused suffering so out of necessity they seek this work. But they seek it through their intelligence, which causes lots of misconceptions. I do believe that a lot of people have stumbled across it accidentally and they don't know what they know and so they can't explain it to other people. If you find or seek one out it can be very enlightening.

I agree with what Peter Ralston says but I don't like how he says it. Something seems off.

@tsuki You give me clarity. I want a world with less suffering. But I know even that's a trap if I add future to it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_instrument

What do you love doing? What lights you up? I wouldn't focus so much on what you don't want, or relationships at all if you can't help but feel negativity in that area. There's SO much in life outside those areas. Try to bring in more focus and clarity in your life outside of the relationship realm. Do you feel like you have to have something to look forward to to be happy? This books helped me in so many areas in life. https://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenment/dp/1577314808/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+power+of+now&qid=1553991471&s=gateway&sr=8-1 There's something described in the book called the pain body and I feel like when it comes to having kids and relationships women are really susceptible to having this strange kind of negative energy to work through in those areas. I think that might be what you have going on.

No, I do mean things like sandwiches, or a house, or an experience, etc. Do you experience highs and lows? I unconsciously moralized wanting things for a long time. I thought I shouldn't have desires and the result was falling into nihilism. So I let myself want things and came alive again. But then I realized that I didn't really want anything, not really, I just wanted to feel alive. In the end it was just disconnection from the present moment. But what stuck with me was being highly in tune with my intuition and impulses. And some of those definitely feel like desires. I try to integrate them with conscious planning and thinking, and that's something I'm learning. It's hard to hold a balance, or stay present. It's easy to let them run amok in my head and cause suffering as true desires with lots of expectation and thoughts of future do. It's also easier to dismiss them because part of me still feels that desires are wrong or dangerous. On your last point, wow, I've never thought of it that way before.

What does it feel like when you feel like something is missing? Are you thinking of a particular thing, or is it a general feeling of nothing in particular, or both? Do you ever have impulses to do things, visions of things flash through your head uninvited or find intense joy/intrigue in things most people find insignificant?

@Shin

Are you completely and totally ok with that, or do you want something more? Is going through life blindly rewarding? Do you ever feel like something is missing? Do you let yourself want more or do you try not to have wants?

@Paul92 This work will teach you how to be ok with any kind of uncertainty. OCD is a blessing in disguise. I had pretty severe OCD for a year or two as a kid and still have those tendencies so I know exactly how that feels. If you have those tendencies the mind creates so much suffering that you have a lot of motivation and reminders to move beyond it quite quickly. I really recommend this book. It really shows you how to move beyond concepts and be at peace in the moment. https://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenment/dp/1577314808/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+power+of+now&qid=1553977338&s=gateway&sr=8-2

@Shin It takes me around 24 hours to have mature reactions to things.

I can do better but I don't want to. You want me to be somebody. Nobody. But I can be anybody that I want to be. Come play with me. Who are you?

So do you. You just won't admit it. tsuki is too afraid to climb the tree. Non-duality is what holds you up. You trust in non-duality while you enjoy the world of duality. That's the whole point. If it wasn't the point you'd already be a yogi in a cave and we wouldn't be talking to you. The world of form wants something from you. Are you fulfilled? Are you fulfilled when you are thinking about it?

I like to be. I also like to chatter.

You still wouldn't take the apple though. I might be clinging to one end of the paradox, but aren't you clinging to the other end? I'm living in my tree house and you're hugging the tree. Don't I have to do one or the other? Especially when you're trying to show someone what you think they may not be seeing?

@tsuki I drew a picture for you.

Don't worry, it's just a stage. Don't stop yourself from enjoying life and the illusion in the meantime. The colors will be brighter than ever before, I promise. You're just learning how to see them and experience their beauty without having to name them or having to decide whether you like or don't like them. They are so much better when seen without that lens. The problem is that you've added another lens of thought over them in the meantime because you're thinking about how they aren't really there. Just keep practicing dropping the thoughts and simply experiencing life. Drop the thoughts about how you should be seeing things and try just to actually see them.

@DrewNows Not yet, I'll look for it. Time means nothing Eckhart. @Aaron p Thank you. Did you click my signature instead of my link? @thesmileyone Tempted to make that my avatar.

It's all a dream. But I can make it a good dream or a bad one, it's up to the illusory me. Babies care intensely about their survival, it's the only thing that care about. Is that ego? Love and survival are the only drives we are born with. We take our first breath and then we cry, we cry asking for love, asking for nourishment. I die every night when I sleep then I'm born again into the world of form.

the ego is perfect. If everything is love, you are love. The ego was created so that love can exist. Love is a giving/receiving. It can't be given if there's no separation between giver and receiver. Our ego cuts us off from love. So out of suffering, we look for a solution and we work through the ego. We finally fully realize our nature as love itself, as perfection. And then we go back to life as an ego mostly lost in form, existing in time, but this time finally able to love for the first time. The illusions exists so that love can exist. The illusion is beautiful, the illusion is perfect. Go do the things you love. When the illusion is causing you pain you disconnected from love. Seek and have enlightenment experiences because they feel good, and for no other reason. Stop trying to break the illusion, stop trying to break yourself. You exist for one reason and one reason only, to love, be loved and have a good time. What am I missing?

When you type, or think or talk you're approximating the infinite. That can't do done. There is no logical standpoint. Logic=lies. This is all lies. I am choosing to lie to you so that we can have this conversation. When I decide to stop lying, I'll look out the window and drop all my thoughts.

It will deepen anything you want it to.

There are no enlightened gurus. There is no I but as far as conversation is concerned there IS an I and a you. Just admit both of you keep getting lost in logic. You might as well get lost in logic, form and judgement, admit it to yourself and enjoy it. If you choose to have a conversation with someone, realize you entered a world of lies so you can discuss lies with each other.

Why? Because it's fun. Because it's beautiful. So that you can experience love. What is love without a receiver and a giver? You have to learn how to love unconditionally. You have to open your eyes to see the beauty in the illusion and the impermanence. You have to become a human limited by form and vulnerabilities to love. But if you don't know yourself as everything you will get so caught up in form that you'll be too afraid to love and never experience it fully. Don't cling so much to truth and fail to let yourself experience the beauty of the illusion. I used this analogy in another thread for someone else but it's perfect here. You're like a kid at Easter who won't eat his Easter bunny because he doesn't want to destroy it and wants to keep it forever. It's chocolate. It was made for you to eat. Eat the damn Easter bunny and enjoy it.