Spiritual Warrior

Substitute teacher and ballroom dance instructor

"We are enslaved by anything we do not consciously see. We are freed by conscious perception." ~ Vernon Howard

Very true. Then it's a question of does the human want to bring things into his or her conscious awareness. Does he really want to face the truth?

Your parents are willingly causing pain to another creature so that it will "taste better" for them. This is very selfish behavior. The universe does not reward selfishness, this will hurt them spiritually.

The Ego I find the ego disgusting because it lies and cheats and steals in order to get what it wants. Honest communication is not in the egos best interest. It manipulates others and it's environment in order to survive. This act of manipulating is very obvious in primal animals, such as crocodiles. A crocodile will hide underwater, deceiving it's prey that it is not there. Then when the prey is too close to the water to get out of the way, the crocodile springs up from the water and drags its prey underwater until it drowns. However, in human beings the act of manipulation in order to survive is a little bit different. A human not only has to survive in a physical sense and take care of it's body, it also has to maintain the self image that it has concocted, unconsciously I might add, towards itself. When I was a kid, part of my self image was that everybody liked me. As soon as I felt like someone didn't like me, I woul be triggered by a slew of negative emotions, I'd get angry and frustrated and upset. It felt like the end of the world because to the part of myself that believes that he is liked by everybody, this was the end of its world. That part of me cannot stay intact if I experience it to not be true.

The Enlightened Path I am going down a road that no one goes down. I say this because if I didn't think of the enlightened path as something that few people attain, then I wouldn't pursue it. The fact that it is so rare makes it all the more alluring. I am going to be a person that no longer has images of himself attaining any ego-driven goal. All goals from here on out will be for the betterment of other. Let's just start there. This means no goals of seeing your face next to the most beautiful woman, or seeing yourself dancing attractively on a screen, or your face on Instagram with a bunch of medals for winning dance competitions. All goals have to be about other. Your ego, your self does not exist. Therefore, it does not need to be fed. You have been feeding it like a fat disgusting pig all your life. It is full enough to survive for weeks. It wants to puke everything up. The way the ego acts is disgusting. Selfish and maniacal.

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field. I'll meet you there." - Rumi

It sounds like you died

Great job

The Self and the Thoughts that Make it Up The self is comprised of beliefs about who and what we are. What are some examples in my own life? I am a self. My name is Ben. I am 29 years old. I am a dance instructor. I have good intentions although I do hurt people some times. I have blonde hair. I am a short man. I am an attractive man. I am a good dancer. These are all beliefs that you hold true about yourself. They are all thoughts. Thoughts are a complete fiction, which means that there is nothing true about them. If the self is comprised of thoughts then the self is also a complete fiction. Now I can write this down on paper and guess what, it actually does make sense. However, how do I actually experience that the thoughts and self are a fiction? How is it possible to experience this reality when I am so used to seeing things from the perspective that they are true. I am so attached to this human being that I believe myself to be. He is all that I think about. It's actually quite gross to be honest with you. Why am I so obsessed with him and his life story? It's not even that interesting. It's not enough to logically point these truths out. I have to recontextualize my thinking, yet as of right now I have no idea how to do that. To awaken requires a direct experience into the nature of self and thoughts.

Jed McKennas series The End of your world by Adyashanti Peter Ralston books

The motive is not to structure it yourself but to fully understand the structure of the self. Why has it been created in the way that it has? In order to do this, one has to detach from the self. It is impossible to examine the self without zooming out and looking at it objectively.

The self identity is something that is constructed by ourselves. There is nothing inherently True about it. NOTHING true. Based on the simple fact that there is no self to criticize or scrutinise, every decision that you have made throughout your entire life has been perfect. It is exactly what you were meant to do at that current point in time. If we can figure out the make up of the structure of thoughts, then we can figure out a way to change the structure and therefore change the way that we interpret thoughts and hopefully have more control over them.