Ishanga

Yes... My understanding is that there is Me, it is not the Body or Mind, so I am not identified with either, when that Happens there is a space btwn what is Me and what is not Me, so I like to say that the volume of the mind chatter or past/future rumination is not so loud for Me, it gives Me a chance to respond better with more clarity to what is NOW.. And Yes, most mental suffering is living in the past or future too much mentally/emotionally. If Your past orientated then You get bitter, angry and depressed.. Future orientation is Anxiety, Fear Experiences.. MInd is past/future orientated, So something else is NOW orientated, whatever that is is YOU!

Pain will happen, physical pain for sure, Emotional Pain is a choice.. Suffering is different from Pain, Pain comes then goes, or it should..Suffering, which is mostly Emotional in our Society today, is continued experience of Pain over and over again, this is Unconscious Action, if You make it Conscious action, then would You choose to Suffer? Probably Not!

Yes, as well as Realizing "I am not my Emotions" and that I am creating them, but mostly Unconsciously. So its just a matter of making it a Conscious Action, which is what Responding means! If You Consciously control Your Emotions, then the question is which Emotions do You want to Experience, Peace, Love, Joy, Excitement, or Bitterness, Anger, Guilt, Anxiety/Depression etc...? Also, which Emotions Empower You, Which ones disempower You?

Yes, as well as not using the language or words like "failure" or "setback", In Life there are not failures or setbacks, there are just situations... Generally we are ruled by Expectations, so we set up a goal or task/event, expect something to happen a certain way (this is living emotionally in the future, which does not exist!), then go do it and find out things did not go how we Expected.. So ppl are already setting themselves up for failure by Expectation, or living in the future emotionally... One should set goals yes, but live Now and Respond to Now as it is, then You have more Clarity and can use all Your tools, intelligence/experience etc to achieve the goal...

With the past, You either become Wounded or Wise from it, if someone experiences allot of failure and setbacks, losses if You "react" then you will probably suffer it via emotional pain (Wounded), if You respond to it likely You will become Wiser from it, so that is the choice.. If I go down a path and trip over a bump in the road, the next time I go down that path I will avoid that bump and not trip over it...

Its okay to share One's experiences in Spirituality, its okay to share what to do's and not do's, its okay to debate and such, but a balance has to be in place, and it shouldn't really affect how You feel about things basically, one will not progress down the spiritual path via participating on forums, or debating and reading stories of others experiences, it can only inspire or uninspire really.. The real work is within Your own Being and Doing... I find lots here are too into this place and they luv the drama of arguing and finding conflict, it makes their hearts beat and is ego driven!

No culture has taken it as far as India/Bharat has, they delved into Spirituality (that aspect of You/Us that is not physical in nature) more than any society ever! They have made it a precise Science (Yoga), and anyone can use it, not to just become or realize Enlightenment (don't even think of Enlightenment if You are not naturally Peaceful), but just normal Wellbeing, just doing Hatha Yoga is good for Your Health, the basic Sadhana practice improve Mental Health, and the basic philosophy and intellectual tools make Stress not possible for one who is familiar with them!! What the shamans do, in Africa and other places doesn't compare really, its not nearly as in-depth and sophisticated as Indian Spirituality imo!

This is a sign that You have fallen for the trap that Pain or Suffering HAS to be a part of Life Experience.. Yes for sure no one goes thru life without experiencing pain, most of it physical.. When it comes to Emotions, no one should be able to produce a stimulus for You to Experience Emotional Pain, since Emotions cannot be touched by anyone other than YOU. Body can be influenced by outside stimuli as it functions and interacts with the outside, Emotions are You interior barometer and are only touched by you, if You react to outside then for sure You will feel emotional pain, but if You respond then it is up to You if it is painful or not... We are this way, reactive and suffering because when in these states we spend, consume, buy and do things that we don't really need to do to either distract from Emotional pain or numb it, this is conditioned into Us via our culture which is narcissistic in nature and greedy, its all about Money and Power, a few have it and they use this tactic to control the masses. Once You take Your Power back by Responding to Life rather than reacting, then society will transform!

This is True, but You are guilty of it as well, as are all of Us that participate in this forum.. You started the thread tell all of us what we are stuck on, so that is no different from all the replies here, which proves the point, identification with ideology is rampant here.. There is a recent post on the kriya thread, how someone just got back into kriya yoga after a layoff and how the process has opened their eyes, this is real, not this ideological difference discussions that dominate this forum, it proves the level of Awareness here is not very high, even from those experienced psychedelic users that claim via the usage they are enlightened, obviously not!!

God/Absolute is like the game maker, You are the game player, God has set up thing Perfectly, it is You that has to play the game perfectly! This is all about Free Will, How You want to Experience this perfectly set up game, God has nothing to do with that aspect of it, God has set it up perfectly and that is the end of it, You have to go through it, but You have to determine if You want to go thru it Joyfully or Suffer it! The problem is You and so many others have not set this up, You don't think it is possible, so You live accidentally, going thru this perfectly set up game imperfectly via unawareness, if like a blind person walking around with no training of how to walk around safely, they learn this skill, so its a skill to walk thru this life Blissfully, You just haven't learned this skill Yet!

Everything I read here, on this forum and everywhere else, is just a story, and philosophy of sort, a concept, until it is my Experience too, so everything You sense from the outside its real, but You don't know if it is Truth, as Truth only lives within You. All You can do is Expand Yourself endlessly too include everything as You, then it is not longer a story to hear, because it is not coming from the sense of hearing it, or reading/watching with the eyes or feeling it with a touch, rather its an Experiential Inclusion via a sense that is not one of the 5 normal senses...

I don't buy into this because the majority our self suffering! Yes while being Tortured I would not appear to be "Enlightened" but that is not the case, I am not being Tortured daily and I do suffer, but my suffering is minimalized because I am on an Enlightenment path, while most are not, they are living in paradises (just see any celeb, they are living a life in paradise, expressing their creative talent, making tons of money, lots of relationships, lots of admiration and recognition for them and their accomplishments, lots of travel, but they suffer allot!), so that is self suffering which come via Unconsciousness or UnAwareness of what is... The problem is ppl do not really have problems, a real problem is living in Gaza, or Syria or some other war torn, place like Haiti, they have an Excuse for Suffering, and even in those places I bet there are some not suffering, Pain and Suffering are not the samething, You will feel Pain while in Enlightened States, but You won't Suffer, normal ppl suffer after prolonged pain, and most ppl are not being tortured daily or living in war torn places...

Everybody is stuck on the samethings, and its seen in most every thread here now, Ideological Identification, as well as Logically trying to understand Reality.. As I've said before here, nothing written here is Truth, its just a bunch of stories and personal experiences being expressed, but readers get identified with it via belief, they like what they read, identify with it, then argue about it with others, this is anti Truth! Real Truth is just the Experience.. Everything is Experience, no Experience is an Experience, as is every other sense organ input and otherwise... Only question is are You Enjoying it, or Suffering it, answer that question then You know where Your at..The Smart/Wise Person Enjoys it, the dumb/unwise Suffer it...

Ego embraces Your Identity, Opinions/Beliefs, Personality, and allows a Sense of Separation (this is important for Spirituality to exist!).. The Death of Ego means Your Identity is gone, and so is the sense of Separation, Your Experience of that of Completeness and Connection to Everything, but Your Intellect is still intact, Your Personality is there, but You choose when to use it, it doesn't Use You! Enlightenment is the highest Potential for a Human Being to Exist in Experiencially, its all of the above, but the Energies within are super Intense all the time, Your very Present Moment Aware, Peace and Bliss are always there in the background and can be as intense as You want it too be.. Your relatively Healthy, Compassion and Love (including others as Yourself) are natural to You, You dislike only the Actions of the person or thing, not the person or thing itself! You play this Human Game, deal with all situations with openness and clarity, your not a know it all, but are curious about a bunch of things... This is the last Incarnation, no more body/mind complexes to go into again, you merge with Absolute, no individuality anymore!

No I'm not young, 50+.. My problem with Society and what I see daily, for me its just sad to see, not sad emotionally, I don't go home and cry over it, its just a sad state of affairs that's all, the only thing that gets me hot is traffic jams lol, since I drive allot at my work and traffic here is nuts... I don't really buy into life purpose stuff, I've done many things in my life, taught Martial Art professionally, Private Investigation work, Security Work, and many more things, so I've experienced allot already, so much so that what turns most ppl on doesn't for Me, so since i've been into Yoga and Spirituality my main goal is Enlightenment within this lifetime, maybe it will happen, maybe not, but I have normal responsibilities with family and such, so life is pretty good, I just have high standards and think we could be doing much better as a Society and Humanity than we are:)