ajasatya

i wholeheartedly disagree. a marriage immersed in spiritual practices like meditation/yoga can work perfectly. i'm not speaking from a theoretical level. i'm speaking from my own lifestyle. the key is to live by the happiness that comes from inner peace. don't be carried away by egoist urges.

@Echoes space/time, reality, matter, spirit, consciousness, truth, god... these are ineffable concepts. there's nothing to do about them. train your mind to live in the present moment and be free from anxiety/remorse. that's all...

i never came to this place. i am this place.

welcome

@Sidi no. an intimate relationship, at its finest, is supposed to provide peace of mind. watch closely the feeling you have about this relationship. isn't it always that sort of anguish? are both of you desperate for egoic confirmations? do you run away from eye contact? are you running away from your insecurities? trace your own irresponsibility.

in a very practical way, it means becoming free of the optional suffering entailed by your own sins. it means finding true happiness, peace of mind, contentment.

@Loreena YOU are the real love in this world. there's no other way.

@john5170 just come back to your breathing. it's simple but hard. if your mind is agitated, just be mindful. say to yourself "right now, my mind is agitated and i'm aware of it". and observe it being agitated.

@john5170 it happens because you turn calmness into a goal. you need to practice with no goals.

@Loreena no. we still need to pay for our food.

@The Universe connect with people. find a zen sangha. find a group to practice yoga with. find people interested in healthy gastronomy. shake it.

that's contradictory. if you want to stop drinking then abandon your toxic friends. stop bulshitting yourself in the first place.

embrace the existence of ego AND the illusion of ego; duality AND non-duality; self love and compassion; or die either trying to become something else or trying to unbecome something without ever being able to appreciate life. all of it. stillness AND movement.

it's ignorance when one stops being responsible. i'm not going to watch it but i can already smell egoic self deception.

@SC GM no... i don't live in canada. that'd be too far away

i live in brazil but i follow the Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds facebook page. they will be hosting a 3 days meditation retreat for a pretty cheap price. i posted it here so that maybe one of us can go and post a review in our Self-Help Product & Book Reviews section.

@Marks199 i've done a small research for you. i found these links for you. https://www.bookyogaretreats.com/all/c/yoga-meditation-retreats/d/europe/croatia/dubrovnik https://www.artofliving.org/hr-en/node/257570 http://www.meditacija.hr/web/dubrovnik find a group where you can practice meditation and spend time with healthy people (or people who are in the journey to get healthier). your liberation should be your top goal.

@The_spanish_guy welcome. i've been there. your sincerity is your weapon and shield. simply put, look for a zen sangha where you live and meditate with them every week.

@Marks199 tell us a bit more about your life. how are your days?

@nick96 vipassana is too intense for beginners. what you need is consistency. search for a zen sangha where you live and practice with them every week. that's A LOT better than going to random vipassana retreats.

@Shin GREAT question. i spent several hours contemplating it myself before taking action. for this one, we need to power up our sincerity levels. are you ready to be brutally honest? read your quotation again as adyashanti would say, it's possible to smell ego. that kind of attitude comes from discontentment, from lack of peace of mind. spiritual liberation happens when we realize both the relative and the absolute. this is the paradox right here. we need to embrace both of them to find out our own middle way. it requires an extremely high amount of wisdom. the spiritual practice, when performed by the spiritual heart, allows us not to hate solitude nor engagement. the spiritual teachings exist to remind us of the possibility of contentment right now, not to be use as excuses for our selfish urges. when we can find a partner that's aligned with Truth, it's the perfect match. because we can create a family that inspires people around us. this is my 2 cents to create a society that has virtues as the core values. this is where true ancestral religious marriages make sense. if you cannot take responsibility or haven't found someone with a loving heart yet, just be sincere. don't use teachings to justify your lack of discipline because you're feeding your ego by doing that, which is very harmful to everyone.

meditation is the practice of becoming conscious of thoughts and letting go of them. the more you practice it, the better you become at it. it's real. being good at observing thoughts and letting go of them is key to acquire different habits and actually change the way we live. humans have difficult times when trying to implement a healthier life because most of us are stuck in unconscious patterns of thinking.

@Shin contemplate the truth flooding your being it comes down to your appreciation ability. even fear... accept and appreciate it.

as your practice deepens and grows stronger and you become less toxic/judgmental, you should allow yourself to get away from toxic/judgmental people. your purification process is getting closer to the point where you're supposed to transform loneliness into solitude in order to be at peace. wish you the best!

@bazera i've solved this problem in my life by diving into the yogic principles and practices, which value exactly what you mentioned.