ajasatya

@CreamCat why would knowing True Nature stop you from embracing the human experience and sharpening your skills? i'm working towards becoming a better professional, a better husband and a better friend. in a near future, i'll do my best to be a good father and a good grandfather. i also want to learn how to cook. and i also want to have a more flexible body.

probably. the human being can think of itself as the experiencer, but that's the root cause of the whole baggage of confusion that leads people towards spiritual paths, religions, wars etc. the subtle, and yet at plain sight, Truth is that the universe is the only experiencer. and the human being can become aware of IT.

@arlin it's possible to go deeper than that as a human being (and it is a marvelous thing about the human experience that very few know). there is a huge shift when you no longer feel as if you were a human being experiencing existence, and start to feel as the entire existence experiencing a human being. the former is a mental phenomenon and the separation is felt in the gut. the later is a fully integrated phenomenon and you feel whole, meaning no identity, no human being, no self: only experience without "experienced" or "experiencer".

@arlin the very moment you say "i", the universe says "i". the sun rises, the flowers bloom, the heart beats and human beings say "i".

in your little story, i was telling her "how i got to new york". but maybe we were starting from different places (and maybe not!).

and that's not my responsibility. everyone is here out of their own will and nobody here holds any kind of duty to solve things for others with efficiency or anything like that. if that's your responsibility (maybe because you embraced it or simply because you're a moderator), that's fine. but you can't expect random dudes like me to weave an "accurate diagnosis" you can intervene and say "hey, you, be more gentle" and i'll say "huh, sorry, won't happen again" (some forum guidelines mention this issue in a very subjective and subtle way). we will be playing our roles and that's fine. but if people need professional/efficient/accurate help, this is not the right place to seek (and the forum guidelines mention this issue in a crystal clear and objective way).

@Serotoninluv i understood. and still, i wouldn't remove myself from the conversation (not really a conversation though... this is a forum thread). you can just ignore people.

i wouldn't people tend to take things very personally, which is something that i might have lost touch with. also, i think i'm out of shape to teach/help, since i've been working very hard on other aspects of Life. anyway, this is a dead horse already. i promise that i'll be more gentle from now on. thanks @Mu_ and @Serotoninluv for your patience and efforts.

@Alex bAlex yes, but fully embracing the human experience seems more interesting to me. i mean having children, grandchildren etc. of course you'd need the right partner for that. i was sure that i was going to become a zen monk and live in celibacy for the rest of my life until i met my wife: an amazing human being committed to the process of learning and practicing human virtues. it was a radical change in perspective for me and also one of the best choices of my life.

interesting... this thread is still paying out! i'm pretty sure she will, it's just a matter of time. eventually it will click like an engine booting up. when i was 16~17, there was a lot of pride and frustration in my experience because i thought of myself as being more evolved than everyone else around me. huuuge ego trip! zen has taught me differently, though. zen can be harsh on the mental barriers but it has a very specific goal: to open space for the heart. yellow girl thought she was going deep by talking complex, but in the end it's just mental noise. just like @Michael569, i didn't sense a single word imbued with spirit. but i'm not made out of stone. i am learning from this. not everyone has chosen to learn from zen

@Angelo John Gage most people here won't understand you until they've decided to build a family grounded on virtuous foundations. i recommend that you just leave it this way and work on your message. don't waste energy.

@ivory here is an insight that has opened a lot of possibilities for me: enlightenment is realizing that you are like a flower that will blossom vigorously. as Life itself, we don't need to separate enlightenment from everyday life. if you need time for developing mental discipline (like i did), then create a plan to spend a few months in a monastery or an ashram. i don't know what can help you more with mental discipline than a life devoted to the practice of meditation. but if you don't feel that you need an extra dosage of mental discipline right now, you can just become a good husband/wife, a good father/mother, a good professional. this is how Life consciously embraces itself through the experience of a human being.

point taken. thank you.

@Ponder you're still projecting a lot of pride/status onto this, as if enlightenment made some people better than others somehow. there is no prize, no pride, no winner, no loser. enlightenment is a phenomenon of the universe, like a volcano, a nimble, a river or a super nova.

@Mu_ yeap, it's very easy to choose sides here. very interesting to see how some people agree with me and some people do not. i'm fine with both. even though i know that there is no such thing as "superiority" in reality (just in imagination), i was intentionally outputting a tone of fantasized superiority just so that she could see her own flaw in my words. sometimes it works right away, sometimes it doesn't. but i'm sure her experience here hit somewhere it should hit and she'll spend some time thinking about it. the memory may even haunt her for a while on her search for validation. the internal journey is often unpleasant. sometimes we see things we didn't expect to see. sometimes it smells more than we think it would! what she is seeking cannot be found anywhere else. it's not that people should understand her. it's not about finding a new system of beliefs. it's certainly not about building up her way to dissatisfaction and isolation by identifying herself with a "superior stage". peace of heart is rare because humility and self development are tricky/paradoxical. love is not always soft and warm. the words of a true friend can hurt you in the first moment.

because you're still attached to beliefs. you want your beliefs to be your fortress. sad/happy news: beliefs can't be your fortress! beliefs are just prior knowledge about the world without any fundamental truth to them. if you try to build your foundations on a set of beliefs, it will be like building a castle on the sand. this is why you need validations for your beliefs. you're trying to feel safe while standing on a mental construction. don't build your foundations on thoughts. build your foundations on the present moment!

good stuff. i agree with the main message but i disagree with your methods/didactic. keep it up!

start doing it already. your long-term plans are obfuscating your short-term actions. you're basically living in your mind and not actually doing what it takes to experience new things. if you don't manage to come up with practical actions from your introspective moments, you'll end up like a mental zombie that fantasizes a lot but doesn't really live life.

this is gold. not sure if you're going to read this, but you should investigate what part of you felt ridiculed and attacked. it's time for another part of the armor to go.

nobody else can have the wisdom you need. oh, the suffering! please please, i want to feel understood! how is that yellow?

look, lack of humility also causes suffering. are you self-proclaiming yourself as yellow? yellow is a tier 2 stage, which means that one at yellow has fully grasped the necessity of different stages in everyone's life and in every culture out there. if you're feeling lonely, then let go of the place you think you are and go back to the basics. talk to people, hug, make eye contact. tell someone that you feel lonely. human connection does not depend on "stages" or "beliefs". a silent and deep eye contact can break many barriers.

too many words. are you having problems with your husband? are you missing the excitement of the 20's? do you have relationship problems with your children? or are you just struggling internally with conflicting beliefs?

@Shin a lot of times little harshness is exactly what people need to shake them out of their mental cycles @Yellow_Girl i will be even more straightforward. how would the world have to be to please you? what would have to change? do you have the courage to make that statement? do not allow the mind to take all the space. if your heart can't be heard, we're just wasting time here. the mind is a prolix thing and has its place. but the heart is ALMOST SPEECHLESS.

@Yellow_Girl to me, it sounds like you're overusing rationalization to bypass emotional issues. you said a lot of big words, but in the end, you're just afraid of opening up. repressed traumas? i don't know. you should know better.