Nahm

Careful of spiritual bypassing and aversion of understanding emotions. While I think therapy is helpful and you should continue with it, many therapists don’t understand their own emotions and misdiagnose accordingly.

@Kyle Gjerseth What’s your ‘why’ in regard to praying?

Monk is a thought.

@Persipnei Are you open to the possibility of letting go of ideas (vs getting more)?

What was the ‘a lot of trouble’?

The control, free will, death, ego, God, universe, yada yada is all conceptualizing. Thoughts, believed or not, but focused upon.. Notice, thoughts arise, are focused upon, threads are created by you. If you want to create something else, allow those thoughts to come & go. Thoughts about what you want to create will arise in the same manor. In focusing on those thoughts, momentum ensues just like with the threads, and that, whatever that is, is underway, manifesting.

@Zeroguy Eggsactly.

@WokeBloke Seeing through the duality of language is kinda on you my man.

@Mosess Right! There’s no need to interpret what I said. What I said is what I said.

This interpretation is yours.

Paranoia, projection, and solipsism can and should be addressed directly. Call rumination, rumination, and don’t continue trying to make it about spirituality, or “spiritual concepts”. (Imo) Don’t be stubborn oriented to trying to be right - orient to actually feeling better and creating what you want in your life. Meditation. Expression. Dreamboard. Spiritual bypassing & then accusing or blaming others is not conducive to your own well being.

Thoughts ⬆️ ?

? ?

God = Truth. God doesn’t ‘have beliefs’ (like solipsism). There’s no such ‘thing’ as a ‘true thought or belief’. ? That one really got me! Appreciating ‘your’ wisdom & humor sir. Great ‘stuff’. ?

Love is unconditional & infinite (real). The knowing is what is illusory as love is not two. The knower of anything is illusory, as love is not two. Hence, Nonduality. There isn’t a separate self which knows, has, or understands anything about love. The ‘trap’ isn’t that there isn’t meaning, the ‘trap’ is believing thoughts, or, experiencing thought attachment, and being in denial / insisting you are the separate self which knows stuff about love. Meditation is “the answer” so to speak, because that “knower” is “the separate self”. There isn’t actually a separate self, there are only thoughts that there is, and the believing of, or ‘attachment to’ those thoughts, even though those thoughts all feel discordant. Self Inquiry. SELF INQUIRY This is a meditation technique of enlightenment, i.e. "self realization". By realizing ‘who’ you are, the bonds of suffering are broken. Besides realization, self-inquiry delivers many of the same benefits as other meditation techniques, such as relaxation, enhanced experience of life, greater openness to change, greater creativity, a sense of joy and fulfillment, and so forth. Focus on the feeling of being "me," to the exclusion of all arising thoughts. 1. Sit in any comfortable meditation posture. 2. Allow your mind and body to settle. 3. Let go of any thinking whatsoever. 4. Place your attention on the inner feeling of being "me." 5. If a thought does arise, ask yourself to whom this thought is occurring, as this returns your attention to the feeling of being "me." Continue this for as long as you like. This technique can also be done when going about any other activity. Many people misunderstand the self-inquiry technique to mean that the person should sit and ask themselves the question, "Who am I?" over and over. This is an incorrect understanding of the technique. The questions "Who am I" or "To whom is this thought occurring?" are only used when a thought arises, in order to direct attention back to the feeling of being "me." At other times the mind is held in silence. This practice of turning awareness back upon itself, prior to the ‘I’-thought, is a gentle technique, which bypasses the usual repressive methods of controlling the mind. It is not an exercise in concentration, nor does it aim at suppressing thoughts; it merely invokes awareness of the source from which the mind springs. The method and goal of self-enquiry is to abide in the source of the mind and to be aware of what one really is by withdrawing attention and interest from what one is not. In the early stages effort in the form of redirecting attention from the thoughts to the ‘thinker’ is essential, but once awareness of the ‘I’-feeling has been firmly established, further effort is counter-productive. From then on it is more a process of being than doing, of effortless being rather than an effort to be. If the info here doesn’t cheer ya up, the monster face will. I mean just look at it.

Impermanence is a thought which out an actuality, like unicorn.

Cessation, or, no mind, isn’t a concept, can not be conceptualized, and is liberation, and is the stark opposite of anything suppressive, separative, limiting, or restrictive.

@omar30 Ok. I was just curious really, if you’d asked that particular question and what they actually said in response.

@omar30 Is it surprising?

@omar30 That’d probably be why then.

@omar30 I honestly don’t know anyone who has went to or even mentioned going to India for spiritual purposes. That sounds more like something in a movie about Americans. Is that meditation posture Indian?

@omar30 Not 100% convinced, but I’ll take your word for it. Not to imply you should or should have… did you point out that what they are afraid of, is really what they were told? As in, not anything they’ve actually seen or experienced themselves? Do they say anything about religion & happiness in any way?

@omar30 I don’t know that they do.

@omar30 But do they literally say “we want you to be part of our religion because we are afraid and we want you to be afraid” ?

Do they literally say that? (“we want you to fear / be afraid”)