MiracleMan

If someone is looking for relief, and you tell them that looking for relief is causing nonrelief, then when the person tries to stop looking for relief, that movement is in a sense playing God, or trying to control an outcome either way. So if I go to meditate or inquire, and someone says that meditation in reinforcing the sense of self, I'm still in the same predicament whether I meditate or not. Best to just practice if you want to practice, but armed with the relative knowledge that you will always be trying to outwit 'yourself'. If that which is playing God (example: "I will meditate my way to enlightenment") is told to stop playing God, and they make a commitment to stop playing God, they are still playing God ad-infinitum. The only possible solution in this is observation. You can observe the yin and yang of the situation, that which is playing God, and that which wants to stop playing God. Self cannot get out of self. But who is it that sees this self, that is aware of this self, sees an apparent duality or division. The presuppositions of a non existent entity (thought) searching for its own end. Can thought be aware of its own movement? I don't know... Can an object being perceived (like thought) be perceiving?

What do you think of the 'new age' phenomenon. The video I linked earlier is a 'new ager' so to speak. It's got its own dogma and religious qualities that are to be taken on faith or belief. The ACIM crowd sometimes crosses over into some of these concepts. The entire new age doctrine revolves around ascended masters who are actually aliens of the 11th dimension, or Arcturians, and there is a conspiracy about Atlantis, Ley Lines, the pyramids, and it all culminates in being the missing pieces in a huge conspiracy over the unsolved mysteries over the ancient world. Teal Swan has a huge following, she has had several followers commit suicide, she has promoted suicidal ideation as a 'reset button', claims she can hear tectonic plates moving, I could keep going. That being said, she has some decent practical psychotherapeutic advice, but definitely is not a mentally stable person. She has an 'ashram' in Costa Rica, her followers are tattooed with her symbol. She bashes basically every guru in existence, which is fine, but highly hypocritical in that she breaks the same rules she pushes for, like sleeping with your followers. Matt Kahn makes a similar show, where he makes predictions that don't come true, then makes an unverifiable excuse of how it actuality DID come true. The new age community at large cannot agree on a single narrative, though I'm sure something is in the works or already exists. They all have different interpretations, different alien races, but they all claim to 'intuit' it or get a 'download' from source. Wtf is happening here? All of these new agers seem to hand out good practical advice at times, then just go off into totally unverifiable and fantastic information...why not stop at the practical advice? Not to mention the amount of money they charge, hundreds of dollars for 'starseed' activation and other craziness. When I question these things, I'm bombarded by a weaponized version of spiral dynamics, pigeon holed into a place of 'you've not reached that stage of consciousness' to understand. There is a corruption, so to speak, in many spiritual circles and communities, it seems an inherent part of every human system, corruption exists or someone intentionally benefits from the misfortune of others, even on a path to God so to speak.

@winterknight Here is a link to an example, Paul Selig, but I don't think is representative of the whole spectrum. I find it so fascinating, in a way, it feels authentic, but I could never know for sure haha.

@winterknight How did you deal with the past traumas, fear, and physical pain, on your path inward towards liberation? What methods, if any, did you employ in allowing the shadow, or the subconscious, up into conscious awareness? Have you any experience with chanelling or are you interested in exploring that function? If so I'd really enjoy having a conversation with you. We are witnessing a great social upheaval, not only in America but globally. We are witnessing the unveiling of our own shadow, our own past, on the world stage, as a nation, and as humanity as a whole. We are seeing mass extinction events that are man made, we are seeing climate events that are man made. The media is not covering the ongoing arms race between Russia, China, and the US. Warfare is continually being perfected, we have now created weapons that can operate autonomously without human intervention, but by programmed protocol. Not to debate free will, but is the will truly as such that we would destroy ourselves if we so chose? As what we truly are, does the apparent choice even matter? Thank you for returning home, I hope to join you soon. <3

I've been invited to a 10 day in December but I've not yet accepted the offer. I have a cushion with a back support, but I have chronic lower back pain and I'm unsure if I'll make it through. I did tell them I had this condition, so maybe if I have to take a break and lie on my back for a few they won't kick me out. Hopefully they'll understand.

In my quest to cure my depression among other mental health struggles, I found an interesting excerpt. Chogyam Trungpa is the author I believe but I cannot find the publication it was taken from, I want to read more from this publication, says it was an excerpt from 1976. The link is titled "The Psychology of Meditation" but I have copy/pasted the text below. The Psychology of Meditation Chogyam Trungpa "Meditation is a way of working with neurosis of ego, so in order to understand the psychology of meditation we must understand the dynamics of that neurosis. According to Buddhist psychology, the basis of ego is the tendency to solidify energy into a barrier that separates space into two entities, I and Other; the space in here and the space out there. This process is technically termed dualistic fixation. First there is the initial creation of the barrier, which is the sensing of other, and then the inference of inner or I. This is the birth of ego. We identify with what is in here and struggle to relate to what is out there. The barrier causes an imbalance between inside and outside. The struggle to redress the imbalance further solidifies the wall. The irony of the barrier creating process is that we lose track of the fact that we have created the barrier and, instead, act as if it was always there. After the initial creation of I and Other, I feels the territory outside itself, determining if it is threatening, attractive or uninteresting. Feeling the environment is followed by impulsive action, passion, aggression or ignoring. Pulling in what is seductive, pushing away what is threatening or repelling, ignoring what is uninteresting or irritating. But feeling and impulsive action are crude ways of defending and enhancing ego. The next response is conceptual discrimination, fitting phenomena into categories, which makes the world much more manageable and intelligible. Finally, whole fantasy worlds are created to shield and entertain ego. Emotions are the highlights of the fantasies while discursive thoughts, images and memories sustain the story line. A story of ego's hopes and fears, victories and defeats, virtues and vices is developed. In highly neurotic people, elaborate subplots or problems then develop from the initial drama. The subplots become very complicated and compelling, often overshadowing the main drama. In psychotic people, the subplots completely overshadow the main drama. The different stages of ego development-the initial split of I and Other, feeling, impulse, conceptualization and the various fantasy worlds-are technically referred to in the Buddhist traditions the five skandhas. From moment to moment the five skandhas are recreated in such a manner that it seems the ego drama is continuous. Clinging to the apparent continuity and solidity of ego, ceaselessly trying to maintain I and Mine, is the root of neurosis. (This effort clashes with the inevitability of change, with the ever-recurring death and birth of ego, and therefore causes suffering.) One sees the world in terms of I and the Threat, I and the Seduction; and consequently either moves out and tries to grab hold of phenomena or holds back from them, withdrawing into a defensive posture. Such clinging creates a sense of alienation which panics us into struggling to restore the balance that has been upset. Seemingly pleasurable objects become more seductive and seemingly hostile objects become more threatening. So the more one struggles either to gain pleasure or avoid pain, the more one creates dissatisfaction. One can go so far as to lose contact with the ground, which is psychosis. Or one can stabilize in a defensive way, which is what a neurotic person does. The particular neurosis you create depends on your style of relating to the world-defensive, seductive, manipulative, encompassing or ignoring. But whatever your style, the degree to which you are neurotic depends on the extent to which you are struggling to make yourself comfortable; which is ironic, because it is the effort to make ourselves comfortable that creates the discomfort. On the other hand, there is the possibility of breaking the chain of panic and struggle by opening to what is, by dropping the attempt continually to maintain one's security. One can define meditation as a process of letting go, of giving up conflict, not in a passive, spineless sense, but in the sense of being present yet not manipulative. So we are faced with the moment-to-moment alternative of either opening to space, of being in harmony with it, or of solidifying and fixating it. One must be careful not to fall into the trap of superficially letting go. What one is doing in that case is trying to compensate for the discomfort of life by smoothing it over, by trying to make oneself at ease. In the case of highly neurotic persons, their awkward attempts at easing their discomfort are obvious. But in the case of spiritual techniques such covering over is harder to detect. Rather than softening reality, meditation is a process of clearly seeing it. A good example is Don Juan's approach to fear. He does not offer Carlos a technique to dilute fear. Instead he tells Carlos to live with fear, live with death, make death his companion, make fear his companion; but never succumb to them. " Excerpted from GARUDA, a 1976 publication put out by Vajradhatu Publications ©.

This has probably been addressed before, but I wanted to ask some folks who are working 40+ hours a week and have busy lives, how do you make time for your life purpose? I work roughly 10-12 hours a day, by the time I get home, cook dinner, take care of mundane tasks, it's nearly bed time, and I'm totally drained of energy, I find it difficult to make time for a meditation practice, let alone the thousands and thousands of hours it takes to pursue a serious life purpose and obtain the skill set. For myself, the career I'm working currently pays very well, but its not truly my passion, or my life purpose. I've always known in a sense that music and art was my life purpose, and while it doesn't pay very well, I feel like I'd be satisfied if I could find a way to pursue the workload of my life purpose and balance my established career. I've also pondered paying off my debt (almost done) and trying to adapt to a very minimal lifestyle for a short time frame (1-3 years) to just study music, art, and pursue my spiritual endeavors full time. All in all, I take little risk in leaving my career, it isnt going anywhere and neither is my skillset in that domain. Either way, I have to figure out something, and I've only come up with two options as I mentioned earlier: 1. Use whatever little spare time I can to study and practice life purpose 2. Leave a well established and high paying career to pursue it full time I think either option I choose it will be a challenge. Anyone else have any ideas or are pondering the same struggle? Thanks!

Skip to 7:30 mark, a woman asks about reincarnation.

This is a really strange coincidence @Faceless. You mentioned in an earlier post that you would speak about pleasure, and my thought was "he should talk about attack as well!" and sure enough you went right into it! Cool stuff dude. "22.VI.12. If you were one with God and recognized this oneness, you would know His power is yours. 2 But you will not remember this while you believe attack of any kind means anything. 3 It is unjustified in any form, because it has no meaning. 4 The only way it could be justified is if you and your brother were separate from the other, and all were separate from your Creator. 5 For only then would it be possible to attack a part of the creation without the whole, the Son without the Father; and to attack another without yourself, or hurt yourself without the other feeling pain. 6 And this belief you want. 7 Yet wherein lies its value, except in the desire to attack in safety? 8 Attack is neither safe nor dangerous. 9 It is impossible. 10 And this is so because the universe is one. 11 You would not choose attack on its reality if it were not essential to attack to see it separated from its maker. 12 And thus it seems as if love could attack and become fearful." Thank you guys so much, I can't begin to express my gratitude. ❤

There is such a stigma over 'mental health'. I mean Jesus how do you explain 'this' to a psychotherapist and doctors who are totally entranced and asleep, a total unquestioning alliance to materialism and an objective reality which doesn't even exist, if you QUESTION that fact, address anything metaphysical with a professional doctor or psychotherapist and they are liable to question your sanity. Why, OP, are we concerning ourselves with their opinions. What they call psychosis, and what qualifies you as a 'looney', would apply to nearly all of our conversations here in this place according to western psychology, this entire civilization is built on archaic and erroneous Roman catholic and protestant Christian principles. @Leo Gura Do you think your average psychotherapist or medical doctor/surgeon would accept your views on metaphysics? What about your view on pyschedelics, nonduality? What do they really think of meditation and spirituality I wonder? Edit: This experience also shows that guidance isnt a bad idea. It's like a bottle under intense pressure, my God OP I really can relate to your experience. Once its shaken lose a bit, it can have an explosive effect, the 'psychosis' is an important time of awakening for the shaman. He must purge large amounts of psychic debris from his field. It could be lifetimes of suppressed darkness, not allowed to rise to awareness, always being shoved back down. And also, @Leo Gura this might be more common than you think, read SN Goenkas book about vipassana, there are parts in there about situations like these, and it commonly happens towards the end of the retreat, which is why they put so much emphasis on completion. They claim it's very dangerous to leave in a bad mental state, you MUST go through it. I really am not surprised by this and really seems to be business as usual. Have you ever seen a faith healing or Christian mystics? This isn't a huge deal, but like I said it's because of the STIGMA with mental health 'disorder'.

And I would ask you how it's done, It's such a mind fuck. It can't be done. It's a total paradox! How does a rabbit pull itself out of a hat? How does one pull ones self up by their own bootstraps? The sound of one hand clapping? Undo! Undo! Go back!

Hmmm...so in a sense I'm trapped, I feel trapped. But the one who feels trapped is simply deluding themselves into believing they are a seperate entity appearing inside something else? In my experience it feels quite physical, more than a thought, "I" feel like I'm in here, in the body, as an actual contraction, along with the idea or thought of myself, I might not be actively thinking of myself but the 'presence' of myself is an actual physical experience, accompanied by projected images of the face, a contraction in the solar plexus, tension and pain all over the body. If someone says some harsh words to me, I feel a contraction in my solar plexus, sometimes its physical pain and panic there. It is a totally conditioned reaction, and I've seen the impossibility of attack in my direct experience, but this was only a glimpse, a few examples I saw, but against a life time of unconscious belief it's like a drop of water disappearing in an ocean... @Faceless Is there absolutely anything one can do? It seems hopeless. We can reasonably and rationally work through this, but logical understanding with the mind doesn't bring about an unveiling, it doesn't move anything out of the way. I think what you're pointing to is that I have a fragmented perception, a selective perception, and I'm not seeing or thinking clearly at all. It's very sneaky because even if I happen to notice what your saying in my direct experience, it doesn't seem to change. Maybe this is because it's impossible to go with my direct experience when I've held a lifetime (or possibly lifetimes) of conditioned beliefs. What is your opinion on belief and desire (intention), this is below thought and perception? It can be modified, or, at least SEEN? I seem to be directed by thought, but what is the master of the thoughts? What is the thought hanging on that gives it seeming power? Are the thoughts hinging on unconscious beliefs, desires?

Poor moderation under the guise of open mindedness. It's obvious trolling, and destructive as well to those who are earnestly seeking. Meanwhile, the moderator in this thread is being baited and even engaging the OP.

Double Post Deleted.

I did psychedelics in the past when I was younger (pure DXM, mushrooms, acid, salvia x60 extract), but this strange shift occurred into depression/anxiety at about age 21, then after that all of my trips were associated with panic attacks and a hyper sensitivity to psychedelics. I feel like I can't use psychedelics anymore because of those experiences, and I actually fear it. Even with cannabis I watch my dosage because I can have a panic attack if I get too high. Have you heard of this happening to folks? So I tend to avoid psychedelics but I'd love to have a great mushroom trip again, I would love to have the opportunity to use them therapeutically with a doctor or shaman, or just a friend I could trust. I have a float tank if someone wanted to try tripping in there, I haven't done it myself though.

I've gotten the spinny sensations too! During vipassana meditation, and also spontaneously, sometimes just laying down, or laying down after I meditate sometimes I just go into them. Have you experienced being dragged, or pulled, sometimes in random directions? Sometimes it feels like your head is gigantic, or your body feels large, like a giant. There are other times where it feels like I'm bouncing in and out rapidly. It's very exciting isn't it? Sounds like you've made some progress!

If you're an individual, then I think it's like a package deal. ? I'd like to have the ego 'al a carte' and customize, but I think if you had to look it as simply as possible, you got two menu options: Love - Comes with the peace of God, a side of joy, your choice of ecstasy or bliss, and all of eternity. Oh, and a choice of side salad or fries. Fear - Comes with a finite existence, a side of misery, your choice of major depression or schizophrenia, all served on top of certain death, lightly topped with mango salsa and creme fraiche. ?

You've taken solipsism and relativism to a delusional and dangerous level. There is no way 'out'. The ego is clever but it cant escape from anything. Nothing wants to escape from anything except an ego. Fear, lots and lots of fear needs to be addressed.

What do you mean by abstraction, is it synonymous with form or objects?

Read an interesting concept last night that the future and the past are not two. It's fun to think about, because my belief is firmly rooted in linear time, so the mind tends to relax a bit when I give it some contemplation. I love to think about time because it constantly challenges the belief in linear time, and sometimes you can have some cool experiences if you challenge your perception of time. Plus, future-past just sounds cool. ?

Could you explain why it doesn't exist?

Most people into social dynamics are suffering in that area, otherwise they wouldn't seek help with it. A lot these guys like the OP are already isolated, dont have many friends, I think it's important to get these guys out of isolation, because that's a severe reaction to the modern psychosis of anxiety/depression, it's the millennial generations birthmark and so much of it goes without open discussion and is stigmatized. Counterintuitive in that sense. It's better in the long run too because why are we cold approaching and chasing women in the first place? What is the end game? Sorry if a lot of this sounded judgemental, it's totally okay if someone wants to be the lone wolf, just, in the sense of what the OP is looking for it might be healthier.

@OmarioThe cold approach game is so unnatural in my opinion. It would seem that the type of women you could pick up that way may be hot physically, but carry a heavy amount of baggage. Speaking from experience by just picking up random girls at parties and what not, in the bar, you tend to attract females who aren't right for you, and also alpha bros who are just there to fight, and they are just waiting for you to talk to one of 'their' girls so they can have an excuse to fight you. It can be a chaotic situation. Like @aurum said, the social circle is by far the easiest way to go, better conditions, better results, and also, the best part: you get to make new friends and forge relationships with other successful people. This lone wolf, caveman shit is so counterintuitive...

I really like this, thanks. Also your sig is great.

Interesting expression, juxtaposed with love and light, this guy just goes straight to the business.