Dantas

Oh, man. That's a hard lession. Probably learning it more and mure. It seems to me that after a couple enlightenment experiences (real enlightenment) we tend to get more and more into nothingness's dark side. It takes a while to accpet that progress isn't all pretty But all the same the joy comes from it. haha

@solr Ouspensky uses very delicate lenguage in this book, which is not actually a book, but a collection of teachings in coferences. Read it through and think critically about it - That's right The claims he made are dual, as it must, because this is a little book that you can spend years putting into practice and observe in everyday life and yourself if you want to. And it's definetly worth it.

@Costa7 You could try and start small. One hour of meditation per week or in between sessions, so you get a better handle on it and see how it goes. In my case, it took a while to update to an hour, because of my work/obligations, finding the right balance, etc. One of the best techiniques is to just do it (a blueprint) like journaling. - Plan retreats, or just more sessions - Separate plans by digital text files or handwriting - Leave some blank space to think about it and make notations over the long run. As well as your initial plans. Hope it works and good luck!

@Visionary I experimented with fitness/exercising a little this year, but haven't gotten very fat yet, as I'm not used to it. Any shadow work/ gratitude exercises you could recommend?

@Nahm I think my life changed a lot, and feel much better. It takes time, yes. Not necessarily anger. Getting triggered, arrongant without noticing sometimes. Also having a hard time following up with the pratices. For example; I could feel more or less okay by meditating for almost a month, and wake up wanting to do everything in the world but meditating. It's when it can become painful. I push through and eventually things get better.

A few weeks ago, I replied to someone on the forum about the "Meditation Side-Effectss" you get when you have loads of things to work through, from your past. It went something like "This is part of the work, stay put & keep moving forward", all that. Last weekend I had one of those crashes and today I feel really bad that I just told the guy/girl that. The almost unexplainable (at least to me) crash took at least five days of recovery just to get myself together. This is what I wanted to tell him if I could - When these things happen, you'll want to come back. I cried, I went on my knees. And just contemplated for a few hours, what this work really is. It's not for your lower self, it's not for the past. It is for the Truth. You will not die blissfully. You will have to face yourself, for good. When that happens, you will have to surrender and accept the truth for what it is. Don't worry about what's on the other end: It will take you completely. You have to look inside.

@Space This year I've done a lot of Leo's guided meditation. Strong determination sits are most of my habit now. I'm currently learning Kundalini.

@mia_lea I started a project last winter and I was very anxious to see it's completion. For a year a half, things became much smother and it appears, it's going to be complete due 2018. But now I don't mind it very much, even though I'm in love with my work and I feel proud, there's aways something else, something next. Everyone has moments in their day. It's a lot better to accept these extremes, once they've happened. I'm no stranger. The problem is we're always looking for something in the future, something we didn't get yet. Always. But eventually with enough work, you'll sort that out. The first step is to recognize it for what is, part for the course, and keep moving forward. And if you're struggling with something in particular on your Journey, recognize this is actually a great opportunity to accept what's happening, because later you'll find yourself on a higher level. When that happens, it'll seem like it wasn't even that complicated.

This isn't boarderline zen devilry. It's quite simpler, do you realise yet, there's no way you can teach the unprepared? All you can do is to be compassionate to their suffering. Focus your self first. If you're goddamn triggered, reaccess why this is happening. You can't give them wise answers when you're engaging in low counciouss conversations. This isn't easy, I know, but sometimes the best approach is to let go.

@mia_lea True self improvement will make it easier as you go, which means the point of self improvement is to stop caring about your problems so much, in a suffering manner. When you improve one aspect of your life, it will be easier to overcome the next one, but bear in mind all of those challanges are designed to be overcome, only so that you get into a place of surrenderness. Which means you keep working but from an easier state of mind, without clinging so much to fix everything at once. Keep working and just keep your cool, it will get easier.

@Dan Arnautu Yes, good, like a koan. The idea is to be able to do both. Read between the lines of what I'll say next. In order to break through to reality, you must understand there is no intellectual reality, however, you must understand it intelectually. Theory is not reality. Reality only applies to you. Who reality applies to?

Remember what Leo says in Dark side of meditation. Your self, which is the entire collection of your thoughts, memories and experiences needs to re-arrange itself in order to grow. Self-actualization is largely focused, in one way or another, in building a good, polite and concise theoretical database. You pratice self improvement first and foremost out of compassion, for your self, others and the universe as a whole. To understand reality intellectualy is to know your theories, that'll help you guide yourself on this path and also be able to help others beginning their own journey But that's not all of it. The cool thing about theory is that it's also infinte in pratice. Meaning that, whenever you need, there's always so much you could learn

@Dan Arnautu Great stuff Dan.

@Dan Arnautu Fear, laziness, complacency, rationalizations. Emotional reactions to try and avoid reading. Take someone who plays nearly six hours of video-game a day. They can't bring themselves to read without being in pain. They're over stimulated. Many people can't concentrate on books because they're hooked to Facebook, Tv, socialization and so on and so forth. Watch out for people making up justifications for not reading because they can't concentrate. It's like asking someone to meditate, really. Advanced readers know it's largely entertaining and productive habit. Someone who's not accostumed will think it's really borning before they've got a handle on it.

@Richard Alpert Can't attend that, but I know a few friends who'd might want to. Have a goodie.

@Dan Arnautu 1 - High Windows by Philip Larkin. Larkin is a very interesting read. I know of no other poet that contemplated death as impactfully, philosophically and eloquently as he did. It's a shame many readers declined him since his Biographies and Selected Letters came out, since his death. 2 - Along with him , his bud Kingsley Amis, who wrote various hero's journeys which had to do with ordinary life. Not very unique situations, not very ambitious things, but great characters and funny stories about what could happen in anyone's life. My favourites are On Drink, The Folks Who Lived On The Hill and Lucky Jim. Alfred Jarry is not a read for everyone, but he often brought the ideia of "an infinite absulute" in between his works, for example, in the overlooked 'l'amour absolu', where the main character explores what is god and how could god be born out of the infinite universe, which is already itself. The genre of this work is often regarded as nonsenscial. 3 - I'd have to pick M.R. James's Ghost stories because it taught me how to write, and a Room of one's own by Virginia Woolf, because it taught me how to read. Good choices. Like Harry Potter too.

@Dan Arnautu Books are tools that either try and explain, implement or challenge your sense of reality. The non reader will say and often believe books are worthless. Because new information question your belief system. If it seems contradictive, they'll become lazy, defensive or scared. Nothing too complicated there. The seeker, the reader so do speak, will become tolerant to the idea he needs learning, reinforcing and theorical database, dealing with different opnions and so forth. Because there are lots of benefits from it, professionaly, psychologicly, artistcly or spiritualy. But you can't ride that bike until you've tried it a few times.

@Dan Arnautu Oh, haven't you seen The Buddha from TBS? Very easy to find. They talk in buddhist language and are very precise, eloquent and metaphorical about the Buddha's quest for the truth. A great soundtrack as well There's also a film/doc about a woman, a photographer which cannot speak. It's about how we interact with different projections and level of consciousness. I'll throw in a line, if I remember it.

Notice how you were always scared and lost before this path, this is usually the answer they do not tell you in the books - For good reasons. One is that you cannot grow if you submit to fear, it's all about being faithful or giving up. Two is that mostly when we're fearful and scared, it passes, and if you can accept that, you'll move into a place of no "scared and lostness" The key is self-forgiveness. I'm always fearful about this path, doesn't botter me so much now, though. 'Cause I've learned you've always got to inspire yourself again and balance your own rule setting. For many egos it will be difficult to embrace the paradox of growth vs. fear. Because it's still you growing and it still changes. If you've done something wrong, let it go. If you've failed your expectations, try and become aware of them. There's no magic solutions to self-recurrences, because it's still yourself. From another perspective, look: If you cannot be open minded about yourself, how can you open your mind about anything?

Preach as much as you can. That means talk less about it and move on to true self-actualization. In time I figured out it's much better to show results (growth, kindness and so forth) if you want to get your friends & family on the path. They'll be inspired if you no longer care about teaching and become peaceful about it

@Epiphany_Inspired Haha. Hey, don't be too hard on yourself. That's a great line indeed. Epiphany will always come from looking out and inspiration can always be found looking in. (-:

@The White Belt Not at all, I think. To have a good work ethic is to do good work wherever you're at. To build it means you do spend some time honing your skills and ressources, which can be fairly hard depending from where you're starting. When you find a purpose, you'll know that working at it might be effortful, but it won't be a problem. Just try and get your priorities straight and mesure your ressources. It could be a phenomenon, if it's not a purpose, but if it is, you'll keep coming back to it. And if it's Art related, you will need a lot of free time and energy. Which means reducing other stuff strategically. Cause Art might not pay in the beginning process.

@Dodo I haven't read that book, but I had a couple of these experiences and if I know what you're talking about, it'd be something among the lines of "being in touch with what's important, once again" or "remembering what you're looking for and not finding it" which is something very profound and difficult to describe... Good to hear it. Keep at it

1- I mess with arts, in various fields from music (Playing at local jazz gigs) to writing, drawing and producing short animation. 2 - It's feels great to see what people do out of my ideas and every now and then I see original work around from my friends, which is very inspiring to me. 3 - the money for creating something organic (from inspiring to good), and also, developing craftsmanship (I find every artist does something different and their real work is to find what doesn't work and what's really inspiring). 4 - I was very lucky to enjoy doing those things before knowing about "life purpose", but I think the purpose course would narrow it down to the most important one, and help me improve it; which ought to be writing fiction. I'm working on a few projects over the last year and a half and some of them are getting done. I'll definitely plan out to get the life purpose course at some point. Just lately I've been thinking a lot about experimenting with graphic novels, we'll see how it goes.