RickyFitts

Touché! ???

Yeah, the thread title was misleading, sorry about that guys - I probably should have titled it something like, 'Understanding Trauma', I reckon that'd have been more accurate.

This just sounds like spiritual bypassing, ironically. It's in our everyday lives that the rubber hits the road. How do you feel when you're alone without any external distractions? Do you feel at peace, or do you feel agitated, irritable, depressed, etc.? Do you exude equanimity and calm even in the face of turbulent situations and difficult people, or do you get triggered by them? All the spiritual clichés in the world don't amount to a hill of beans if you're still conflicted inside.

@puporing You're so welcome He's fantastic, he really is

'Without a shift of attention from concept to immediate experience and perception, spirituality tends to degrade into magical thinking, fantasy, and/or fanaticism. It is only by redirecting attention away from the surface level of the mind’s narrative, and towards the pure immediacy of the present, that we can break the trance of ego-identification and fall into conscious connection with our true nature.' - Adyashanti

I've experienced various aches and pains whilst meditating over the years, I remember one instance where I was hit by a wave of nausea in my solar plexus that felt fucking awful, it was so hard to sit with it (I did, though, and the feeling dissipated after a few minutes). Different parts of my body have felt rather tender at times, too, particularly in the region of my stomach and lower back; I've felt pressure in different parts of my body, too, initially it was in my head but I've also felt it most noticeably in my heart.

For me personally, it's a couple of things: 1) Two spiritual teachers I have a lot of respect for, the Buddha and Adyashanti, have talked about how they saw many of their past lives after they became enlightened; and 2) I've been told about many of my own past lives by two people I trust and have a lot of respect for. So I tend to believe in reincarnation, though I can't say that I know that it's a fact. I don't think it's especially important, either, I think life is all about this moment, right now, and obsessing about past lives can become just another distraction from what's really important.

You're so welcome, glad you found it helpful I'm afraid I don't, sorry about that! @Ulax Did I try what myself? Empathising?

I've been subscribed to this fella's Youtube channel for a while now and find him to be very wise, the following video is his most recent upload and I found it very insightful, so I figured I'd share it here:

The title of this song happens to be my real name, I always loved the way she sung it

For anyone who's having a hard time at the moment:

@Preety_India Sorry, Preets, only just seen your post now - bless you, a belated merry Christmas and a happy new year to you too

@EmptyVase Yep, that's a distinct possibility ?

Fantastic, love this - thanks for sharing I know that for me personally, relearning how to feel has been absolutely central to my spiritual growth; we tend to learn to shut down emotionally from a young age, and reversing that trend can be hugely challenging (certainly has been for me, Jesus). Sounds like you've had a big breakthrough though, fantastic!

@Gianna You're very welcome, really hope it's helpful for you @Zeroguy Absolutely, so, so important

I prefer his new look, looks more grown up to me. Like he gives a shit what I think, but, y'know.

Interesting. The sensation in my head isn't really painful for the most part, it's just pressure - I first felt this not long after I started meditating about eight years back, I started to notice a pressure like someone was pushing their thumb into the centre of my forehead. I believe this indicates that my third eye was becoming active so I consider it to be a positive development, ultimately, though over time it's also forced me to deal with issues in other energy centres (all the centres are interconnected, after all) which has been challenging. That's certainly a possibility, though I do actually practise 'Do Nothing' meditation (which you alluded to) so I think I'm all right in that respect. I had a serious issue with emotional repression so it's taken a long time to even begin to release those repressed emotions, but I'm making good progress with it. Agree completely, to date it's been easily the most effective approach to meditation that I've tried. I'll keep this in mind. Resentment seems to be more of an issue for me than blame (though I guess they're quite closely related), but I'm gradually working through it. Thanks, kind of you to say