RickyFitts

What do I desire the most?

@Leo Gura In the past, you'd get an error message after a few seconds sometimes (I forget what the exact message was, it's been a while since it happened), seemed like it was terminal at that point. Maybe it would have embedded if I'd waited a bit longer, I don't know.

I know, I said I had to delete the link before refreshing the page if it didn't embed because it wouldn't work on the second attempt if I didn't. Anyway, seems to be working fine at the moment, thank goodness.

Works fine for me. Embedding links could be problematic even before the crash, sometimes I'd have to delete the link, refresh the page, and try again. It would usually embed on the second attempt.

The browser you're using could be a factor, going off what others have said, which one are you using? I'm on Microsoft Edge which mostly works fine for this forum (though I still can't embed links).

I tend to believe it due to the testimony of people whose opinions I respect (the Buddha and Adyashanti both saw their past lives when they became enlightened, for example), and also because of what I've been told about my own past lives by people I consider credible. But it's only a belief, so I don't see much value in dwelling on it. I'm really only interested in what I know for sure.

No sense in trying to force yourself to feel a certain way, far better to simply acknowledge how you actually are feeling and then sit with what you're feeling and feel into it - there's often a lot going on underneath the surface feeling of, say, jealousy or depression, but we tend to get caught on that surface level. See if you can feel what's going on at a deeper, more vulnerable level, and allow those deeper feelings to be felt, and expressed if necessary.

Are you ticking the 'Remember Me' box when you log in?

It can do, because awakened energy is inevitably going to bump up against any blockages in your energy system (and pretty much everyone has blockages) and reveal everything in you that's unresolved - beliefs, traumas, repressed emotions, and so on. And working through these unresolved issues is a big part of spiritual growth, I've found, though people usually don't want to do this sort of inner work.

Really? Didn't know he had all these health issues, poor guy.?

I was wondering if it was connected in some way to his cycling, I know that he was pushing himself so hard at one point that he ended up laid up in bed for six months on a couple of occasions, completely debilitated.

When I was suffering with severe, debilitating anxiety and depression, I was all too aware of what I could and couldn't handle, believe me. And anyone trying to cajole me into doing something I couldn't handle would have been given very short shrift.

@Yimpa If there's one thing I've learnt during my own very difficult process, it's the importance of having compassion for myself and honouring my needs, rather than forcing myself to do things that I can't currently handle. Best of luck overcoming your issues, brother.?

It's a question I've asked myself many times. In the end, though, I know that there's no going back, I can't un-see what I've seen. It can feel both incredibly frustrating, and also utterly terrifying when you start to get a sense of what full awakening entails, but deep down I just feel like it's unavoidable. The awakening process is incredibly challenging for lots of people, because it means waking up to everything that's out of alignment in your life, and it means you have to work through all the unresolved fear, grief, anger, etc., within yourself. People often try to figure out ways around it, but in the end you see that there isn't a way around it.

It's no great mystery, the Buddha wasn't proclaiming himself the saviour of humanity. The Jesus story is the egotist's wet dream.

Certainly can do, it sure did for me. Maybe more of an issue for men, we do tend to bottle things up more than women.

Maybe the hardest thing, I've found, is being honest with ourselves about how we really feel, because so many of us have become so conditioned to repress our emotions, and actually fear our emotions, that we really don't know how we feel, deep down, underneath any negativity we may be feeling. For me, this is the area where most people need to do the bulk of the inner work, so keeping an emotions journal could be beneficial for a lot of people, it could help them to become aware of and then release emotions that may have been trapped in their systems for a long time.

You can just manually delete the bits you don't want to quote, as though you were editing your own post.

@Judy2 I can relate to that to a painful extent, I completely understand that mindset.

I had this issue when I was suffering with chronic anxiety a few years back, I realised after a while of observing myself closely that it was my mind's unconscious attempt to deal with strong, unresolved emotions - it's a dysfunctional coping strategy that I probably developed from a very young age. I really had to develop sensitivity in my body in order to overcome this issue.

Think my brain just short-circuited.

I thought what he shared was very heartfelt, and I was deeply touched by his humility. I've felt for a while now that Leo's been on a slippery slope, and I quite honestly didn't believe that he was capable of writing a blog post like that, but it seems that his deep suffering has helped him to grow as a human being, and that speaks volumes about his character. It takes a big person to hold their hands up and admit to their shortcomings, and to do so in such a public way just makes it all the more admirable. @Leo Gura Wishing you all the best, I know just how lonely and painful life can feel so hopefully you're doing a little better now.