RickyFitts

I know it's a cliché, but I really do believe that we possess all the answers - a true spiritual teacher is only teaching us how to access the knowledge we seek, they're not trying to spoon-feed us the truth. If I have one piece of advice, it's to simply tune into your heart, because it's the heart that knows all, I feel. The problem is that trauma tends to cause the heart to contract, and a closed heart prevents you from finding the answers you seek, so you may well have to work on allowing the heart to soften and open. I know I've personally found this hugely challenging (though heck, I'm a geezer - you might not find it so challenging as a woman), but it's the heart of inner work (pun not intended), it seems to me.

All this talk of male strength, but what really takes strength, in my experience, is to acknowledge all the pain, grief, sorrow, loneliness, fear, etc. in you, to be open and vulnerable to those feelings, and to really enter into the visceral experience of them rather than constantly distracting yourself and employing one dysfunctional coping strategy after another so you don't have to ever feel them. It's important to be open an vulnerable with others at times, too, but it really starts with yourself - are you really willing and capable of being truly alone with yourself? Because if you can't be open and vulnerable with yourself, you sure as hell aren't going to be able to be open and vulnerable with others, and you aren't ever going to be able to experience the joy of connection that you truly crave, deep down. And this is the greatest challenge that most men face, because our default mode tends to be emotional repression. It's why men tend to be much more prone to heart-related illnesses than women, and it's damaging not just to men but also to society as a whole.

Did you exist in any sense before you imagined yourself into a finite existence? I guess really my question is, what even is existence? What about awareness, can awareness be said to exist?

Just had a look at quote #101 myself, it's got me curious too - Leo says that I only exist because I imagined myself into existence, but don't I have to exist in the first place in order to be able to imagine? Doesn't existence precede imagination?

'Ditto'? Or were you calling him a dildo?

I know, it's looks really naff compared to this place. Plenty of discussion on non-duality if you can look past that, though.

This might be of interest to you: https://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=165

In a sane world, getting an endorsement from this doink would be just one more nail in the coffin for Trump's election chances.

I've been listening to so much music recently, I swear I'm addicted. I always had a love affair with music, but I've had phases in the last few turbulent, trying years when I just fell out of love with it, had no desire for it - and a part of me felt so sad about it. As I'm slowly healing, though, I'm rediscovering my love for it - and I find myself wanting to share the music that stirs my soul with other people, the way my friends and lovers introduced me to music I would come to love deeply. In that spirit, my first choice is going to be a song that was shared with me by one of the most beautiful people I ever met, a wonderful Texan woman called Zulabelle - she introduced me to so much music, and I swear she never shared a song with me that I didn't absolutely adore:

Not quite, octogenarians are in their eighties and Trump's only 78, which makes him a septuagenarian. Though admittedly that doesn't roll off the tongue quite as easily. (I say 'only', obviously that's still pretty ancient and just one of about a hundred reasons why he's not fit to be in office.)

'The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name form.' - Eckhart Tolle

I struggled with this initially, too, I found that the trick was just to let the lens come into contact with the eye and then the eye would 'take' it, whereas trying to force it into the eye wouldn't work.

Great! A consistent meditation practice is one of the best things you do for your general wellbeing, in my opinion.

Investigate what's going on inside you when you do find yourself getting triggered, notice what sorts of feelings and emotions get stirred up in you when you think about this person, be very aware in your body; notice where in your body you might be feeling tightness and tension, and allow that inner resistance to release and let your body relax and breathe. As you do so, notice any feelings that might then arise, and just allow those feelings to be felt. This is likely not an issue that's going to go away overnight, so make this into a regular practice, deepen your bodily sensitivity.

Ahh okay, didn't know that - thanks! You've also got to press save when you're done, I almost missed that.

Thanks for sharing bro, excellent resources.🙏

I've just googled 'v.v meaning', and apparently in emoji form it expresses sadness or great dismay. Though maybe MuadDid just leant on their keyboard, Christ knows.

@Keryo Koffa I hear you. Don't mind me, I'm just feeling a bit cranky at the moment.

It's asking too much of people to expect them to read a giant wall of text like that, you need to have some consideration for the reader and break it down into digestible paragraphs.

That's nice of you to say, thanks.

@gettoefl Love it.

'Surrender isn't about having a certain experience. It's about simple, open vulnerability to whatever is, right now.' - Jon Bernie

@ivankiss Yep, absolutely. I actually think that the majority of the work we have to do in order to become fully actualised is done below the neckline, so to speak, on the level of the body of the emotions, and a fixation on the intellectual and conceptual side of things is likely going to lead to stagnation. But the realm of ideas and abstractions tends to feel safer to people, particularly men, compared to the often-chaotic, uncomfortable, and painful nature of emotions, and so people often get stuck on the level of thought.