RickyFitts

Right, exactly. It might just put your mind at ease knowing that you've got pen and paper close to hand if you need it.

No harm in seeing it again.😂

Might be best to keep a notepad and pen nearby just in case, and if a really earth-shattering idea or insight comes you, note it down there and then. But I mean, only if it's really significant.

I like Homer's take on it, personally:

*persnickety

Looks like it's put that poor fucker to sleep too.

I sit in the half-lotus position (which is cross-legged, but with the foot of one leg resting on the calf of the other). I also sit on a folded-up blanket so that my hips are above the level of my knees (a firm cushion would also work), that's been a real game-changer for me because it allows me to sit comfortably upright without straining my back.

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:

That's an incorrect definition, a paedophile is a person who's attracted to pre-pubescent children, which is typically children aged 10-11 and under.

'If one is to be truly free, then one must truly want to be free of all attachments, aversions, and dependencies upon others to meet their emotional and psychological needs. This is challenging indeed to many seekers.' - Adyashanti

He sounds like an insufferable crank to me these days, quite honestly.😄 But I remember him talking at some event featuring Eckhart Tolle about an awakening experience he had, and it did sound legit - frig, can't figure out how to embed the link but it's below: https://youtu.be/uIaY0l5qV0c

Way too far, I'd have him about 93 million miles closer.

I can really relate to a lot of what you're describing, having been on a path of surrender for a long time now (my internal mantra has become, 'Not my will, but thy will be done'). Particularly the sluggish feeling and everything feeling like a chore, just making something to eat feels like an intolerable chore a lot of the time and I often don't have very much of an appetite anyway. Also the fear of the unknown, it reminds me of what Adyashanti said in one of his books (the one I'm currently rereading, funnily enough, 'Emptiness Dancing') about how enlightenment requires a blind and unpredictable release of control - I think it's the willingness to relax as much as anything, I meditate a couple of hours a day with the sole objective of keeping my body relaxed and still (ie in a state of non-resistance), that seems to help. Thanks for sharing this update, it's reassuring to know that maybe I'm not regressing as I'd feared I was.🙏

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.

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.