How Do I Stop Trying To Understand Reality Intellectualy?

[Prabhaker]

Just now, Dan Arnautu said:

But to say that they are always peaceful on the surface. You don't know that. You are assuming that.

i live that way, that's the way I live in a relaxed state.

I have done weight training. When i transformed from a weight trainer to a meditator , i know what changes happened in me.

[Dan Arnautu]

@Prabhaker I understand, but this is where the problem is. You can't say that just because you are relaxed on the surface all the time that this should be generally the same case for everyone who meditates or has switched from weight training. I know people that feel more anxious when they stop training rather than not (even many months after they had stopped). Not everybody responds the same. 

And to say that you have always been peaceful since you started meditating, it makes me doubt your spiritual practice. Either you were very purified from the beginning, you didn't have any addictions or you are/were dead inside (from the beginning), lol. Most people encounter emotional labour together with their meditation practice and that is a fact, not an assumption.

Thanks for your input though!

[No-Thing]

@Dan Arnautu I know the place you are at. It's a madhouse. But maybe, you can do nothing to make it go away. Maybe it is not in your power to stop it. You are on the right track though. The next step is going to be scary. When I was there, I was done with it all. Done with life, done with spirituality, done with everything. Thoughts that were running through my head were, "I am done with it. You (whoever that is) can have it all. I don't care if I die, I don't care if I live. I surrender" I lay in bed for hours on end at night time and the next morning back to work. I dropped everything that wasn't absolutely necessary to do and just lay in bed and surrendered. A couple of days later it got better. I felt like part of my personal will had broken. I still mean it. Whatever the universe wants me to do, I do. I don't have any goals anymore. I don't have anything I strive for. I just stay present and wait for the universe to show me my next step. I have some ideas and preferences but I am okay with whatever. ( I feel really good though, still a bit scared of the unknown but slowly getting the hang of it.)

Here is a tip. Whenever this madness starts just focus on your heart or focus on the space around you or be in the now. Is there any confusion in the now? Is there anything unclear right here and right now? Is there a paradox right before your eyes? No, only in your mind. When you are in doubt always go with your direct experience right here right now.

 

This also really helped me. Someone from this forum sent it to me:

 

[Prabhaker]

3 minutes ago, Dan Arnautu said:

And to say that you have always been peaceful since you started meditating, it makes me doubt your spiritual practice.

No, it was a long and difficult journey. I suffered during transition for years.

[Dan Arnautu]

@No-Thing What helped me come back to a place of peace was starting to always keep some awareness on the inner body (since yesterday) so I don't get overwhelmed by my surroundings. Because, I saw that if I am not aware of the inner body, the emotions creep up into the mind and create and endless vicious cycle. It really, really helps. 

Today I was calm pretty much all day and barely had any thoughts, and those that did appear, I could see them and detach from them.

When I was outside before I started keeping awareness on the inner body, I felt overwhelmed by the outside world and the vast space that creeps into my sense of being. Staying with some awareness in my body while also looking mindfully at the outside world really brought some balance and don't feel so scared anymore. This is a tip I read from The Power of Now yesterday.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Dan Arnautu

[No-Thing]

@Dan Arnautu :-) In the end it is really really simple. Our mind is just not ready for that amount of simplicity so we come up with all these techniques and stuff to figure out. But there is nothing to figure out. 

My gym routine crumbled on this path. That was really hard for me (initially). I lost a lot of weight. How does it effect you? How do you deal with that?

Sometimes I went to the gym and I just had the feeling, "I don't want to resist anything". But I also came to the conclusion that I resist resisting :-)

[Dan Arnautu]

@No-Thing Now when resistance comes, I just start to love it and watch it, nothing more. And then it dissapears. Remaining conscious and doing it as much as necessary is the hard part.

[Dan Arnautu]

42 minutes ago, No-Thing said:

 

 

I'm listening to this now. It's awesome! 

[Dantas]

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

[Little Plant]

@Dan Arnautu Have you considered experimenting with P S Y C H E D E L I C S? Can lead to huge spiritual awakening on a small doses, if Truth is already understood so deeply intellectually with no resistance. Get to learn and remember Yourself and Reality on these Playful Miracle Fuckers and Awesome Messengers from God, They will give You full knowing of Truth or whatever other question one might want to Know  

[AstralProjection]

Try some natural supplements to help clam your nerves. Tea like rooibos tea, chamomile tea, magnesium, TMG, st. John's Wort, etc.

[Emerald]

On 6/15/2017 at 10:54 AM, Dan Arnautu said:

All of these thoughts are going haywire into my head. Since all of my certainties were shattered, it's really hard to get comfortable again. It's like I'm punching myself in the face constantly and have no control of my hands, but in this case with my mind.

I can relate to this so much that it hurts.

I know what to do, and yet I don't seem to want to do it. Basically, you have to train yourself to become aware of being sucked into thoughts whenever it's happening, and then force yourself to cut off the internal conversation. It will keep coming back again and again, and you just have to create a practice of letting go and not getting sucked into the mental chatter. So, it's a matter of practicing and not falling into your old patterns through cultivating awareness and not being lazy. It's like cultivating "letting go" muscles.  

It's like an annoying person who won't leave you alone and keeps trying to spark up all kinds of conversations with you. You just have to stop talking to that person and ignore them and walk away. Talking to them strengthens their ability to drag you into conversation. You can practice this in meditation but you'll want to do this throughout the entire day to truly let go of this tendency. 

[Natasha]

On 6/16/2017 at 8:07 AM, Dan Arnautu said:

This is a tip I read from The Power of Now yesterday.

Eckhart Tolle's material is great for times like this. At some point in the past I binge-watched his vids and read his books in a matter of days. Also, check out his interviews and guided meditation vids.

[Prabhaker]

24 minutes ago, Emerald said:

I can relate to this so much that it hurts. I know what to do, and yet I don't seem to want to do it.

Then don't begin with the mind. You can start with the physical body, become aware of each and every action of physical body. If you are fully aware of the activities of the physical body you will begin to feel the movements of the second (etheric or emotional) body.

When you begin to be aware of the processes of the physical body you will begin to understand the movements of love, anger and hatred within you; you will become aware of their presence. Until you grasp the movements of these emotions that rise from the second body, all you can do is repress them. 

[Emerald]

Just now, Prabhaker said:

Then don't begin with the mind. You can start with the physical body, become aware of each and every action of physical body. If you are fully aware of the activities of the physical body you will begin to feel the movements of the second (etheric or emotional) body.

When you begin to be aware of the processes of the physical body you will begin to understand the movements of love, anger and hatred within you; you will become aware of their presence. Until you grasp the movements of these emotions that rise from the second body, all you can do is repress them. 

I find that to be very true. And it's the unawareness of the emotional/bodily reactions that our mind automatically triggers thoughts. Then, we lose sight of the body emotions and bypass them because we get distracted by the mind. 

[Dan Arnautu]

@Morrtiz @Emerald @Prabhaker @Dantas Well, I started to see that these thoughts are like a koan (a riddle that zen masters usually give to their disciples to prove them that the mind can only be confused and that the mind can only go crazy if it tries to fit the universe withing it's limitations). It's somehow trying to teach me surrender.

The most common thought/paradox I encounter is how can I be an individual and the whole thing at the same time. Then I feel really overwhelmed and terrorized. Also the solipsistic thought that I may be just myself in this reality. I see that it's natural that one may experience this. Who wouldn't? You are going where few people are ever willing to go. Naturally you will get scared and have panic attacks if you are not developed enough or aware enough that those are just emotions that feel real IN THE MOMENT.

I sometimes have glimpses when I think I cannot find myself and start to try to find myself and then say I am everywhere I look, which is more than overwhelming. It's like trying to fill in a glass of water, but the water is in such a high quantity that it even exceeds the space in the room. See the thought loop you can get into though? But then I start to breathe and I come back. I start to feel the inner body and see the limitations. Someone with no mindfulness practice at all will go bollocks with all this spiritual stuff. Might even kill themselves. No joke!

My mind can only give up when it sees that it CAN NOT know and that it is possible that it may never know intelectually.

I like the analogy Sadhguru gives: "So, you have a bicycle. It starts to go by itself. You get scared. It starts to go even faster. You freak out. It starts to go even faster than that. You experience terror. But, when you know how to ride the bicycle, the faster it goes, the more pleasurable it is." 

This is how we experience our mind without enough mindfulness practice or by losing ourselves so much in theorizing that it is ruining our day to day life.

Edited June 17, 2017 by Dan Arnautu

[SOUL]

Start by stop trying to stop things that just are what they are, just let the mind do what it does and peacefully observe. Trying to stop the mind from doing what naturally does is like trying to stop the waves of the ocean from coming ashore. Being in stillness of peace while observing is the most influential exercise we can 'do' to bring that peace to the mind, ego and the whole of our consciousness.

Edited June 17, 2017 by SOUL

[Dan Arnautu]

8 minutes ago, Morrtiz said:

@Dan Arnautu Well said. I love the moments when I understand that even "the universe" is just some stupid thought. I'm much happier without a damn universe lol

Lmao 

[Dantas]

@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?

Edited June 18, 2017 by Dantas