Marriage/relationships as a spiritual practice

[Freyah]

@Leo Gura :     "You might determine how much your husband loves you by the size quality and perfection of the diamond he gives you. And of course your husband will be judging you based on the perfection of your beauty so he will judge your body and your face and your boobs and everything...... and your personality and rank you on a scale on one to ten, and depending on where he ranks you, he'll give you a bigger diamond (chortle) and what will be missed is perfection as an absolute..... perfection with s capital P"

..... Jeez! Interesting Leo! I realise I've taken it of context but the fact you even use this very fickle example of a married couple in your latest video seems revealing.

Spoken by man that has likely never fallen deeply in love with another and wanted to spend their life with them....?? This decision for most on marriage (Im intuitively guessing)  is not based on lust or 'having lots of sex with a hot woman on a regular basis' but something much deeper and out of our control. I hope you have this experience Leo- or it's possible it's not your path, but it is for many others. A marriage is also a spiritual practice, as is raising children. Most people choosing marriage have looked past the physical and felt something transcendent with their connection to the other (whether they recognize it as such or not) There is much self development to be had in relationship with spouse and raising children. It changes you permanently.... and to make it work your heart has to be wide open. Of course this deep and spiritual aspect of mundane family life is usually over looked. There can be lots of suffering. And it can also be our path to wisdom.

(Also those difficult relationships with parents that don't understand you are also part of our practice...)

Just sayin'..... because you often talk of relationships with the opposite sex in shallow ways ('hot women'... 'getting lots of sex'... 'meeting hot woman in bars' .... pick up') and I haven't seen any evidence of you recognizing this divine part of relationships. How would you ever find a spiritual equal picking women up at a bar.....??! Rushing intimacy? When you have had this kind of connection you won't bother with bars, surely.... how unsatisfying. 

This comment relates to (my projection of) your projected YouTube persona. I've watched all your videos since mid 2016- they are awesome- extraordinary in fact. But .... deep connection within a relationship is also a way of opening the heart and accessing the divine, and it seems your talks and advice don't show any evidence of knowing this.

Maybe this is a facet you've overlooked... ?

 

 

 

 

[Dumb Enlightened]

That depends of your goal buddy, if you want to build a healthier and better personality, it can be really good,

But if you want to awaken, it can help you, but not in the way that you think

For me my relationship is useful to spiritual practices, because I can see how the ego mind gets triggered, when my girl complains for example, I can see the desire to respond, to argument, to be right, arising, then I can let go of it, in the end all attachments will be gone

[Jkris]

@Dumb Enlightened how do remain identified with nothing ?

[WelcometoReality]

@Freyah I agree with what your saying. A spouse and children are great for spiritual practice. They tend to push your buttons and also allows intimacy and opening up your heart to them

About your post. You seem offended which might indicate that there is a belief at work here.

[SgtPepper]

I whole-heartedly agree!

 

[legendary]

6 hours ago, Freyah said:

A marriage is also a spiritual practice, as is raising children.

And yet, Buddha had to leave his wife and newborn son behind, because he know that he would never be able to find the Truth if he stayed in the comfort of his marriage and palatial home.

It clearly depends on who you are and whether the relationship actually helps you in growing spiritually.

6 hours ago, Freyah said:

Most people choosing marriage have looked past the physical and felt something transcendent with their connection to the other (whether they recognize it as such or not) There is much self development to be had in relationship with spouse and raising children. It changes you permanently.... and to make it work your heart has to be wide open. Of course this deep and spiritual aspect of mundane family life is usually over looked. There can be lots of suffering. And it can also be our path to wisdom.

The world isn't even at stage Green yet. Most people get married out of their need for comfort and relational security. Virtually nobody prioritizes spiritual growth as a value in their relationships.

[Leo Gura]

@Freyah I use those shallow examples basically to mock many stage Orange relationships/marriages. It's said tongue-in-cheek. I like to amuse myself with silly examples. Silly, but still true. It shows the absurdity of the typical human life.

Of course it does not have to be that way. Relationships are great and I'm all for deep intimate spiritual relationships. If you manage to actually pull that off, you'll be a hero in my eyes. That's challenging stuff.

[mandyjw]

I don't know why something so common in our culture is actually one of the most challenging things to pull off consciously. It kind of seems like a mean trick. 

[Dumb Enlightened]

6 hours ago, Jkris said:

@Dumb Enlightened how do remain identified with nothing ?

You don't need to identify with nothing, you just drop all your identification little by little, and in the end nothingness is all that remains

[Jkris]

@Dumb Enlightened ???

[JohnnyBravo]

Osho has said there are two paths to the mountain.

Path of love, or the heart.

Path of effort and concentration.

I believe Leo falls into the second path or this is the path of his choosing.

In the end, at the mountain, you gain both love and total awareness.