Question Time: What are Things You have seen You cannot "unsee" / have shaped You?

[DocHoliday]

This is something I'd be really interested to know from some of you guys. This is a question that has come up for me in the recent days as I have... come in touch with certain informational/video-material that had quite a big impact on how I now perceive people and the world. Furthermore, it also deepened my understanding a lot on the inisght of just how differently we individually perceive the world and how vast and diverse levels of consciousness can be and are.

[Forestluv]

Mu

[mandyjw]

Real love is like the light of the sun, it's not selective but falls equally on everyone. 

 

[DocHoliday]

Okay, okay, but perhaps apart from all the enlightenment stuff??

[Leo Gura]

One day I was at Wholefoods shopping for my groceries when I see a dude casually walking by me with a beard and giant DD cup tits.

If that doesn't shake your mind loose of duality I don't know what will.

[DocHoliday]

That's also not too bad? The kind of stuff I have seen, though, (at least referring to the last couple days) were things of a quite more tragic category. Like, a man with wife and kid who lost all his limbs and his face, children whose skin is continously falling off, other children born with unspeakable facial deformations and all other kinds of diseases, and so on and so on. 

And while/after seeing all these people, I was just so shocked, humbled, and emotionally touched... it's just quite indescribable what all these people have to go through. and especially in the context of Consciousness and non-duality and so on... just to imagine having to through all that yourself... man, that's some hard stuff. If anyone would ever be interested in finding out more about these people's lives and stories, go on youtube and search for the channels "Special books for special kids" or "Real Stories". 

Edited April 20, 2019 by DocHoliday
Reason for edit: typos and stuff

[Truth Addict]

@Leo Gura Lol! Complete non-duality 

@mandyjw Love can be gentle, and can also be tough 

@DocHoliday This thread. I looked back and I never found an answer.

This thread is definitely gonna shape me because it can't be unseen 

Edited April 20, 2019 by Truth Addict

[DocHoliday]

@Truth Addict I'm glad to hear that, even though I (perhaps?) know what you're trying to say. Surely, everything we see and experience is shaping us in a different way, but what I'm talking about are some truly major events/things one has either seen or experienced.

You know, for example winning the lottery, being sexually abused, flying to the moon, and whatnot... stuff that shapes you in such a significant way that you cannot ever go back to perceive the world the way you did before. Things that make you experience the world how you experience it specifically (since we all live in our own subjective realities of which none is the same compared to another, after all).

Edited April 20, 2019 by DocHoliday
Reason for edit: typos and stuff

[Truth Addict]

@DocHoliday

Yes, you got it right. ??

Everything we experience is life-changing.

But more to your point, I think that changes in lifestyle are very important.

I don't prefer having a fixed lifestyle for long periods of time, I think that by changing it you can become more aware and mindful, and you can have more profound experiences, and you can contrast your new experiences with the older ones.

I don't want to post certain past events that changed my life, because like I said, everything is life-changing.

Edited April 20, 2019 by Truth Addict

[mandyjw]

@DocHoliday Oh ok, most of those are from when I was a really young kid. Mostly they were pictures in National Geographic magazines of disasters. The most memorable one wasn't that horrifying, it was a picture of the McDonald's arches and there had been such a flood that the water was over the buildings and up to the yellow arches. The idea that that could even happen just blew my mind and the McDonald's arch was a measure I knew, something I could relate to. 

I remember several other stories of horrible injuries and violence that i couldn't have imagined before. 

Another was as a teenager, falling in love with someone I shouldn't have, spending the year as friends, finally telling him and being rejected and then being told a few years later that he didn't even remember me at all. 

[DocHoliday]

@mandyjw Oh wow, okay. Thanks a lot for sharing this:) 

[Hellspeed]

Seeing a dead baby in the garbage area with 5 years old, traumatized me until in my 30'.

[DocHoliday]

@Hellspeed Holy shit... that must have been really horrible. You know, sometimes I wonder how I would perceive other people or the world if I hadn't experienced certain things, but it just doesn't really work, does it? Certain things just get engrained so deeply in one's psychology and perspective upon the world that it just becomes kinda impossible to truly step out of it. 

[now is forever]

@DocHoliday there are some physical issues that seem to change ones perspective to the world enourmously. especially regarding identity. 

face reconstruction is thanks to the beauty industry kind of developed right now, but face implantation is still very difficult and still not state of the really good art. so once lost it’s gone, how to coap with that?

as well as people really have to struggle that out with the world if they are born hermaphrodite - there was a time when they all grew up as girls, because it was the easiest surgical intervention. how beautiful is it that they can live both identities without being ashamed. same goes for transsexuals.

especially under the aspect that even though they are born like that, identity forms through growing up/aging.

what happens if identity gets lost. what happens if parts of identity where suppressed. what happens if identity is gifted/allowed?

Edited April 20, 2019 by now is forever

[DocHoliday]

@now is forever Is this something you now want me to answer? Or is it something you just wanted to put out there?? Because if you want me to answer it then I must say that I couldn't really understand what you were exactly saying, due to the message's convoluted structure.

[now is forever]

15 hours ago, DocHoliday said:

@now is forever Is this something you now want me to answer? Or is it something you just wanted to put out there?? Because if you want me to answer it then I must say that I couldn't really understand what you were exactly saying, due to the message's convoluted structure.

mhhh what was i referring to? if you want to answer to something i‘d ask you:

what is identity? are there aspects to identity that are more about identity than others?

for example if you loose your eyesight, you loose your eyesight and the ability to move freely but loosing identity would then only be a byproduct, identity will remain in most parts. but loosing a face is mostly about loosing identity. that’s why it’s so shocking - is it still me if i don’t recognize myself? that would be the question.

Edited April 21, 2019 by now is forever

[DocHoliday]

@now is forever Okay, seems like a valid question to me:) Well, in the end, “identity” is what you make of it. It’s what one identifies with. And depending on how strong the identification with something is, that determines the degree to how firmly one believes to be that characteristic/aspect/thing/trait/object/whatever it might be. 

[now is forever]

7 minutes ago, DocHoliday said:

@now is forever Okay, seems like a valid question to me:) Well, in the end, “identity” is what you make of it. It’s what one identifies with. And depending on how strong the identification with something is, that determines the degree to how firmly one believes to be that characteristic/aspect/thing/trait/object/whatever it might be. 

yes, there is more to it than meets the eye. there is a struggle everyone would go through if it happened to them.

Edited April 21, 2019 by now is forever

[DocHoliday]

And, in this thread’s context, one’s experiences and memories certainly also represent something that one either creates a strong identification with - or not.

The thing is, though, that it’s just impossible to unsee or “un-experience” certain things one has seen or experienced. And, therefore, those things do shape the way one perceives, sees, and experiences reality. There’s no way around that. The only question is whether or not one can lovingly embrace one’s experiences or fight them, internally or externally. 

That’s about as much clever stuff as I can come up with about that right now?

[now is forever]

14 minutes ago, DocHoliday said:

And, in this thread’s context, one’s experiences and memories certainly also represent something that one either creates a strong identification with - or not.

The thing is, though, that it’s just impossible to unsee or “un-experience” certain things one has seen or experienced. And, therefore, those things do shape the way one perceives, sees, and experiences reality. There’s no way around that. The only question is whether or not one can lovingly embrace one’s experiences or fight them, internally or externally. 

That’s about as much clever stuff as I can come up with about that right now?

yes, what happened happened. the question is if you get feared by it or if you find out about the content of your fear and then understand it’s not really about you - it’s about what you have seen. it’s not your pain it’s theirs. question is will you take it or reject it or will you sooth it?

Edited April 21, 2019 by now is forever