Accepting Suffering (my new vid)

[Mu_]

A fan favorite, Suffering!  I hope in this video you walk away with a little bit more understanding of suffering, the normalness of it and how accepting it can in fact lessen it.

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by Mu_

[Shin]

I see you took notes of our comments ?

Good video ?

(Sorry I suck at complimenting though )

[Aaron p]

Is that you mu? That's something I've never considered

[DrewNows]

Excellent topic to discuss. I was contemplating suffering a bit today. Focus is such a huge cause of suffering. And acceptance and awareness is the true mastery for it 

great delivery as well, so clear 

cheers ? 

 

[sgn]

Less hair than I expected

[Shin]

6 hours ago, DrewNows said:

Excellent topic to discuss. I was contemplating suffering a bit today. Focus is such a huge cause of suffering. And acceptance and awareness is the true mastery for it 

great delivery as well, so clear 

cheers ? 

 

Zero resistance

Zero suffering

?

[Mu_]

8 hours ago, DrewNows said:

Excellent topic to discuss. I was contemplating suffering a bit today. Focus is such a huge cause of suffering. And acceptance and awareness is the true mastery for it 

great delivery as well, so clear 

cheers ? 

 

@Shin (thought you may want to hear this one shin)

This may be not completely related to this particular video but made me think of it when you mentioned focus.  Something I realized a 4-5 years ago about focus is it magnifies what your experiencing.  So if you have discomfort in the body and you focus on it with attention, talking about it, complaining in your own head, try to shift away from it or push it away (sure stretching may feel nice with muscle tightness), it just brings it more to light which can increase it.  This is also true with pleasant feelings/stuff, in which you can bring it more into focus and experience.  I played around with this for a few years and its really amazing how you can shift comfort/experience/situations internally just by where you focus your attention inwardly and outwardly.

I know for myself one dogma I adopted years before this was that one must rest in all their experience, sometimes even just focusing on it and letting it melt.  However due to mind conditionings such as focusing on our dislikes, discomforts, whats wrong, we often are making what seems to be going on more then it is and in this we are actually creating more of the suffering we think "just is".  And when I was adopting this just sit in the experience and focus on it so it melts, I was actually just sitting in my dogshit creation of my own mind, letting it just stink up my own body and mind, when in fact I should of been cleaning house (putting my attention else where and not creating shitty beliefs).

This is kinda a flipside and paradox on suffering that my video didn't address because they are almost opposite commits you have to explore, but thought maybe you could relate or benifit (I may make a video on it).

[DrewNows]

Focus/attention in of itself is absolutely fascinating to me

18 minutes ago, Mu_ said:

This may be not completely related to this particular video but made me think of it when you mentioned focus.  Something I realized a 4-5 years ago about focus is it magnifies what your experiencing.  So if you have discomfort in the body and you focus on it with attention, talking about it, complaining in your own head, try to shift away from it or push it away (sure stretching may feel nice with muscle tightness), it just brings it more to light which can increase it.  This is also true with pleasant feelings/stuff, in which you can bring it more into focus and experience.  I played around with this for a few years and its really amazing how you can shift comfort/experience/situations internally just by where you focus your attention inwardly and outwardly.

I’m now contemplating this in regards to the mental illness bipolar, with manic and depressive states. The amplification of sensation and meaning, firing of the neurons etc. 

then of course there’s an activity such as weight lifting where mind body connection is highly supportive to muscle recruitment and building. More experience often leads to better attunment of energy, proper breathing and functionality (all inward focus instead of outwardly fixated on the weight themselves) 

and the highest states of focus/attention seem to be an equal balance between the inner and outer in which they come together, possibly no more directed focus but complete attention on experience 

27 minutes ago, Mu_ said:

I know for myself one dogma I adopted years before this was that one must rest in all their experience, sometimes even just focusing on it and letting it melt.  However due to mind conditionings such as focusing on our dislikes, discomforts, whats wrong, we often are making what seems to be going on more then it is and in this we are actually creating more of the suffering we think "just is".  And when I was adopting this just sit in the experience and focus on it so it melts, I was actually just sitting in my dogshit creation of my own mind, letting it just stink up my own body and mind, when in fact I should of been cleaning house (putting my attention else where and not creating shitty beliefs).

This is kinda a flipside and paradox on suffering that my video didn't address because they are almost opposite commits you have to explore, but thought maybe you could relate or benifit (I may make a video on it).

Yes this would be cool to see. Possibly using focus to avoid suffering can be both good and bad at various times. Uncontrollable situations might require a shift in attention to end suffering while  other times it’s best to address what arises to move through it and learn to adapt 

[Shin]

I think as long as you are not sucked in the story of the suffering, focusing on it is very effective.

If you can't, then more awareness is required.

People that can't process their emotions because of this lack are stucked, because nothing will ever be solved until that suffering pass through them.

In my experience it is not possible, it creates a shadow, hidden resentment or depression.

 

[DrewNows]

57 minutes ago, Shin said:

In my experience it is not possible, it creates a shadow, hidden resentment or depression

Avoiding suffering you mean? Like by changing your focus? 

Is there situations where you can look from two perspectives and one creates suffering while the other doesn’t (would choosing the no suffering indefinitely create a shadow? 

[Shin]

12 minutes ago, DrewNows said:

Avoiding suffering you mean? Like by changing your focus? 

Is there situations where you can look from two perspectives and one creates suffering while the other doesn’t (would choosing the no suffering indefinitely create a shadow? 

I mean that distracting yourself to not feel the emotions/the pain, and not hearing/seeing the thoughts that create the suffering is just buying time until you don't have a choice.

Sometimes people buy so much time, that they only do that when they are dying, even then they can still not accept it.
Along the way, all kinds of shadows and nasty behaviors has been created just to avoid having to face it.

It's like a cancer really, except this one you can let it go and it disappear, but only if you have enough awareness not to create more suffering out of it and just be neutral about it, just looking at it dissolving naturally.

[DrewNows]

1 hour ago, Shin said:

I mean that distracting yourself to not feel the emotions/the pain, and not hearing/seeing the thoughts that create the suffering is just buying time until you don't have a choice.

Sometimes people buy so much time, that they only do that when they are dying, even then they can still not accept it.
Along the way, all kinds of shadows and nasty behaviors has been created just to avoid having to face it.

It's like a cancer really, except this one you can let it go and it disappear, but only if you have enough awareness not to create more suffering out of it and just be neutral about it, just looking at it dissolving naturally.

Ahh yes of course! I’m eating this up boi!!!

[ttom]

@Mu_ I made a video about suffering a couple of days ago. You've made some interesting points. I'll leave it here, as I feel like there are parallels between what we are communicating but also a few opposing ideas. Keep up the good work, It's not easy creating content.
 

 

[Knock]

@Mu_ @ttom Loved both of your videos, keep it up!

I used to follow the naive idea that if I could just solve all my problems, life would be good.

Ironically, by eliminating all problems (temporarily), you stop growing, which leads to more problems down the road. 

[Mu_]

16 hours ago, ttom said:

@Mu_ I made a video about suffering a couple of days ago. You've made some interesting points. I'll leave it here, as I feel like there are parallels between what we are communicating but also a few opposing ideas. Keep up the good work, It's not easy creating content.
 

 

Hey Tom,

I liked your video, although your first notion that you choose to suffer being a good thing seemed odd at first, but as I listened, it seemed like you were pointing to something along the same lines as I am and eluding to some aspects that I didn't touch on in this video (I may of in my yet to be released part 2 on suffering video, I don't remember atm).  I think you nailed it when you said that theres something in autonomous/making it easier when we choose our suffering, it makes it easier.  I recognized this side of the personality/mind/ego/self when I saw that when I was choosing to do this one type of Mixed Martial Art training it was fun, easy and enjoyable (but from the outside, it was pushing one to the limits a lot of the time).  The moment I did not want to choose this activity/lost interest, it was the most unenjoyable thing in the world.  And as you eluded to and I think your right, a person/individual perhaps by current conditioning suffers less (im adding this part in) is impacted less by making the choice (or at least feel like they are making the choice).

You also eluded to the suffering as something that its more then what it appears to be, but one only starts to see this when they face themselves/suffering and continue down the spiritual path.  This is deep and in my experience only gets deeper.  Is this something you learned from somewhere in particular, like Buddhism, just curious.