The Pain Inside Ourselves

[Raptorsin7]

Is the entire spiritual seeker's path just an inability to sit with ourselves and be at peace? Is it our avoidance of the pain of the present when we just sit and feel whatever there is to be felt?

Can the spiritual journey even be defined this so simplistically?

Thoughts? 

Edited December 26, 2019 by Raptorsin7

[SoonHei]

@Raptorsin7 it's about surviving. About being there.

 

Whenever you sit still, the ego (you) are not there. And you don't like that. So you bubble back up and you are always successful is grabbing the attention. 

 

Until the attention knows to shun you out

[Commodent]

For most people, yes. They are just trying to find a way to cope with their pain.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_bypass

I've been there myself. I used spirituality as a tool for suppressing pain, and every time I felt pain I considered it a failure of my spiritual practice. But avoiding pain won't get you anywhere. The most growth comes from facing it directly, and accepting it as an innate part of the human experience. Surrender to it, and it becomes a thing of beauty.

[Surfingthewave]

@Raptorsin7 Yes. You're getting to the root of spirituality. 

When you sit and feel what arises in you, and face it, you become it. After lots of practice, you transcend it. 

[Lento]

You'd sit in silence until you'd realise that your entire life was nothing but noise. Then you'd get used to that silence until you wouldn't be able to hear no noise anymore. And then you'd get to realise that the silence is nothing other than the noise. There, you'd become liberated.

We're conditioned from birth to chase stimulations. We learn to let go of that conditioning with spirituality. We fall into the trap of clinging to a non-stimulating lifestyle. We, finally, let go of spirituality as well, and then we become free to live our lives the way we want, that is, in alignment with God's will.

[Raptorsin7]

@Lento It's more than silence for me at this point. I can sit in silence for hours, but i get lost in thoughts and sensations and repeatedly before just beginning again over and over.

But there is also pain in my soul. Like if i ask the question what am I running from, I can feel tension/pain/avoidance in the moment. The pain goes beyond the silence. I can be silent without going into the pain. But i'm pretty sure that pain within me is the root of my seeking/unhappiness. And I wonder if this is true for other seeks like me.

[Highest]

I remember, this woman. I asked her, "Why do you cut yourself?"

She said, not answering why, "I have one on my now little friend, you want to try?"

?

[Highest]

29 minutes ago, Highest said:

I remember, this woman. I asked her, "Why do you cut yourself?"

She said, not answering why, "I have one on my now little friend, you want to try?"

?

The same woman who would turn into a 6-year old girl.

Scary...

Fascinating...

Extraordinay.

Creation, pure Omnipotent will at play.

May God return her to Him when He see fits, leaving no trace of her.

Leaving only His Love, leaving only His Love.

 

[Lento]

@Raptorsin7

I didn't mean silence literally. Besides, it isn't true silence if there is still resistance. And yes, probably everyone has had the same issue at some point. Maybe some are still having it.

The pain you're describing is nothing other than the resistance to whatever there is. Maybe what there is, is monkey mind, but you don't want it, so you resist it and suffer. The counter-intuitive move is to allow it, and to be "that monkey" without judging it. Maybe what there is, is that you are afraid from something, but you can't let yourself be yourself, you can't let yourself run away because you think it's not spiritual to do so. But that's exactly the trick/paradox! You think that by resisting the running away you'd dissolve your fears, but it's quite the opposite. That fear is a red-herring, it's distracting you from being present with The Fear. The true bravery is to allow yourself to be whatever it needs to be, with complete acceptance. Even if what there is, is fear, allow and observe it without judging it. If running away it is, allow and observe it without judgement. That's how meditation is done. That's facing your fears head on. It's quite easy and simple, yet very powerful.

Being present isn't about being in a certain state. It's about allowing whatever state there is to just be, which is by the way, the only choice we have.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Lento