Important for those on this journey

[Max_V]

 

It is prudent before tearing down a house, that you have a provisional house in the meantime.
- Rene Descartes

 

I've been with this community since I was about 16 (I'm 22 now). At that age I started getting very heavily involved with spiritual practice; I meditated every day for multiple hours, contemplated, read tons of books, etc. Parts of this journey was very helpful and got me a solid grasp for things I now want to spend the rest of my life trying to figure out. But, I was not ripe yet for spiritual awakening. I came into this work with a background of serious mental health issues and, of course, this really affected how spirituality unfolded for me. Multiple times when I was met with a slither of Truth, my mind went into uncontrolled hysteria and I had panic attacks for days. Unable to function and the most anxious I've ever been. Now, retrospectively, I can look back and see why all this happened the way it did. I did not have a solid foundation to fall back on, and I came at this all from a broken mind. Though I didn't take any psychedelics, I think calling it all a bad trip isn't that far off. 
Throughout my time, I've seen the same thing happen in this community and others. People getting seriously hurt, mental health problems, bypassing and avoiding important areas of their life in the name of spirituality. All this had led me to now wanting to make this post. I think I found something really important that most interested in spiritual and personal development work should do before they get really deep.

Create a tenable philosophical position from the perspective you currently have.

This, I think, is crucially important, especially for those that have mental health issues. If you don't have a set way of how to make decisions and make sense of the world from your current perspective, any spiritual work has a huge potential of throwing your entire being into uncontrollable disarray and will open you up to serious mental health issues and their consequences. Like Descartes beautifully put, you need a provisional house to reside in, while you are building a new one from the ground up. Unless you have thick coat and perhaps a campfire, those cold sharp winds of nights on the streets aren't exactly comfortable.

For me personally, I had to come from a persective of nihilism and deep suffering. Existentialism and their solutions have given me that temporary house to stay in. I turned hopelessness and the harshness of the world into personal hope and kindness. Creating my own meaning in the face of meaninglessness has saved my life.

I strongly advice those of you that can find yourselves in my message to create those conceptual framerworks and personal meaning that can you fall back on while you explore life. 

All the best,

Max

[RendHeaven]

Beautifully said.

We can't expect the cleansing fires of spirituality to actually burn away our impurities unless we have the adequate firewood necessary to keep that fire strong.

Firewood in this case would be something like mastering survival, being grounded, etc.

Otherwise we just char ourselves with a flimsy fire and we just end up more hurt.

Edited August 18, 2022 by RendHeaven

[Godishere]

I'm a firm believer in awakening later in life, not early 20s. Too many attachments. It's just a belief ofc. I definitely wasn't ready for eternal, non-dual consciousness. The ego needs to be weakened and surrendered over a period of time

 

 

 

[Razard86]

2 hours ago, Max_V said:

 

It is prudent before tearing down a house, that you have a provisional house in the meantime.
- Rene Descartes

 

I've been with this community since I was about 16 (I'm 22 now). At that age I started getting very heavily involved with spiritual practice; I meditated every day for multiple hours, contemplated, read tons of books, etc. Parts of this journey was very helpful and got me a solid grasp for things I now want to spend the rest of my life trying to figure out. But, I was not ripe yet for spiritual awakening. I came into this work with a background of serious mental health issues and, of course, this really affected how spirituality unfolded for me. Multiple times when I was met with a slither of Truth, my mind went into uncontrolled hysteria and I had panic attacks for days. Unable to function and the most anxious I've ever been. Now, retrospectively, I can look back and see why all this happened the way it did. I did not have a solid foundation to fall back on, and I came at this all from a broken mind. Though I didn't take any psychedelics, I think calling it all a bad trip isn't that far off. 
Throughout my time, I've seen the same thing happen in this community and others. People getting seriously hurt, mental health problems, bypassing and avoiding important areas of their life in the name of spirituality. All this had led me to now wanting to make this post. I think I found something really important that most interested in spiritual and personal development work should do before they get really deep.

Create a tenable philosophical position from the perspective you currently have.

This, I think, is crucially important, especially for those that have mental health issues. If you don't have a set way of how to make decisions and make sense of the world from your current perspective, any spiritual work has a huge potential of throwing your entire being into uncontrollable disarray and will open you up to serious mental health issues and their consequences. Like Descartes beautifully put, you need a provisional house to reside in, while you are building a new one from the ground up. Unless you have thick coat and perhaps a campfire, those cold sharp winds of nights on the streets aren't exactly comfortable.

For me personally, I had to come from a persective of nihilism and deep suffering. Existentialism and their solutions have given me that temporary house to stay in. I turned hopelessness and the harshness of the world into personal hope and kindness. Creating my own meaning in the face of meaninglessness has saved my life.

I strongly advice those of you that can find yourselves in my message to create those conceptual framerworks and personal meaning that can you fall back on while you explore life. 

All the best,

Max

100 percent true. Its unfortunate you had to go through what you did but this post is critical. I hope everyone can read it and understand the importance of it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oaiqh4OEtAw&ab_channel=Actualized.org

[Pacific Sage]

Great post ?

Loving every incident, situation and thing can be a great provisional house from my POV. 

[RickyFitts]

12 hours ago, Max_V said:

Throughout my time, I've seen the same thing happen in this community and others. People getting seriously hurt, mental health problems, bypassing and avoiding important areas of their life in the name of spirituality. All this had led me to now wanting to make this post. I think I found something really important that most interested in spiritual and personal development work should do before they get really deep.

So true. It initially came as a surprise to me to see that people in spiritual communities could be amongst the most unconscious folks you'll ever meet, the lack of self-honesty and self-awareness in some of these people can feel hugely frustrating and there's just no getting through to them. Spirituality can be just another thing people hide behind in order to avoid facing certain harsh realities.

[Breakingthewall]

First, to work very seriously on building a solid ego capable of adapting to the world, of being independent, strong and self-confident after being tested in many seriously hard tests. then deconstruct it. For some it can be a relatively short process, and for others it can take decades, depending on the cards you have been dealt in the game. Shortcuts doesn't work 

[Michael Jackson]

13 hours ago, Godishere said:

I'm a firm believer in awakening later in life, not early 20s. Too many attachments. It's just a belief ofc. I definitely wasn't ready for eternal, non-dual consciousness. The ego needs to be weakened and surrendered over a period of time

 

 

 

@Godishere

Awakening has nothing to do with age. I am awake 24/7 and I am "only" 22. There are no requirements for awakening.

Awakening means there is no ego and there is no self, and you are conscious of it. Only thing that exists is God/Love, which is what reality is.

[LfcCharlie4]

Yep, agree. 

No harm in doing both simultaneously imo, but I do feel people shit on 'Stage Orange' around here while having little income, poor diet / exercise, lack of routine, little discipline etc. 

 

[Godishere]

@Michael Jackson fair enough, you're the minority who can handle losing your self before letting go of attachments. The average 22 year old is not ready to awaken (obviously). 

Also, if you were awake 24/7 you wouldn't be typing here. This is separation in actuality. What happens after you awaken? You put yourself back to sleep. That's the entire point of life.

[Oppositionless]

yess. 'the end of suffering' what a load of crap, no offence.

get that depression taken care of, seriously.

tried to fix that shit with existential questioning, didn't work