What are favourite methods of inquiry and questions?

[Yimpa]

When you are having an uncomfortable experience, allowing the experience in question to unfold with radical openness and curiosity.

For example, I thought I was having a panic attack a couple nights ago. It got so bad that I was close to speaking with the crisis hotline (I’ve called them several times long ago when my life was getting extremely challenging). However, as soon as I was about to speak with one, I hung up the phone; I made a clear decision this time to create an opportunity for new learning. I accepted what I was experiencing, and allowed anything to happen.

A few moments later, a memory spontaneously sprung up of a time (a few nights earlier) where I helped one of my closest friends out when they were feeling hopeless. This memory alone was enough to completely snap me out of the so-called panic attack.

Another lesson I learned from this is I don’t have to specifically speak to the crisis hotline to get support. There’s also the Fireside Project, which is a psychedelic support line. In retrospect, I realize that the panic attack was actually me introspecting real hard after I’d just altered my cannabis medication. So speaking to someone who is an experienced trip sitter makes much more sense than me framing the experience as desperation. 

[Davino]

2 minutes ago, Bazooka Jesus said:

But what you are getting at can probably only be understood by someone who has already gone through the process or at least gotten to the point where they start to see the bigger picture.

The seed is already planted. Truth has is power even though it does not click immediately. 

 

4 minutes ago, Bazooka Jesus said:

Exactly. And the answer is not a verbal one... it is beyond concepts.

It is indeed. I find that answers are usually some kind of unknotting in my mind that allow it to return to it's natural symmetry, but not an end in themselves. Reality is much juicer when it is naturally being itself, whatever that means

[Salvijus]

The practice of self-awareness that I like to do is whenever I experience any negative emotion (frustration, impatience, envy, discomfort, anxiety, attachment, avoidence etc.) I try to explain how it came into being and trace it back to its source.

One thing that is helpful to know is that its source is always fear. So for example some information has triggered you, the game is, can you trace it back to fear that caused the trigger to emerge? .

This practice has increased my understanding how the ego functions on a much deeper level. And it's very rewarding practice because you get to learn a lot about yourself aswell, and why you respond the way you do. 

Edited November 20, 2023 by Salvijus

[Davino]

6 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

For example, I thought I was having a panic attack a couple nights ago. It got so bad that I was close to speaking with the crisis hotline

Hope you are doing better. We are all going through our own things. We are not perfect and it takes courage to speak and be honest with ourselves and others.

8 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

A few moments later, a memory spontaneously sprung up of a time (a few nights earlier) where I helped one of my closest friends out when they were feeling hopeless. This memory alone was enough to completely snap me out of the so-called panic attack.

When we help others we help ourselves.

9 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

Another lesson I learned from this is I don’t have to specifically speak to the crisis hotline to get support. There’s also the Fireside Project, which is a psychedelic support line. In retrospect, I realize that the panic attack was actually me introspecting real hard after I’d just altered my cannabis medication. So speaking to someone who is an experienced trip sitter makes much more sense than me framing the experience as desperation. 

This remind me about an incident yesterday. I've been going through a kundalini awakening that is rewiring my whole body and was triggered by malt + cannabis and is lasting for several days as for now. Yesterday I had some joint left over from the trip and decided to finish it. The kundalini and energy in my body was given a boost to keep working. When I went to the bathroom, after peeing I flushed with my whole being literally gave it all, cleaning myself, in that pressing and feeling the water go down the whole toilet system. Yet it started to do some weird noises with the water, it was 3 am and I live with other people in the next rooms. I don't know why, I convinced myself that I broke the toilet and the water was falling down somewhere as the sound was very intense. I thought I would wake up everyone, while literally going through an intense Awakening. Some objectively low time after but subjectively long time after, the toilet stopped the sound when the water filled itself and silence returned. I was left there in my bed like: wow I've constructed all this in my mind. It was a humbling experience. It is also hard to communicate and people receive shuch stories when shared, it is something you live in the end, but we all live in some way or in the other, so intimate yet so shared.

[Yimpa]

@Davino Thank you, I am doing better. In fact, I have another date with said person this weekend (I called them my closest friend, even though I’m still conflicted on what we are, )

She’s helping me explore my feminine side more and is really supportive on my journey. It’s ironic you mention kundalini, because I didn’t know that it meant (according to Wikipedia):

Quote

In Hinduism, Kundalini is a form of divine feminine energy (or Shakti) believed to be located at the base of the spine, in the muladhara.

 

[An young being]

8 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

@Davino Thank you, I am doing better. In fact, I have another date with said person this weekend (I called them my closest friend, even though I’m still conflicted on what we are, )

She’s helping me explore my feminine side more and is really supportive on my journey. It’s ironic you mention kundalini, because I didn’t know that it meant (according to Wikipedia):

 

50 minutes ago, Davino said:

Answers make sense when they come out of direct experience and understanding, till then all answers are no answer really.

Did you mean

Her?

[Yimpa]

@An young being that’s a beautiful recontextualization, and very much accurate. 

[Davino]

10 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

Thank you, I am doing better. In fact, I have another date with said person this weekend (I called them my closest friend, even though I’m still conflicted on what we are, )

She’s helping me explore my feminine side more and is really supportive on my journey. It’s ironic you mention kundalini, because I didn’t know that it meant (according to Wikipedia):

Having a loving partner pays dividents the rest of your life. I'm grateful for having an amazing girl besides me. I feel like we complement each other.

 

Kundalini for me is when you become so conscious that the most embodied nature of your self is taken over by energy in pool like motions healing all your being and evolving the whole human vessel. I also intuit that it segregates some psychedelic chemistry by using the inner lab of the body, yet this is speculation. What I do feel is profound healing dissolving all contractions and knots in my body and mind, working towards an efortless flow of energy. Kundalini upgrades your baseline consciousness, after the whole proccess ends your ground of consciousness is forever upgraded. You are more conscious, every moment and you cannot fall from that checkpoint so to speak. You feel alive and energy feels femenine so it has this flavour. You really feel life and reality, like cleaning a mirror.

[An young being]

1 hour ago, Davino said:

 

 

9 minutes ago, An young being said:

Did you mean

 

When you wish to wield power, you have to be selfless, or you will destroy everything.

[Davino]

@An young being This hits in so many levels. Funny that my partner is very close to Kali and I am very close to Shiva. I mean all of these are archetypes, unknotting styles we could say. When it clicks then it clicks, otherwise you end up looking at pixels or making stories.

 

5 minutes ago, An young being said:

When you wish to wield power, you have to be selfless, or you will destroy everything.

First state comes, then space opens, from that powers florish, when it becomes second nature, beingness is felt, superconsciousness then must eventually come. From superconsciousness a convenient ecosystem happens arround you and through you in all levels.

These is true in microcycles and macrocycles

[An young being]

1 minute ago, Davino said:

This hits in so many levels.

1 hour ago, Davino said:

 

True, the same image can be interpreted in many number of ways on many levels depending on the biases of our mind.  This was my own interpretation with some help since Kali is a fierce form of shakti who personifies power, and Shiva sacrificed himself up selflessly to stop her from destroying everything.

[Loveeee]

@Hojo @PurpleTree You don't know what I'm talking about do you 

[Twentyfirst]

What is it that is looking out?

What is thought and why do we think?

[Osaid]

I think a big trap is contemplating magical and mystical things when it is actually the very human things you need to question. Why do I feel social anxiety? Why does this memory make me feel embarrassed? Why does this thought make me feel fear? etc.

All thought-based delusions ultimately have an anthropomorphic flavour to them since it all comes from the human capability for intelligence. You can sniff out metaphysical delusions by looking at what someone says and seeing how "human" it feels.

I don't think it is useful to inquire about yourself in relation to nebulous topics like "freedom." If you are being honest and practical, that thought form never really occurs in regards to a self-image. When it comes to self-referential thoughts, what does occur are things like "I am jealous of this person", "this makes me feel sad", etc. Question the thoughts that you actually find yourself caught in, not the impractical overly philosophical stuff. The stuff that is genuinely relevant to you and your emotional state is where your ego actually occurs. That is where you look and question.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Osaid

[PurpleTree]

2 hours ago, Loveeee said:

@Hojo @PurpleTree You don't know what I'm talking about do you 

You talked about god 

[RickyFitts]

What do I desire the most?

[Vibroverse]

I just write how i'm feeling and what i'm thinking down briefly, and then let it go as much as i can, meditate into it, so to speak, as much as i can, and then write my current feeling and thought, and so on. It is like me tricking myself into a meditative state by simply asking my question or telling my problem, and then letting my inner being, so to speak, give me a clearer and more satisfying answer by relaxing. 

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by Vibroverse

[Rosso Carminio]

I just do this; which turns into a "not doing" of course once you actually do it.

If you notice the attention going to whatever thought or feeling: drop it.

This way whatever object appears in the field of awareness I just know it's not me and attention "dies off" so to speak. What remains you can't even say what that is until after the practice; and you could call it "darkness" or "void" for the absence of any single thing. I'm not sure this is self inquiry but it's working out for me...