Thittato

Back home after a 3-month ashram stay in Brazil Started the day with 45 min of meditation. I arrived yesterday, and immediately signed up for a month a the local spa-bath where they have sauanas and cold-baths again. I'm in northern europe so it is winter here and I'm going to get back into the routine of winter-bathing as soon as I have acclimatized. I also met a woman early in my stay in Brazil, and she became my girlfriend, and supposedly she is going to come to visit me already this weekend, but I'm sensing she is having some doubts because she doesn't confirm yet that she has bought the ticked she has said many times that she is buying. I think the relationship could potentially easily break down now that we are no longer in the same place, but I'm going to do my best to keep her as I'm navigating this transition, and if we could make it so that she comes for 3 weeks as planned that would be really awesome, but if not, I'm going to do my best to navigate this transition with as much wisdom as I can. Unfortunately I'm going back to my job already this evening, but I have my routines for plugging back into life here in my hometown. Already I have: - Been back to cold-exposure in the spa-bath. - 45 min of meditation. - Re-established my guitar-studies.

I'm in Brazil as part of a pilgrimage to drink Ayahuasca. I live in an ashram for 3-months, having a break from my life in Europe, and here we have regular ayahuasca ceremonies as part of the schedule together with other activities like yoga and meditation. So in this ashram I've met a woman I have very strong chemistry with, and we have been dating for a month now. However, for some strange reason she is very sceptical about ayahuasca, even though she visited this ayahuasca center (she came here for massage therapy). So her sceptisism has been turning into a problem for us. She can be pretty unreasonable too, questioning whether I'm addicted to this stuff and so on. I really like her, and there is very strong chemistry between us, but this issue is almost turning into a deal-breaker. We are going to spend our 3rd weekend together in a row this weekend, staying in her appartment from friday to monday, and we have a lot of fun stuff planned. I know this is probably going to become an issue again at certain phases of our interaction that will probably almost feel like breaking-points of our relationship. I'm wondering for this time if I can rather try to navigate our conversations and activites around other things rather than accepting intellectual explorations around the phenomena of ayahuasca. I'm a reasonable and responsible guy, so I give good explanations for everything she is asking about, but her sceptisism and negative attitude remains no matter how good explanations I give. Any tips on what to do? It is pretty sad that what would otherwise almost have been a perfect relationship, or the start of a really good relationship, can be sabotaged by such a silly disagreement like this. If she had not been such an awesome person in so many other ways it would have been impossible to tolerate her ignorance on this topic, but it is hard to let her go just because of this when I like her so much.

1,5 hour meditation this morning. Very nice. I just arrived at an ashram where I'm going to spend some time, and it is very peaceful here, so it was super-nice to land with this morning-meditation.

45 min meditation today as well. I think maybe I'm starting to burn through that layer of "resistance and emotional pain" that has been present lately. At least there is more a feeling of empowerment regarding it, and less victimhood, which is very nice.

45 min meditation today as well. Resistance and emotional pain.

45 min meditation today. Very nice flow. When I was getting ChatGPT to summerize my understanding of meditation, he didn't quite get something crucial about this point: 8. From Challenge to Empowerment: - When facing resistance or victimhood, delve into the experience, recognizing its impermanent nature, transforming challenges into sources of empowerment. What my experience is is that when I go really deep into something challenging happening in my experience that challenging experience, the energy of it, gets transformed into nutrition for mye spiritual development. It is extremly interesting. What I resist the most is actually food for my well-being. So there is frequently an emotional sense of vicimhood in my being, sort of like "Why is this happening to me?" But when the resistance drops and I go fully into it with my meditation technique, I start to groove on those sensations.

Yesterday: 45 min meditation. Very good flow. Today: 45 min meditation. Resistance and distraction.

45 min meditation today as well. I was discussing my Vipassana Meditation Methodology with ChatGPT before I sat down today, and made him summerize how I meditate: 1. Acknowledgment and Resistance: - Identify challenging emotions, resistance, or victim roles within yourself. 2. Shift from Resistance to Acceptance: - Release resistance and embrace the experience without judgment or avoidance. 3. Objectification through Vipassana: - Utilize Vipassana meditation to objectify and explore the layers of your mind. 4. Recognize Perceived Solidity: - Understand the perceived solidity of experiences, such as pain or challenging emotions. 5. Tune into Impermanence: - Cultivate an awareness of impermanence through Vipassana, seeing the dynamic, flowing nature of sensations. 6. Integration with Chi Energy: - Notice the intertwining of impermanence and chi energy, viewing them as different facets of the same unfolding process. 7. Peeling Layers Like an Onion: - Continuously peel layers of the mind, revealing deeper aspects for exploration and understanding. 8. From Challenge to Empowerment: - When facing resistance or victimhood, delve into the experience, recognizing its impermanent nature, transforming challenges into sources of empowerment. 9. Apply Insights to Daily Life: - Extend the insights gained through meditation into your daily life, influencing how you perceive and respond to both inner and external experiences. 10. Consistent Daily Practice: - Maintain a consistent daily meditation practice to stay attuned to the ongoing process of self-discovery and transformation.

Yesterday: 45 min meditation Today: 45 min meditation

45 min meditation today as well. Super-nice :-)

45 min meditation today as well. So nice :-)

45 min meditation today. Same momentum as yesterday. Very nice.

1 hour meditation this morning. Really amazing sit. Chill, presence, ease, well-being, simplicity.

45 min meditation this morning as well. This meditation was super-awesome. Among the best of them. Super-concentrated, and with a natural momemtum that was there as soon as I sat down. And then I went to work and the flow in doing my job was really nice today. After that I spent 4 hours at the local spa-bath. Cold baths, warm baths, saunas, etc. So nice.

45 min meditation this morning. Very nice session. Been going through some emotional processing lately, and it is very obvious how much meditation supports this processing.

45 min meditation today as well. Very nice :-)

45 min meditation today as well. Very nice. I've been integrating praying into my spiritual practice. It is very nice. Feels like I'm more and more turning into some kind of multi-religious/spiritual person drawing upon inspiration from all religious and spiritual traditions.

45 min meditation today as well. Very nice. My spiritual practice feels very focused these days.

45 min meditation today as well. Very nice :-)

45 min meditation today. Sooo sweeeet. Then a long period in the spa with saunas and cold baths where I also did 10 sun salutations.

Yesterday: 3 hours in the spa - saunas, warm baths, cold baths, etc. I was sitting or lying and meditating for the most part. Today: 45 min sitting meditation.

This weekend: Meditation retreat with bhajans Monday: 10 sun salutations Today: 1 hour meditation

Yesterday: No meditation Today: 45 min sit in the morning. Sweet.

45 min meditation today as well. Good flow, but also some dissonance.

Did anyone post this yet? I didn't know Gabor Maté was a Jew and a Holocaust survivor himself. Here he explains how he became a Zionist in his teenage years dreaming about this Jewish state, but how he later learned how that dream was a nightmare for another people already living there.