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the patanjali yoga sutras say that it is permanent it can be permanent in your daily life and then permanent after you die it says that you can enter the dimension of absolute consciousness where you become completely separated from your mind and then there is nothing left to propel you back into rebirth to fulfill forgotten desires...

cool what is taste without a taster? I thought the answer was nothing because each one cannot exist without the other but above you're saying there is only tasting and no actual taster doing it I don't quite understand...

interesting, I'm female and I am definitely more interested in people, I actually make people so I need to know a lot about them lol I became interested in enlightenment because of people at first I just needed to fix my life which was mainly problems (suffering) with certain people, it was not spiritual at first at all, but it led me there I'm also very interested in reality and how things work and in finding what is true and what is not true but I'm not interested in those things just to know I'm interested in them because of what they lead to which is bliss, that's what I want is some of that the same for men?

I sit there for 25 minutes a day, about twice that on the weekends because I have more time in the morning but I'm definitely not meditating the whole time, it's mostly just me reminding myself that I'm supposed to be meditating lol

hmmm you might try to then just accept the fear, hello fear, I see you there, you are a feeling, it's fine for you to be here, thank you for coming you don't have to examine it or try to get rid of it, it's fine, it's just a feeling but if that doesn't exactly work then you can just say "I don't want to do this" and switch to another thought you can have one ready for when it happens, if you're meditating then you can just gently go back to your focus object, or if it's during the day you can go to anything, I used to make grocery lists in my mind, plan out what I would do with my hair, just anything to retrain myself away from negative thoughts it used to take me longer to get back out of negativity, but with practice I'm getting a lot faster a mantra might help you, just don't examine your fear feelings, just go straight to your mantra instead "I am at peace because I know the truth" or you can make one up that is the opposite of fear "I am calm" or something hope that works for you or at least gives you some ideas towards something that will work

so you try to accept your thoughts, then you become afraid, then you try to get rid of the fear but instead you go into the fear and examine it deeply? is that right?

I love gratitude, you can't suffer with anything if you're thankful for everything this is my favorite gratitude saying "thank you for everything, I have no complaints whatsoever"

being thankful works for me a lot of the time, if I have an unwanted thought I try not to get caught up in the thought but instead I try to accept it fully, I say it's okay to have this thought/feeling, then I try to be thankful for it, I just totally look at it and say "thank you for this thought, thank you for everything" and it actually works or partially works a lot of the time, then I'm able to return to my meditation if I'm meditating or I return to having neutral/good thoughts if I'm going about my day so you doubt yourself and others, that's okay, those are thoughts and feelings, you are something else, you say thank you for those thoughts and feelings, you go back to being something else

yes, I asked myself that for my whole life why did I go through such horrific suffering? it was because I never wanted to live a superficial life do I want the blue pill? no way! how can having a "good" relationship or a "nice" car compare to being on a quest to see the face of god? lol!

sounds super fun!

I just started doing sitting meditations again, my goal is to become as much like an enlightened person as possible, even if it's just a little bit but I want to go as far as I can the book I'm following says to choose a divine being as an object of meditation but I'd like to choose sounds instead what do you think of using sounds, mostly deep chanting sounds as the object of meditation instead of a visual object? can you focus on more than one thing at once, like breathing and a visual or sounds and a visual? thanks!

@PsiloPutty nice, okay thank you

when I do it right after drinking a cup of coffee or tea it seems easier also if I can go outside for a walk after a nice cup of tea

this is really working for me, sometimes I cry if I do it really good I just start listing everything I'm grateful for my hair looks fantastic the sun is shining or the rain is beautiful I have a wonderful son etc. then I say "thank you for everything, I have no complaints whatsoever" (I got that from eckhart tolle who got it from somewhere I forgot) it's so powerful when you can actually feel that there is truly nothing to complain about, amazing (now to just get that to last haha)

if it's only on one side and especially if there is also some hearing loss on that side then you should just call your doctor and ask if you need to be seen for that I think there are about 300 causes for ear ringing so it's hard to know what's going on in there, doctors don't even know more than half the time, probably nothing but I would at least ask my doctor if it was me

I definitely notice that almost all my thoughts that are blocking me have something to do with me being right about something or me communicating my point of view and having other people understand me and agree with me I was abused as a child and I noticed that I have no care in convincing my mother (the abuser) of anything, I'm fine with anything she thinks I have thoughts about other people understanding me though, like a need for them to know that I'm not the one who did something wrong, she is the wrong one not me, and I have thoughts about how I want people to know what I went through and I want them to understand how bad it was I also have really silly thoughts too, they are the same, but on a different level, like if I'm over charged at the grocery store that silly though will pop back into my mind dozens of times for days after it happens and the thought says the same thing "I am right, they were wrong" so I guess that's my ego that wants to be right but I'm not sure exactly what to do or what to realize to move past this...

stretching for just a few minutes a day can make a difference and relieve pain so yes on the yoga or any stretches also, he needs good shoes, good desk chair, good posture... a physical therapist would help to make sure he's doing the stretches right

negativity is just you identifying with negative thoughts, that's all it is the goal is not to avoid negativity, the goal is to not have negativity cause turmoil in your mind so you know it's happening but it doesn't bother you any more if you do want to remove turmoil from your mind and move on toward seeing more truth, then it's stupid to cause and be the victim of more suffering - because then you would be doing the opposite of what your goal is... if you're not ready for that then you will just naturally suffer some more until you are ready

I had some really similar questions just recently and the same realizations that some people have posted here suffering is not bad - it can be a great blessing once you realize that then instead of identifying with suffering you use suffering when it arises to create more and more space between yourself and the suffering that you used to be before you saw that you are not that you can (if you want to) move on to eliminating suffering so that your mind becomes free from that turmoil and you can continue on to more from there I don't think creating suffering is the right way to say it, more like suffering is the default for most humans from birth - so we are creating it but it's not like it's a conscious decision there is no source for suffering, we just suffer because we believe what we think, it's normal once you've suffered enough you can switch out of default mode and see more different stuff there is only a source for NOT suffering so you don't have to do anything, just let go the experiences of joy and suffering are different so that we know what each one of them is if there was nothing but pure joy all the time there would be no way to define it, we define things by also knowing what they aren't

I love it! haha

lately I've just been contemplating and clearing my mind whenever I'm waiting for water to boil, walking by myself, wake up in the middle of the night, etc. when school starts I'll be sitting for 30 mins in the early morning (I hope!) but years ago, over 20 years ago, no internet, no teacher, I just had one book that I found in the library "the psychology of mystical awakening" I tried to follow the practices in the book on my own I did yoga stretches for half an hour then I sat in meditation for half an hour I also played sanskrit chants of the patanjali yoga sutras and spent some time every day reading my book over and over again (I eventually bought a copy) a lot of stuff happened because I did that, but at the time I just had no idea what it was and also since the stuff happening never happened while I was meditating I didn't even really think that was the cause but I now I know it was! things like all of the sudden I would start laughing and crying at how perfect the universe was! lol but I thought I had too much caffeine or something so it does work even if you have no idea what you're doing, the trick for me is to stick with it, I've been on a 20 year break to do some more suffering, my mind loves taking me in the opposite direction lol but maybe I'm ready now...

I was thinking something similar, how people who do drugs are searching, maybe they don't even know they're searching much less know what they're searching for (personal experience) but I know what I'm searching for now (relief, truth, cool realizations...) also I find it very interesting that many states of "whatever you call it, mystical states" or whatever are very similar to taking drugs I actually feel like I've taken codeine sometimes if I can just get right in there, anyone else notice that?

an individual soul or one soul?

it's better to assume the context of abuse when someone says something and also says that it's abuse a normal parent doing one thing can be completely different from an abusive parent doing the same thing plus people who are abused are often doubted so it's better to be the one who doesn't doubt them <3

oh! I love everything about what you just said thank you for this making this post - this is so weird every morning I come here and read exactly what I need to hear