mandyjw

In my experience awakening cures it spectacularly, and then you slowly fade out and go back to old patterns, but you see through them in a way you never did before. Then there's a lot of "work" or integration, or letting go of thoughts and beliefs. Perhaps other little awakenings and insights. Liberation might be the world you're looking for. There is no other possibility other than this one, except for that which is your power to freely dream and create, which is none other than the power of now and what is. But beliefs and patterns of thought have us noticing the lack of things and the absence of things. It's thought trying to think of what the lack of something is, so because it has to make it into SOMETHING, it makes it into the judgement of it's idea of what awful is or what missing out is. Ridiculously funny, but also tragic.

Are you looking for feeling within thinking?

@Preety_India Just a thought, do you have any creative, artistic outlets? One thing I've noticed is that a huge percentage of women on the path seem to have a deep inherent need to make stuff and create. Even if it's not a source of income, it's there and it can lead to other things. If you're not making time for it it can really cause you to resent your job or any other mundane or everyday duties in life. If this resonates let me know, cause I can suggest some other resources.

Diet is just one aspect, although it's hugely symbolic, and beyond symbolic. The thoughts we accept and take in are the thoughts we choose to consume and that create us and our world, just like food. Being careful to choose the thoughts and the foods that feel good to take in is important.

@Someone here It's the SAME thing! You only lack imagination because you think you're something other THAN imagination.

I just made a wish for enlightenment before I blew out the candles on my birthday cake. Totally worked. Want it, deeply, more than anything else, but don't resist it. See it in everything else.

Ok, so this is the part in your relationship with "God" where "She" pushes you against the wall and says "shut up and kiss me". You're too busy asking her what her middle name is and all kinds of ridiculous questions, completely avoiding what you both really want from the interaction.

If you like outgoing guys you'll get away with being shy because they will be the only ones who can interact with you. But if you like guys on the more shy, introspective, reserved side, you'll have to figure out how to get through to them. Which can be really fun. Try switching the dynamics up, flirt, joke around with shy guys and try to get them out of their shells. See a whole new side of yourself emerge. It's really easy for people to mistake shyness and social anxiety for snobbery and disinterest. We see that look of terror in someone's eyes as we walk up to them or say hello and assume that it's dislike for us, when really it's the terror of being confronted with talking to someone of the opposite sex.

No body is not an idea, that's why the idea seems disturbing. This is not something you see or understand and are done, it's a really long process of being honest with ourselves and going into feeling over thinking again, and again and again. "You" actually do a terrible job of protecting your body. If you really listened to it you'd be caretaking it more efficiently. "You" often stress yourself out more over some threat and damage your body, rather than taking appropriate intelligent action or letting the body automatically respond. "You" block intuition out with fear or the assumption that you or some other outside expert knows better. Go find a trail through the woods and run as fast as you possibly can on it. You will have to be completely immersed in your body, and completely present. You cannot think or predict with the mind which roots or rocks or trees are obstacles, if you get ahead of what is, you will miss the ones in your present experience and fall on your face. "You" are actually a threat to your body because of your obsessive need to protect it, you project dangers that aren't actually there and in doing so fail to respond to the present... the only time that any danger can actually hurt you.

That story about always alternating between walking on legs or sitting on your ass is absolutely riveting, isn't it? Are you sitting down for this one? Ok good. You're not.

You're already flying without the need for wings. But he said wings. He wanted wings. Don't ask me why.

Is it really true, as opposed to false? Or by what standards and from what perspective? Interesting that "know" and "no" sound the same. "Know" just has two useless letters on either end. Forget the tree. Through the screen I can project anything I want on anyone here. I can imagine them thinking or feeling any particular way based on my objectives and how I want them to reflect or reinforce the idea I have of myself and my understanding. Will I ever be correct? Will my approximations and lazy imagination ever come close to the actuality? Or is love and real respect interaction letting go of the belief that I know them or myself or even understand the subject we're talking about?

You don't take into account that "you" and "time" don't actually exist. "You" spend more time and energy wanting and imagining you as you are than you do with wings. Wings are likely a hindrance to the expression of life that is wanted from "you". However if you drop the you idea and look at a bird in the sky, there you go. "You're" already flying. That's the beginning of the open door of open-mindedness. Next might come the literal out of body experience of flying. Who knows? Anything could happen. What I'm talking about is already what's already happening anyway, but it's so obvious we don't give it attention. There are no things until thought says so. It's the old, "if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it does it make a sound?" thing. No it doesn't make a sound. No there's no thing until there's a thought of a thing. There's no bird flying until there's a thought of you and bird as two separate "things". What came first, thought or thing? "You" are already winged and flying. It all hinges on how you define you. That's the ultimate thought/thing.

You're not annoying me. Belief and confusion are codependent, like light and dark you cannot have one without the other. So, we create a system out of belief to dispel confusion, but instead it creates confusion. I think that's what you're experiencing. Beyond beliefs you are reborn every "moment", we aren't born when we think we are. So, Happy Birthday!!! Fresh clean slate, right here, right now.

There's no where to go, movement and body are the illusion of "life". Nothing "has" consciousness. It cannot be possessed or possess.

It's a famous Lewis Caroll riddle, "How is a raven like a writing desk?" There's no real answer.

How is a @Raven1998 like a writing desk?

Thing and thought arise together. One is material and one is not material. One says one is a thing, but is not a thing itself. So how would it know?

Yes, in fact no thought or sense of "body" is quite the same as the last, it's pure imagination because there's no reality it's based on. A thought of it is like a photographic frame taken of something that is past, except there are no frames actually just seamless motion. @VeganAwake I can't keep that state of mind because it's not a state of mind. In fact whenever I get hurt and really think about it, I pass out. I have no control over my state of mind. I don't have a state of mind.

Can it? Have you read/heard reports of out of body experiences? The body is a thought. It does not posses consciousness, there's no hierarchy.

Isn't it interesting how similar yet vastly different narcissism and self inquiry is? Narcissus ignores all others to stare back at himself only. Good or bad? I guess we can see ourSelves. I find this both beautiful and incredibly obnoxious sometimes. It's like throwing a boomerang in order to hit someone else and then smack, hits you right in the head. All you can do is laugh at yourself.

In my experience you can't be happy for that long if you insist on constantly rating and labeling yourself and people, no. There's an important difference here, we rate people based on the factors we've been conditioned by society and peers to think are valuable. Then there's inherent attraction that doesn't really stand up to logic that well and doesn't give a damn what anyone else thinks. We muddle and mix up the two and wonder why we aren't satisfied with our partners or can't find anyone who really attracts us. If what we really want is to be swept away with attraction, it's important to respond and be open to what really attracts you, and not what you've been taught by others or think should attract you. This is equally true if you have a partner or are looking for one. That honesty and authenticity takes a lot of courage and requires dropping the rating system which is only there to keep us safe from judgment. We seek to judge potential partners critically first so that judgement can't be turned on us by others later. Hope that makes sense?

Focus on suffering makes more suffering. Focus on what you want, health, happiness, community, love, etc gets more of it. If there is suffering in your own life, family, or your community or if something that happens elsewhere moves you to do something to help you empathize fully and take appropriate action, if there is appropriate action to take. An old classmate messaged me that her daughter was sick and they didn't have money to heat their home, so I sent her money. I am aware that girls in Africa don't get access to education like I have, so I have sponsored a girl from Kenya for the past decade. But thinking about these things and concepts outside of our experience is not actual and is actually just focus on our own suffering. The actual money I give to these things comes from having followed my inspiration and having started a business that brings in money. We have to get out of that place of suffering in order to act in a way that actually constructively improves these things. Change comes from inspiration not suffering. Act if you're inspired to do so. This is actualized.org for a reason.

A lot of the heart emojis used here feel just like the smiles you get from people when you wear a skirt that's too short to a Baptist church service.