mandyjw

Attraction isn't a choice but we seem to have the experience of having choice. For example if you went to a library to pick out a book to read for fun, it seems like you are making a choice. However your past conditioning, past interests, recent events, the design of the book covers, the available selection and the design, colors of the book covers and it's position on the shelf all factor in to your "choice". Really you didn't make a choice at all, even though it seems you did. The cars I think are nice, the breed of dog I have, the colors I like the wear are all based on a lot of past conditioning and chance events and what I prefer changes over time. I used to absolutely detest country music, but after years of hours and hours of having to listen to it on long bus rides in high school I started to like a handful of songs and then listened to it by choice for a year of my life. It was the most shocking thing to me that I could actually come around to liking a type of music I had absolutely hated. I think sometimes attraction and reaction is all about wanting to embody something. Attraction is just when there's no resistance to it so it feels expansive. And usually we aren't conscious of what it is we want to embody/integrate about it or why, we just feel the attraction. Any reasons we try to come up with it are shallow and shortsighted, whether it's coming up with reasons for why we like the color blue or why we like a person.

@zeroISinfinity Ha more crow synchronicity. Weird energy today. Went and hiked and saw a lot of things reminding me of just what i needed to be reminded of just when I needed it. I wrote a kid's story awhile ago about a crow who thinks she is bad and has an epiphany when she sees one of her black feathers, and notices that the quill is white. There were two crow feathers dropped right in the middle of the trail in two different spots. If you go down in the woods today you're sure of a big surprise If you go down in the woods today you'd better go in disguise Discovered Christine McConnell today on youtube. So inspired by someone who creates the kind of life she wants and is passionate about, even if it seems very impractical and sometimes silly.

Yep, it's all about power, status and emotional unavailability. This picture... *whew!*

Try to brainstorm creative and inspiring ways to promote your work, if you can get excited about the ideas themselves as an extension of your creativity they will feel a lot more natural when implemented. In the beginning there's a lot of just creating for the sake of creating though, so it's important to focus more on enjoying the process rather than thinking ahead to the end result too much. If you become successful you will look back with nostalgia for these days because there's such sheer freedom to create without having to consider the possible repercussions and expectations that having a larger audience or fan base can bring.

Eh, just take the inspirational part and leave the rest. I'm going to have, "You can do anything"- Donald Trump put up framed on my wall for inspiration.

Awesome! Feels really good to clear up misunderstanding about ourselves.

You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh

@Forestluv yes, more accurately God didn't tell me, I just realized it, so Leo is right. All a memory can ever be is a story and we never do tell them quite right, or maybe we do and that's all they ever really are.

Ask the sky, wind, birds, trees, mushrooms, etc.

@Leo Gura The only real intent of a game is to just to have fun.

@Leo Gura Well, when I add in your signature quote it brings us round full circle doesn't it?

@Leo Gura I'm the Devil, God told me. It's a long story. I was a devout Christian. You cannot spend you entire life deathly afraid of the Devil and afraid of being bad, pursue awakening and not realize "I am the Devil" without all hell (and bliss) breaking loose. Not two. You are not two.

@Keyhole God and the devil also only reside in one's own imagination. Imagination itself is actually collective and owned by no one over another though.

Echo and Narcissus live in everyone's psyche. The real power of stories is to imagine that you're not. I can tell you some wild ones.

@remember A lot of people have mildly allergic or inflammatory responses to eggs, that response is the inflammation. It's not the food that's causing it itself, but it is as far as that individual is concerned. When I eat eggs I get extreme stomach pain for an hour or two. I can eat small amounts in baked things, but it's likely that there's still some inflammation when I eat them. I don't need medical medium to tell me that. Diet advice is good to get ideas and guidance but you just can't get around experimenting for yourself. We are all special little snowflakes. I found the celery juice to be very helpful. It's a pain to buy two armloads of celery every time I shop and clean the juicer everyday but it's worth it in my opinion. Still going with it.

You aren't two, so trying to separate yourself and rid yourself of anything just won't work. You can become aware that that's not what you are all along and then there's no need to do anything to separate a "you" that isn't actual from something you think is wrong with it.

“The Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert talk about the two "hungers". There is the Great Hunger and there is the Little Hunger. The Little Hunger wants food for the belly; but the Great Hunger, the greatest hunger of all, is the hunger for meaning... There is ultimately only one thing that makes human beings deeply and profoundly bitter, and that is to have thrust upon them a life without meaning. There is nothing wrong in searching for happiness. But of far more comfort to the soul is something greater than happiness or unhappiness, and that is meaning. Because meaning transfigures all. Once what you are doing has for you meaning, it is irrelevant whether you're happy or unhappy. You are content - you are not alone in your Spirit - you belong.” Laurens van der Post meaning (n.) c. 1300, meninge, "sense, that which is intended to be expressed," also "act of remembering" (a sense now obsolete), verbal noun from mean (v.). Sense of "significance, import" is from 1680s. meninge The meninges are three protective membrane layers surrounding the brain and spinal cord. They are composed of the pia (closest to the CNS), arachnoid, and dura (outermost layer), and contain blood vessels and enclose the cerebrospinal fluid. mean (v.1) "intend, have in mind;" Middle English mēnen, from Old English mænan "intend (to do something), plan; indicate (a certain object) or convey (a certain sense) when using a word," from Proto-West Germanic *menjojanan (source also of Old Frisian mena "to signify," Old Saxon menian "to intend, signify, make known," Dutch menen, German meinen "think, suppose, be of the opinion"), from PIE *meino- "opinion, intent" (source also of Old Church Slavonic meniti "to think, have an opinion," Old Irish mian "wish, desire," Welsh mwyn "enjoyment"), perhaps from root *men- (1) "to think." From late 14c. as "have intentions of a specified kind" (as in to mean well). Of a person or thing, "to be of some account, to matter (to)," by 1888. Conversational question you know what I mean? attested by 1834. I don't mean to be mean if you know what I mean. Oh man. I've read and looked at that word so much it doesn't have any _______ anymore.

You create (imagine) your reality, you are created by your reality and you are one with reality. There's no line or difference between imagination and reality. Noticing synchronicity is an effect of becoming conscious of how "this" is unfolding. It sometimes lets you know you're on the right track. Try to think of it like the white fog line on the road. It's a helpful guide but I don't put my focus right on it for very long, I focus on the actual road where I'm going, not the line on the side.

Aww... Rumi agrees. Actually I don't think that's quite how he meant it, but who knows? "Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober would worry about things going badly. Let the lover be." - Rumi

@Zigzag Idiot Yes, it seems to be an incredibly important step to take. I made a new neurosis out of being "present" and having conscious thoughts or no thoughts. I wanted to judge myself as the one who was doing that so I could be ok. At some point you get really up close with the "uncomfortable" as it becomes the only substance of "me" left at all. Just a tension or energy in the body, no thoughts are wrong, no thought is more than just a thought. A thought is a thought. Knowing this feels like cheating. No, a mistake. No, an accident. No, like nothing ever happened to anyone.

Those are really AMAZING notes. A thought is a thought. An idea is an idea. That's an earth shattering one that's particularity well hidden because it will also just make you raise your eyebrow and go "ok...?" ?

"One day Narcissus was walking in the woods when Echo, an Oread (mountain nymph) saw him, fell deeply in love, and followed him. Narcissus sensed he was being followed and shouted "Who's there?". Echo repeated "Who's there?" She eventually revealed her identity and attempted to embrace him. He stepped away and told her to leave him alone. She was heartbroken and spent the rest of her life in lonely glens until nothing but an echo sound remained of her. Nemesis (as an aspect of Aphrodite[4]), the goddess of revenge, noticed this behaviour after learning the story and decided to punish Narcissus. Once, during the summer, he was getting thirsty after hunting, and the goddess lured him to a pool where he leaned upon the water and saw himself in the bloom of youth. Narcissus did not realize it was merely his own reflection and fell deeply in love with it, as if it were somebody else. Unable to leave the allure of his image, he eventually realized that his love could not be reciprocated and he melted away from the fire of passion burning inside him, eventually turning into a gold and white flower." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissus_(mythology) So in the end, Narcissus becomes the secret of the golden flower. Enlightened. It's not a sad ending, at all, it's a happy one.

Oooh! oooh! I have a bizarre story about rabbits too! Last year I found this place in the woods where I started getting insights so I kept going there frequently to meditate. One day last summer I went there and a fox had killed a white rabbit, fur was everywhere and just its foot was left. Lucky sign? Are thread derailers narcissists?

Yes! I've found yin yoga poses that target the hips to be really helpful.