mandyjw

The forum is just one big mirror. It's very uncomfortable when you don't love the reflection.

Sounds like the chills are a sign that you are trying to adjust to the higher vibration but patterns of thought are pulling you back down again. You want to intend to become a match to that energy, and the way this is done is by letting go of negative or resistant thoughts. Meditation is a huge boost but this "work" of becoming conscious of thoughts patterns and working to change them is 24/7. I really suggest Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now and later A New Earth if you haven't read it. Also highly recommend Abraham Hicks for raising your vibration and staying in that place more of the time. Both of those teachers are amazing for taking spirituality beyond practices into life.

@Serotoninluv Yes, the intention is important but it's when love arises, or is, where it clicks. @Raptorsin7 The nature of "reality" is very creepy when dualities start to merge but there still appears to be a you, it's like you have a peeping Tom who is always watching you and loves you oh so much. So creepy presentation doesn't bother me much anymore.

A few months ago Zigzag Idiot shared this in his journal and I had an aha! moment. I realized that this was describing step by step instructions for how I ever accidentally entered deep states of meditation. It first started happening when I was running, (naturally diffused focus) and "appreciating" the beauty of nature around me but more so the entire everythingness of the experience. "Love" is seemingly a contentment, appreciation, and gratitude that when the first two steps are done, can sometimes intensify to profound levels, the last piece of the puzzle in meditation that unlocks something great.

Notice all the separations your mind is still making out of oneness in this post. Contemplation is part of enlightenment, if enlightenment is indeed already here, how could you stray from it by contemplating it like you are right now in this very moment? There's no point to miss. You can pay attention to how "on track" you are by how you feel and paying attention to your thoughts. The thought "I'm missing the point" feels awful. The thought or "no thought" of appreciating the beauty of a tree and sharing a laugh with a friend feels great. Curious contemplation feels good, and getting an insight feels amazing.

That seduction you are worried about only happens when the teacher takes ownership of the power of love, or exclusive connection to it in some way. What better way to not take personal ownership of love and being the "one" to care for your followers emotional needs than proclaiming that Love is all that is and all that you are. That's the ultimate empowerment, when you realize that you are the only thing that is responsible for your connection to it.

That's a really important warning, that should probably also include the numbers for some resources including suicide prevention hotlines, in my opinion. Therapy isn't just for people who are in a really bad place, it should be for anyone who is suffering at all. People have misunderstood ideas and prejudices about therapy just like they do psychedelics or drugs in general. The consciousness and intentions of the user and the quality of the tool come together to determine the results.

Ralston and Sadhguru are both using the word "life" to avoid the connotations with using "Love". If you exchange the word life for love, then you have to accept all the stuff that doesn't look like love, all that looks like hate is love. That's a hard pill to swallow, and it turns away students as we see here on the forum regularly. However there's a huge cost to not using the word Love. There's also the feeling of coming home, the feeling of a greater "being" or "Self" looking out for you, the feeling of connection and oneness itself, how could that not be described as love? How could the entire process and purpose be overlooked? Love and God are horribly misunderstood words that no one wants to touch, that get you in a ton of trouble, but there's a huge benefit to having the courage to understand them and use them, in my experience anyway. There's something more to language than we can say.

You should pursue both. You can't analyze what you haven't observed. Observation changes your analysis. Analysis changes your observations. Buddhism doesn't have to look like Buddhism and therapy doesn't have to look like therapy.

The distraction is the way, when you see it you laugh about how silly you were and then the moment you say "Now, I've got it!" it's a distraction again.

@DrewNows You can't judge and really feel at the same time so no. It's not about the words a teacher uses, if you're only listening to what they say you'll never get the message, or worse you'll, believe it. Words don't make us feel. There's no complete without the incomplete. Just notice how some people seem to make you feel one way and others another, that's all.

@DrewNows How does Ralston make you feel when you watch him? Watch him, without really paying attention to what he says. Read his face, every mannerism, feel the emotion there, look into his soul. How do you feel?

LOVEing themselves.

@DrewNows The "Divine" feminine, or even the feminine, doesn't exist. The attraction to the "other", including the illusory movement towards and the wholeness itself after is love. So if someone were to have problems appreciating, valuing or opening to the feminine, what would they actually have a problem with?

Within the group of people who resonate with Leo's videos, love is more likely the facet that is being overlooked and underappreciated, the facet that's right under our nose but not seen, however if you take the population as a whole the misunderstanding of what love is and the lack of desire and regard for truth becomes a more common problem. That's why it's good to point out here on this forum that Ralston isn't talking about love. You can't look for completion in any teacher, you can't see the whole of someone without seeing what they aren't.

It feels awful to split our energy and have conflicting desires. We all want to be focused. The best way to build focus and feel whole without seeking things all around in all directions is through meditation. Meditation doesn't have to be a formal practice but that's the easiest way. It also builds our sensitivity and openness to knowing what we want, and makes us more aware when we are behaving in ways that split our own energy or ultimately might hurt others or disappoint ourselves. Try to clarify why you want to be faithful to her, focus on why you love her. Make your focus more about what you want rather than trying to avoid the behavior you don't want. When you get good at focus, then on clarifying what you want, repression and old patterns lose their power.

Yeah, but what would that cook book make you want and think about more than anything else? Salt. See the magic?

Teachers like Ralston are necessary to get masculine truth-focused types to open their minds to the love realm in the first place. People who have fallen into the love trap are likely to be disgusted with him, or else if they are ready to move past it, intensely attracted to him in a love/hate opposites attract way until all that gets integrated. The grinch needs a Cindy Lou Who. I guess it doesn't make much sense to be mad at a math teacher for not teaching you art.

I've been trying to increase my tolerance to cold by going outside to run now that it's winter dressed like I would be on a much warmer day. The cold temps boost the effect of the runner's high, it's a great combination. It feels amazing while I'm doing it and doesn't seem extreme but for a good hour or two after I can't get warm. I'm only spending less than a half hour outside. I thought that this would be an easier way that the cold rinses, because the same thing happens to me with those in the winter. Will this improve on its own overtime, should I stick with it, or am I expecting too much too fast? I take medication for hypothyroidism and get cold easily but that's partly why I want to increase my tolerance to cold temperatures.

@Michael569 It's just hypothyroidism. I've improved my diet immensely since being diagnosed but my levels haven't changed once in 13 years.

I've been there. Still visit there often from time to time. Have you noticed that when we judge someone else's worth or level of progress, we're always looking at just one aspect of them? A math test doesn't measure creativity, etc. When we get excited about something, even as something so important and all encompassing like spirituality, we can still fall into that trap. Suddenly spiritual progress becomes the measure of everyone's worth. Everyone has unique gifts, and everyone is a beautiful and on a spiritual level, a perfect manifestation of God. We have to limit ourselves to judge another but from the perspective of love, everything is perfect, and you are the only one who can embody, become love. There is no need or reason to step out of that place, to step away from love into lack in order to try to drag anyone back to love with you. You can't get there from here. It only ever works of its own magic on its own time.

@DrewNows No, I assumed the running would be enough without it, I don't want to get light-headed before going out, having only done the breathing exercises laying down. I should do some more research on how he does long runs and hikes outside though. Is skin scrubbing a Wim Hof thing? I haven't heard of it, thank you. @Raptorsin7 You can experience highs from meditation, but running releases chemicals like dopamine and integrates the body and breathing in a unique way. In my experience the two are quite different, but both are worth doing. I'm not a serious runner, I used to run competitively as a kid, but stopped racing when graduated high school. Running doesn't hurt at all for me because I'm not pushing my body to go faster or further, I'm already conditioned and in shape for the low mileage I run. There might be some discomfort if I focus on it, and occasionally there are aches and pains but like meditation there are always positive things to focus on or negative if we chose to give them our attention. When I run I let my thoughts go free, I let whatever thoughts feel good come, if not thinking feels good I enjoy that, I usually use my intuition to tell me where to run. My intuition gets really heightened while running, I get lots of new creative ideas, are more able to reframe things, or getting insights. Lately it's been an exercise is connecting with the world around me, I stop a lot and appreciate whatever I see there. Even 10 minutes is enough to alter my perceptions quite a bit. After 20 or 30 I get a deeper runner's high that lasts a while. The practice of meditation and watching my thoughts has improved my runs and made me more susceptible to the high I get from it, as I become more and more sensitive to it and learn to go in the direction of that. It wasn't until recently that I made the connection, runner's high = vortex = high vibration, it's all the same and you can intentionally do things that put you there and chose thoughts that keep you there. Before I thought feeling good was just something that happened to me, I didn't realize it was in my power. @InfinitePotential That's interesting thank you! I eat brazil nuts for selenium but I really need to get a kelp supplement again for iodine. @Serotoninluv That's a good idea, thanks. I often remind myself of the Tim Ferriss quote "what gets measured gets managed."

@Shin Unicorns aren't horrifying.

I have a feeling that the trance state itself is what would awaken them, the things spoken during that state would be of much less importance than their receptivity to entering the trance state itself. The necessary insights come of their own accord, and without proper respect for that, and sensitivity to a person's readiness, problems can arise. I read an account of someone who awakened partially through mesmerism in the 1800's. He was fascinated with it, highly susceptible to it, and already was highly conscious. The mesmerists were doing it just to put on a show, not really for the benefit of the subjects. Then he began falling asleep randomly throughout the day and thought he was very sick, until channeling started coming through. The focused intentions of another person together with your own lack of resistance can come together to become a very powerful nondual experience.

You don't love your parents? The love is already there, in what you're doing, if choose to see it. Drop ideas and thoughts like "it wins every time". Pay attention to how you feel, watch your thoughts, meditate when they start to run away from you, meditate every morning to prevent it from happening so often. Choose to see the beauty in every situation, even in your own survival mechanisms. We must love and accept ourselves first and in doing so we see who we really are and see there's nothing left that needs accepting after that.