mandyjw

It's abundantly clear to me just about anywhere I look that therapy needs to be free, easily accessible, normalized, and perhaps integrated into communities more. We can say that the government should pay for therapy and we should work towards making mental health a bigger priority. By making mental health a huge priority, we can prevent many issues by making it part of the school curriculum as Leo suggested in his conscious politics series. However, most mental health professionals despite investing an incredible amount of time and money in their education, still misunderstand mental illness, awakening and the nature of reality in general. Many parents are going to object to having their children things that border on the line of or may be interpreted as "religious." What about separation of church and state? What happens to this as the consciousness of humanity evolves? A lot of people's unhappiness comes from a lack of real spiritual connection. People used to get this from religion but as churches and religious organizations stay in stage blue, people leave them to pursue stage orange and beyond. I wonder if an alternative solution would look something more like... (stick with me here, open minds now), organized religion, or a church setting. What if you had a "church" that's purpose was to offer community, some education, but ultimately to help people awaken, understand themselves and live amazing lives? It would have to exist on donations (something like tithing) and volunteers and would have to have a hierarchy of some kind. Obviously corruption and abuse would be a concern, but these problems are already givens with the government. And again how does the government transition into the realm of spirituality and the mystical? Should we wait around for that day to come? Should spiritual teachers always go with the model of operating their own independent businesses, with expensive retreat centers, seminars and fees for sessions with them? Should resources for awakening be reserved for those with the privilege of time and money? Couldn't a church or organized religion of some kind, as dirty as those words may sound, be the bridge to make awakening and self-actualization more accessible for everyone?

I've never appreciated my business so much, I always had this conflicting sense of wanting sales but feeling guilty or unworthy when I get them. Now I'm enjoying the interactions and exchange of love. It's funny how this entire spiritual journey is just about living up to the meaning of the name I was given at birth. "Worthy of love." I've just been listening to Terrence McKenna talk about the machine elves and the objects they make, how Santa is an elf, the significance of red and white, the fly agaric mushroom. I saw a thread someone posted about yesterday Rupert Spira's art. Something about the act of creating intentionally or consciously naturally makes one question intention and consciousness itself. The act of creation of art is itself an altered state of consciousness. Appreciation of creation is so also. Synchronicity is messing with me today I accidentally found out this movie existed accidentally by searching for something else, seriously WTF? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandy_(2018_film)

Who knows?

It's amazing how connection with nature can connect you with being and raise your mood, even if it's just taking your shoes off and walking through the mud. Mother nature loves it when we get down and dirty with her. I'm not sure that products brought into the home would have much of an effect, but then again I adore my salt lamps so it depends on you.

Repression is not dealt with by acting out on it. I don't mean that to shame you at all, it's a really difficult lesson to learn for everyone.

@DreamScape Yes, but just be aware that you are differentiating yourself from your parents (completely natural, normal thing to do when you're 17), yet, you are following a path of spirituality that is about oneness. That's bound to cause you to be uncomfortable in itself. It's less about the external circumstances. We all have shame as a function of survival, it's less about freeing ourselves from an environment that shames us and more about noticing how we allow shame and disconnect ourselves. The ego complains about situations and requires the situation to change so that it can get what it wants. It's never the situation, it's always the function itself. This is the pattern of thought or deception we are trying to "see through" with meditation, contemplation and awareness.

Wish to see beauty, look for it and you'll see it. You are creating your experience.

What is judgement in your own experience? Is it wrong to judge between right and wrong?

Wow, I had no idea!

@Zigzag Idiot @dimitri Thank you, I really appreciate the encouragement!

We do depend on each other emotionally but we are trained to expect too much from a single partner in our society. There isn't enough importance put on the value friendships in my opinion. It's asking for trouble to expect to meet all your needs for human connection from a single partner. I wonder if stage orange society has brainwashed us into thinking that if you aren't having sex with it or making money from it, it's a waste of time. Of course the other possibility is that we also often look to partners or the material world to get needs met that aren't material at all but spiritual. Spirituality is what dissolves the independence/dependence duality.

I don't think you're as bad as you think you are. You are beginning to recognize and take responsibility for distorted thought patterns so it feels that way, but they are not you. You can take responsibility for them without taking ownership of them, subtle but important difference. Every moment and every interaction is a clean slate. Good luck!

Vegan cheese is probably not a good choice for a food staple. Rice isn't a bad choice if you are able to warm food up. I switch between jasmine rice and wild rice. Cleaning up your diet can be a process, the most healthy foods take a lot of time to prepare so it's good to strategically make small changes to avoid overwhelming ourselves.

Mediate in the morning, even if it's just for 15 minutes. It won't stop thought but it will slow them down so you can examine them more and feel how amazing it feels to just be. Read Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now if you haven't. Find things to appreciate or beautiful things around you to notice and start training your brain to see beauty. The mystical experience was just a glimpse of what life can be like without resistant thoughts. That's your true nature, your true potential. We just have the clear up all the confusing stuff that's obscuring that light. Do you want to feel good, or do you want something else? It seems like a simple question but it's not, really ask yourself, really contemplate this.

Everything we do is because we want to feel good. We can only ever feel good now. You do not have to chose between enlightenment or getting your life straight. This is a false choice, a false limitation in a world of abundance. You can choose to feel good though, and that guiding star of feeling, will lead you where you desire to go.

@ShinNo, I wanted to rescue an older dog and looked around for a while but it didn't work out.

There seem to be two approaches, truth and love, but the duality or difference between them has to be dissolved if you want either of those things. It's so shockingly simple to the intellect and the ego that there is nothing but love, that it seems to take a whole lot of work, study, and even suffering to get it. If it didn't, you would appreciate it, and if you didn't appreciate it, it wouldn't be love.

@DrewNows Actually, something strange happened as often happens when I put desires out there. Still not sure of everything that will come out of it or understanding fully what it's leading to. @Shin BTW I'm getting a puppy next week. Lived for 8 months without a single pet.

@LfcCharlie4 I was raised in a stage blue Christian family and in a stage blue Christian community but "devilry" in the church stopped my parents from going and they disconnected with the community when I was really young. I have spent my life and a good part of my spiritual evolution has been learning how to get along with and love stage blue Christians. The failure of Osho's community to appreciate it is sad to me. He came here for religious freedom and free love but could not even allow it to his neighbors. "Love thy neighbor." OH, THE IRONY! The drama! It's absolutely brilliant.

Good storytelling comes from a truly creative place that is beyond us, almost like channeling, so stories like that can be powerful pointers. Movies are just one medium for stories.

It's beyond weird, beyond understanding, beyond good and bad, that's for sure. As soon as I realized that I had awakened, in the same way Charlie Manson had been awake, I went through a "Jesus take the wheel stage". Unfortunately (fortunately?) the illusion that there is a wheel at all is self created though. Hi my name is Mandy and I enjoy morality when it serves me and not at all when it doesn't. Contrast between good and bad, dark and light helps us to define the things we want and appreciate balance. The Osho documentary was incredibly entertaining, I so enjoyed the varying viewpoints of all the people involved and the fact that they turned the commune grounds into a Christian youth camp after was so fitting and hilarious. It's a "true" story and a lot can be learned from it, and a lot of new desires can be born out if it.

The practice of Tonglen meditation was really helpful to me. I always felt like I was messing it up, but found out that the sense of the ownership between pain, forgiveness, love, me and the other is what it heals, not the other person.

Do you really want to pick just one spirit animal when you created 8.7 millionish species on Mother earth to be loved and appreciated, knowing that you are mother earth herself? Would mother earth pick a favorite? I find a lot of meaning in animals I encounter or see, but it's always changing, depending on what aspect of myself I'm wanting to experience or discover.

Because you want it to appear that way. In this appearance of limitation is the appearance and feeling of freedom and beauty.