mandyjw

@pluto AWESOME list there, thanks!

He's like the grinch of nonduality. In his youtube videos he sits in his ugly wicker chair in a sloppy t shirt 3 sizes too big and flails around as he rants about stupid people. I mean, I enjoy the variety but it's not for everyone. There's a sense that he's fundamentally missing something very important that can make listening to him painful. Hopefully one of these days he'll get annoyed enough with the rest of us and venture out to steal Christmas. In comparison Eckhart Tolle and Rupert Spira give off an aura of peace and tranquility, they sound beautiful, they dress nicely and they even have pretty flowers in the background. There are way more enlightened and fully self-realized people in the world than you've ever heard of. Very few are famous or even well known.

I started using fluoride free toothpaste but I would not recommend the switch unless you've already cut way back on sugar in your diet. Then I found out that there's a ton of naturally occurring fluoride in tea, green tea and matcha. If you drink it get young leaf tea grown in Japan, not China. If you are concerned I would look at your entire diet, and not just your fluoride intake. Almond milk is full of calcium carbonate and other additives and preservatives are likely doing more harm than fluoride so I cut out my almond milk habit too. You can also add seaweed or a natural iodine supplement into your diet, it helps flush fluoride. I awakened without the use of psychedelics or much formal meditation, all the while I was drinking green tea and using fluoride toothpaste, so I don't think its a huge concern worth obsessing about. However our food system and environments are so contaminated that it does require a lot of knowledge and awareness to avoid the worst of it. The problem is definitely not just fluoride.

I think we are experiencing birth pains of bringing forth a more conscious community. Most of us came to this as lone wolves and unconsciously (or consciously) want to keep our old identity.

Not selfish at all, you just get blinded by your own light when someone tries to block it with a mirror.

It feels ground breaking and I feel stupid for not realizing this simple fact earlier, I meant what the hell is the law of attraction and Abraham Hicks all about? How am I this numb? More arguing for my own limitation.

This arguing for limitation is pervasive. It's the hidden agenda of almost every thought or at least every thought that doesn't feel good. My entire ego, and all the useless thoughts exist just to argue for my own limitation. It steals the energy away from action in its complaining and arguing for why this or that can't happen, and why this person is wrong or down to everyday frustrations like why I don't have energy to clean the kitchen, it's all just arguing for my own limitation. When I "saw", I was in a particular "place", I was in the cemetery.

Last night I had a dream of flowers, bees and hummingbirds and I was all of them all at once, but there were moments of connection and realization. I got up and wanted to write down some insights but couldn't find a pen. While awake I felt the space in my third eye expand to include my crown chakra and visualized it blooming out like a flower. This morning during meditation I "saw" my limiting ego, arguing for its own limitation.

@tsuki I don't think I really considered the differences between emotional mastery and enlightenment because until recently I had no idea what enlightenment was. It kinda felt like being a little kid happy with her ice cream cone until someone bigger walked by and slapped it out of my hand. At the same time I fully saw how unfounded my fear was, but that the bliss of that is a more of a memory now. I still don't understand the many "facets" of this and how they fit in, self realization, emotional mastery, love. Thanks for the recommendation, I've been wishing for a really good novel to read, and had no idea anything like that existed. Definitely an Easter egg. ?

That makes sense, except that extreme anxiety in social situations feels exactly like stumbling upon a bear in the woods. You can definitely practice and work with your responses to those fears, and fear in general. Does a fully enlightened person have intense adrenaline fear responses to things? Is that a fantasy or do they walk fearlessly in any situation? Ok thanks, that explains it. It's only $1 on kindle. I didn't save the PDF, don't want to get anyone in trouble for pirating.

@tsuki Whenever I come up upon a wild animal in the woods or some strange dangerous traffic situation happens it seems pretty ingrained. I know it's all identification with the body though. I really wanted to share the translation of the Tao Te Ching by Ursula K. Le Guin that you sent me a long time ago in the high consciousness resources section. The link doesn't work anymore though, is there another free translation that is good?

Why?

@tsuki Huh. That makes me wonder about different or opposite examples of that, like my mom. She is very unattached to things, very grounded and giving, yet she is very attached to her and her family's survival, and being a submissive, compassionate person, this all comes out as fear. You can't just tell someone that death is an illusion. You can't even tell yourself that, you still have instincts. Leo was right, that survival attachment needs to be seen for what it is. What happens after that, I don't know.

I'm not sure I feel the same way. I think that nonattachment can be just as pathological as attachment, and there's much more power in it.

I haven't done psychedelics but I have visuals when I close my eyes. You also may begin to see an eye centered when you close your eyes, sometimes it's a starburst, a tunnel or a ring, but often an eye staring back at you. The significance is that you are part of higher intelligence, learning to identify with the one immortal "eye" or consciousness, rather than the two eyes, seeing eyes corresponds to opening the third eye, learning to truly see, etc.

Yes, the only value in using the word trap is to motivate others or oneself to keep progressing.

I just got woke up and the three stages or traps came to me in a dream/thought. Step 1. Attachment. Then you realize you're suffering. Step 2. Attachment to being detached. Then you realize you're still suffering. Step 3. Attachment to being neither attached or detached. Again, you realize you're still suffering. These traps or more like stages that must be transcended in succession rather than "traps". Attachment is sneaky. Once you move beyond step three you see attachment for what it really is and are finally able to act or not act with ease and freedom.

This came to me in a dream/thought, so I'm not sure how helpful it is yet. There are three traps. Attachment. Attachment to being detached. Attachment to being neither attached or detached. These traps or more like stages that must be transcended in succession rather than "traps".

Last year around this time, we had our childless friends over and played a board game with them. They crushed us, but I did particularly bad. I started thinking about how my lifestyle was not challenging me intellectually in the least. Being a parent of young kids, doing basically production/factory like work and spending much of my energy learning to clear my mind and drop thoughts had let my ability to think intellectually degrade. I didn't want to challenge myself to think in depth or read a challenging book because I couldn't deal with the constant interruptions and demands from the kids. In that time also I made huge strides in understanding my emotions and being able to connect and accept people. I let myself feel better about it and figured that I had chosen what was better. Coming here has forced me to challenge myself again and integrate it with the progress I made. The formation of dogma is sneaky. My kids are getting more independent. The baby and toddler stages taught me skills and a level of patient love that is hard to learn and practice elsewhere, but a new chapter is starting. The vision board WORKS. I wrote down a few ideas and went out to mow part of the lawn and lots of light bulbs turned on. Now it's almost entirely full and I have some plans for Fall that give me greater peace to plan for the changing season, as if I'm creating it rather than at the mercy of it.

Really study the law of attraction, Abraham Hicks is awesome. It will help you to find peace with the paradox. She divides it into steps, and to summarize, we are really good at asking for things to be different but not good at letting go and letting life unfold. Both are equally important in understanding the law of attraction.

@tsuki There's something energetically unique about this time of year, when it really starts to transition to cooler weather. It's my favorite time of year but it's also bittersweet. Since my awakening I'm very sensitive about my mood and state of mind. Abraham Hicks said that people say that they are sensitive to energy but that she would use the word "susceptible." That was a powerful pointer to me because I know that I need to work with this as it arises and not let my mind turn it into a characteristic. Increasingly I have to be outside more and more and if I feel my mood slipping just going out makes it feel so much better. It has a purifying effect. I'm not sure if I use it as a crutch or if I'm tapping into some older intelligence and need that one should be more connected with nature and the own gathering and harvesting of their food, especially this time of year. Yesterday I came down with a cold. We spent hours outside at a farm and horse fair then I took the kids out and picked blueberries from the backyard, then I went inside and still didn't feel right. So I took my daughter out for a hike at the falls, and got back and still felt the need to go for a run alone, even though I knew I should probably rest instead. Time doesn't feel like it works the same way anymore. As I got older I felt like my grip on reality and time was slipping away, and now there's no reason to fight it anymore. The problem is I am still struggling to get my practical life in order, and if I need to go outside I go outside. I'm not making much money, just enough to pay for daycare, health insurance and a few extras. I sometimes really want a puppy but spending the money and making the huge energy and time commitment doesn't feel right when I'm so lost in transition. I got another dry erase board, and am going to take Nahm's suggestion. I can think of all kinds of things I like the idea of and want to work toward but they turn to dust before they materialize. I don't mean that in a depressing or defeatist way, just that, the only thing that really grips me is this very ephemeral feeling I get sometimes, almost always from being outside. I was looking out across the ocean and this distinctive feeling comes to me and feels really good. It feels ever so slightly like a desire and ever so slightly prophetic and to push it even further it feels like a calling to the West Coast at some point. But when I work to form these types of feelings into anything tangible or actionable they turn to dust. Maybe they are still just gestating. Maybe they are just to be enjoyed in the moment.

When I had my awakening I had bipolar like energy swings. I also had the pressure, emptiness feeling between my eyes and the 666 synchronicity others mentioned in this thread. Time in nature, exercise and regular meditation really helps ground the back and forth energy swings.

@tsuki Whatever you think.

@Truth Addict I believe that you are a pompous dementor.

@Truth Addict I prefer to be surprised.