mandyjw

@now is forever It's the same problem as trying to locate the "you" in your body. The problem is that people are trying to repress their reactions and projections, rather than just letting them flow and letting true connection arise. So as long as you repress, or react by closing up and getting defensive, the same shit will arise again and again. It will until connection is established.

Just watch the first few minutes of Emerald's video.

You have an enormous light shadow.

Criticism is how we connect with people. If I give you a compliment you say thank you, then the conversation ends. If I criticize you and you engage with me to defend yourself, I get to know you better. We criticize just because we feel disconnected and are seeking connection. Maybe we even create the flaws we see simply for this reason.

There's a kind of positive mistrust of direct experience that is Nirvana I think. It's neither trust nor mistrust.

It does help if it is done with awareness on both parts. The person pointing out the flaw should be conscious that they are making a projection as they make it. Even so when you point out something to someone and you don't want to hear it, you still do. I went to an art forum full of liberal artsy middle aged women and tried to talk about my right wing politics with them. Within a few years they had won me over. No one goes through a conversation where there is vulnerability of some sort and comes out unchanged after.

You listen with your whole being. Try saying what you won't say first.

I was going to take a picture of a perfect apple and before I could, my three year old stole it and took two bites. And it seemed fitting so I went with it. So that's what happened there.

I don't think we get to choose. I think choice is only an experience/illusion of this life. That's just my guess.

But I just realized that I don't WANT to be a snake eating it's own tail. Goddamn it, where's the rewind button? Is this thing on a loop? I'm getting dizzy.

@tsuki Maybe he is lost for words.

@Joseph Maynor I made this for you. I hope it helps.

Do you choose whether or not to wake up in the morning?

What is Leo's message? One of love above all. Stage blue is the only real embodiment of community we know from past, that's why an attempt to build embody community that for the first time that doesn't have boundaries and accepts all races, religion and people reminds us of stage blue. Green tried and made a royal mess of it. We're trying to do successfully what green failed at.

@Joseph Maynor I know, I was right with you when I first came here. What is more important is the feeling of disconnect, rather than the reasons for it. Our own path is really unique so sometimes we feel less than when he describes his own. For example i haven't done many hard core techniques or experimented with any psychedelics. So when I first came here, I felt judged and estranged because of that. He isn't wrong, he is talking about his individual path and we all fall into making assumptions and traps of judgement when it comes to our own path. Our own path is part of our ego until it becomes OUR path. The problem lies in your focus upon the differences, not the similarities. As he said, go back to the video time and again. Watch his eyes, watch his face. Don't think about what he is saying. Is he telling the truth? I know what I'm suggesting sounds like brainwashing, but it's a type of meditation to tap into a connection and understanding with someone.

@Joseph Maynor He's building something together along with us. What part of what he is building exactly do you feel needs to be taken apart and put back together?

@Truth Addict Sometimes, you just know. Sometimes, the eyes staring back at you are your own. You won't help me build my sand castle? Do you think I'm deluded? Do you love me?

Sometimes, "The longest way around is the surest way home."

@Joseph Maynor Just like it says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything too. I feel that there is a need for big picture thinking right now. When you go from being a self to being a whole your thinking naturally becomes very big picture, in an all encompassing love sort of way.

@Samantha I highly suggest this book! https://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenment/dp/1577314808/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=the+power+of+now&qid=1558517411&s=gateway&sr=8-3

You have to become a sneaky little devil. What do you love to do? Do you love to be in nature? Do you love walking, running, hiking, yoga, art, music? Looking into a candle flame? Petting a dog? Anything you love that is putting you into a flow state or meditative state bypasses this trap. The other thing I've done is what I'll call jury-rigged Vipassana meditation. I think that you're supposed to be trained or taught to do it but I heard an explanation of it once a long time ago and it was a huge AHA moment. So the next time I meditated I just sort of went to this bliss state. It felt almost like I was literally raising consciousness in my head. Basically bring love into you meditation. Love is the connecting force your're going for. Thoughts get in the way of love sometimes, but they aren't really a big deal or so tempting to follow anymore if you're interrupting something so that feels so good.

@Beeman You are God, you are literally everything, then you can knowingly eat Jesus' flesh and drink his blood because the whole world is his body and blood and we are the Body of Christ, God. It's all encompassing. I just want to say that again, It's all encompassing. That's what God means, all encompassing, you're all encompassing.

I use the same method with connecting with literally anyone, even cashiers, neighbors and homeless people though. I see what they say and do secondarily, connection with them on a level of loving and knowing them as a reflection or expression of myself is the most important thing. Sometimes I forget and get wrapped in in the words but when I do they become a means to an end instead of another human being.

@hariseldon74 Our personalities and career choices change with time as we grow. I'm experiencing some growing pains with that as I adjust right now too.