mandyjw

Private video?

That would be a hard sell. An easier sell would be, "what problem do you have this very moment? What is your direct experience right now, outside of any thoughts that kill the aliveness of the present by gathering the moment up in a filter of past and future and claiming to know what it is and what it isn't?" The Peace we're talking about isn't a condition. Peace with a lower case p is a condition. Peace is the Awareness that never changes, the background of Peace in the midst of chaos. No condition is valid, and yet all are valid, on the background of awareness. "This too shall pass." What you really as is what does not pass, you are what is there before any beginning can be said to have begun, or any end can be said to have occurred.

I'm finding that I can handle coffee well less and less as time goes on. I get the anxiety sometimes and generally just a tension in my head. It is fun once in a while though. I really like white tea right now. it's high antioxidants, lower fluoride levels than other teas. Rather than demonizing anything, just be mindful and listen to your body. The point is to feel your best not to have the "ideal" diet as if there even was such a thing.

There's no boundary to your mind, cause you don't have a mind, in other words "you" IS the boundary you believe in and it's not really there. This sounds radical to the mind but in your direct experience right now, already is the boring, mundane, usually overlooked reality of your being. You, the real you, as in the light of Consciousness, Awareness, is completely open and borderless. Hence, the benefits of being open-minded, this makes you seemingly smarter, because you already are so open-minded that you don't have a mind. When you are relaxed and carefree, you are not thinking of these illusionary borders of you and your mind and so information that "you" should not have access to can enter in. It can enter in at any time actually, but thoughts are more likely to misinterpret it. The reptilian brain is what scientists call ancient, but there was Awareness before any sort of brain or thinking process whatsoever could have existed. It is the beginning without an end, the eternal now.

@Phyllis Wagner I saw this the other day and thought the entire thing was really, really good. I especially loved how he described the two extreme viewpoints on how to get awakened, that you can force it into being or that there's nothing you can do. The "suffering helps too a little bit *chuckle*" remark really got me. ? I immersed myself in his books and videos years ago. He had the deepest teachings I'd ever found that were making an enormous impact on my life but I had no spiritual community to speak of or any knowledge of other teachers. That was probably for the best at the time. Once you go back to listen you realize the depth of understanding was a limitation of the filter of "you" more than the teacher.

You're hyperventilating, and if you're not enjoying the results, it might not be for you. Have you tried the Wim Hoff method as an alternative? I really love how it goes from deep breathing to holding your breath. Remember to love your body first and foremost, it's a connecting exercise, not a beat yourself into submission exercise.

The resonate because they are true, and truth is love, and there is no doubt whatsoever in that realization. The doubt is something else, it's a separation from what you Know/feel to be true. Love itself never causes doubt.

Where and when exactly does the rubber meet the road? That's a lot of thoughts and judgements about the person you imagine to be behind the pixels of the screen, which are only reflections of the person you believe is behind the seeing the those pixels on a screen. I'm more intimately you than you think. You argue with yourself all the time, right? So here we are.

Is there a you that can bypass awareness? Awareness is the basis of not knowing and the basis of all knowing. Having been raised in religion and also having dealt with OCD, I experienced this intensely as well. The funny thing is that suffering and the fear of death IS the very mistake and misunderstanding. There's no future in them at all, that why you feel the fear now. Feel free to PM me if you want.

Yup. "Hugely underestimating", or not thinking about? "Nonsense", in other words, thought can't make sense of it?

If you believe that you're an object, then you believe that some things are objective and some things are subjective.

Fear without thought is just an amazing adrenaline rush kind of feeling. Ski slopes, roller coasters, sky diving, etc. Pretty awesome.

I've never encountered anything tangible.

My own thoughts. All other fears are thoughts, that boil down to my fear of my own future thoughts about it. Don't believe thoughts that don't feel good.

When you try to separate qualities like that, it all completely falls apart. One inherently creates and defines the other. For some reason though, notions of masculine and feminine are very tied with our allowance of our own authenticity. It can be helpful to think in terms of them to consider how we may be avoiding or afraid of being able to express ourselves authentically in the moment. Ultimately this means dropping our definitions. Wish I had the book here so I could quote it properly, but I loaned it out. Anyway, in "Mister God, This is Anna" Anna contemplates gender by taking a piece of latex from a broken balloon, sticking her finger in it so it looks like a penis, then flipping it around and showing how just one single action creates both male/female simultaneously. It's the same with any duality, when you separate or define, you create the included and excluded, the positive space and negative space, in one single action. The defining line is your creation, it's also where and how we're conceived, and how we conceive of ourselves.

Truth is power. Lying is throwing your own power away. It's self deception to see it as otherwise and all lies are self deception. I lied to my parents over stealing $5 from my sister when I was 6 or 7. It caused me so much suffering that, that was it for me. Honesty was of enormous importance to my father and the truth a central part of Christianity, which I was as a kid, so I became compulsive about telling the truth. I recognized that even though I tried extremely hard to tell the truth in all cases, that sometimes I didn't know what the truth actually was. Truth was not concrete, it was fuzzy. I didn't know what was true all the time. I'd question what came out of my mouth all the time, was that really the case? The habit stuck. As a teenager and adult I never lied, except for maybe as I got older and relaxed about it, I lied like once or twice about Christmas gifts I didn't like or already had. I watched my friends get themselves into messes when they lied and I recognized that telling the truth was power because I had absolutely nothing to defend and could feel completely fine about myself. I didn't have to scheme or overthink. I realized people lied because they were afraid, and instead of telling the truth and ripping the Band-Aid right off, they prolonged their own suffering, sometimes even spreading it around to others until the original lie grew and grew. Lying is like being afraid that there's a bear outside your house. The bear is imaginary, but for whatever reason, you believe in it. You have to take the trash out, but you're too afraid to go out. So you fill your house with trash until it's so full of trash and smells so bad, that you actually attract a real bear.

I have been told that I make a better door than a window. ?

Thoughts, STORIES!!! I hear you though.

door (n.) "movable barrier" https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=door I know, I know, I'll show myself the door now.

Ok, let's get intellectual!!! intellect (n.) directly from Latin intellectus "discernment, a perception, understanding," https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=intellect Intellect, understanding, ok. understand (v.) Old English understandan "comprehend, grasp the idea of," probably literally "stand in the midst of," from under + standan "to stand" (see stand (v.)). If this is the meaning, the under is not the usual word meaning "beneath," but from Old English under, from PIE *nter- "between, among" (source also of Sanskrit antar "among, between," Latin inter "between, among," Greek entera "intestines;" see inter-). Related: Understood; understanding. That is the suggestion in Barnhart, but other sources regard the "among, between, before, in the presence of" sense of Old English prefix and preposition under as other meanings of the same word. "Among" seems to be the sense in many Old English compounds that resemble understand, such as underniman "to receive," undersecan "examine, investigate, scrutinize" (literally "underseek"), underðencan "consider, change one's mind," underginnan "to begin." It also seems to be the sense still in expressions such as under such circumstances. Perhaps the ultimate sense is "be close to;" compare Greek epistamai "I know how, I know," literally "I stand upon." Similar formations are found in Old Frisian (understonda), Middle Danish (understande), while other Germanic languages use compounds meaning "stand before" (German verstehen, represented in Old English by forstanden "understand," also "oppose, withstand"). For this concept, most Indo-European languages use figurative extensions of compounds that literally mean "put together," or "separate," or "take, grasp" (see comprehend). Old English oferstandan, Middle English overstonden, literally "over-stand" seem to have been used only in literal senses. For "to stand under" in a physical sense, Old English had undergestandan. consider (v.) late 14c., "to fix the mind upon for careful examination, meditate upon," also "view attentively, scrutinize; not to be negligent of," from Old French considerer (13c.) "reflect on, consider, study," from Latin considerare "to look at closely, observe," probably literally "to observe the stars," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see con-) + sidus (genitive sideris) "heavenly body, star, constellation" (see sidereal). Hmm, put together, between, among, meditate, yoga, union yoga (n.) 1820, from Hindi yoga, from Sanskrit yoga-s, literally "union, yoking" (with the Supreme Spirit), from PIE root *yeug- "to join." Related: Yogic. meditate (v.) 1580s, "to ponder, think abstractly, engage in mental contemplation" (intransitive), probably a back-formation from meditation, or else from Latin meditatus, past participle of meditari "to meditate, think over, reflect, consider," frequentative form of PIE root *med- "take appropriate measures." From 1590s as "to plan in the mind," also "to employ the mind in thought or contemplation," especially in a religious way. Ok, well, shit. Thinking refers back to meditation and meditation refers to thinking? ? I don't "think" this is a problem. When you are aware, when you observe, when you give attention to, when you are attention itself, are you thinking? Or not?

@Someone here Set an alarm, cut back to 8 or 9 hours of sleep, start an easy exercise routine and add in some veggies and fruits. Do you get outside, and get sunlight? If not, take vitamin D. Those things will make an enormous difference. Try different breath exercises and replace the urge for a cigarettes with that every now and then, just for curiosity's sake. When you do smoke, notice how the urge for a cigarette triggers you to take a break, when you relax and consciously breathe without having to "do anything" or make it into a chore or a "should do". See how the smoke diffuses into nothingness when you exhale it, how the entire ritual is sort of metaphoric of letting go and dissolution. See the need that it's meeting.

Green eggs and ham? "You do not like them, so you say, try them, try them and you may! "

Positive, posit, "assume as a fact" Of course! Well that changes everything. Or nothing. Lol

@traveler Woah!!! Negative, like negate! I never made that connection before!