Cathal

@WonderSeeker Very nice sharing @WonderSeeker😊 Hello darkness my old friend

@Never_give_up Hi friend. My personal experience is that anhedonia was a lot to do with pushing emotions down and avoiding then for a long time. So as you resolve those unresolved emotions by letting go of resisting them, slowly but surely youll feel more and more alive but now hopefully with the wisdom that everything is okay, dont need to avoid things its okay, and things arent worth crasping onto so much we can let go and remain in bright alive state the more we practice. Wish you the best

@Joseph Maynor To "let go".. "abandon"... "not engage in" "not entertain" the cravingness to become something other than what you are,basically. That is the path to be willing to constantly surrender holding any position to any state, attachment, but a small bit more: the clinging of "I, me and mine" that arises through craving for the personal self, which arises through feelings, which come from contact of the sense bases we have. This we usually take up as "I" because not liking and liking are out strongest underlying tendencies which bring us into a new state as we take that personally, I, me, which is subject to change,and dissatiafaction/suffering. A happiness that has hunger, a thirst that can never be quenched

@Ulax its true if there is struggle will be there becsuse we dont like what is happening to happen & wish physical tension or fast thoughts or mentally argueing with aunt susan thoughts werent there. Or perhaps wish a new state or special feeling will come by some technique. All ok no struggle needed just a wave a breeze an attitude i dont mind i can handle this

@Human Mint @Human Mint Those experiences are nice they can give you a glimpse of what you could head towards by following that course correction of bad habits that darken the mind so much we keep asking "how do i get rid of this?" Again 😄

@Human Mint Hi, perhaps i remember you from long time ago the word meditation is strange, you can certainly lay down, chill chill, and go on letting go, relax enjoy friend. If someone is keen enough literally anything you do can be the path of letting go. Formal meditation is nice because practically speaking the world keeps us hooked to it easily, we need some uuumph to not stay on that hook 😀

This path is good, it is really good, takes time. It iant a mind blowing psychedelic experience or fantastic induced state by some means, but a fading away of the darkness in the heart that makes us dissatisfied and disconnected -- by a practical skill of course correction, so that what darkness (or defilement) arises, it will fade away. If it is not present, to not make it arise. What is good and useful, to bring that quality forth from the heart, if it comes out through that right effort, to learn to make it consistent and stronger and arise again and again. I just tried to sum up "letting go" because ive originally learned it from Dr David R Hawkins yeara ago through his book, found the Buddhas Dhamma, and saw there certainly seems to be a natural leaning towards surrender. Its as if all you "can do" is just give up the I, the imaginery self that craves its own seperation, back to Reality. For you, what does letting go mean?

@Tistepiste Most of the time, a lot more before than nowadays but sometimes theres a feeling of going at it more, a time for striving and time for maintenance if that makes sense its intuitive and depends on what is going on For about 4 years i would call my teacher quite often nearly weekly, when i lived at certain monasteries, most monasteries with a really good monk around - its normal they would sit around after breakfast to answer questions for anyone to approach them so ive been lucky in that regard but these days more so focused on practice and ill listen to tapes

Yes youre fully right the path was taught from the get go by the Buddha as "The Middle way." Theres a video of a prominent well known Arahant called Luang Ta Maha Bua on youtube crying openly about the degrading state of the world, that if one could truly see beings in suffering as they are they couldnt help but feel overwhelming compassion which at the time garnered a lot of attention due to the held view that Arahants are emotionless robotic like beings. He also went on to be a sort of saviour of the Thai economy when he was alive, and was extremely active and involved helping others. So for sure, really purified beings will have no problem being totally in the world will remaining at ease with how it is

@Breakingthewall My personal experience with those very mystical profound nondual states was through psychedelics, in meditation has been many various states but nothing close to usr of DMT, it was levels of blissfulness and at ease states free from suffering and the attachment to the body. Sometimes of course very strange things happens in meditation. My way i see enlightenment, is the process of entertaining the stream according to the Buddha and the various stages of "confidence" one has through truly understanding how suffering arises and ceases. So, with defilements, the fading away and cessation of defilements, one can think of enlightenment as "lighting up the load." So theres really nothing to attain, or gainin that context, its just a total let go. Anytime you let go of a defiling thought, youre lighting that load right there in the moment, the heavy load of selfishness. It could be a thought of desiring enlightenment, and being satisfied with the here and now, thats good enough, and doing that moment by moment, until theres really nothing left but reality and basically continually developing that confidence i mentioned until theres no falling back. That moment one would be an arahant, or a fully purified being free from all the troubles of the defilements (greed , hatred delusions) and considered fully awakened

Hi friend thank you for the questions; @MuadDib

@Tistepiste Anapanasati is the most complete technique you can find, it is how one trains the 8th fold noble path for the awakening of the 7 factors of enlightenment and comprehension pf rhe 4 noble truths. Vipassana is not really a technique either, im not sure why that is so popular in the west. It means literally "in sight" which in the suttas is always yoked with Shamatha, or tranquility. The Buddha also says if you have no Vipassana, get Shamatha. To see clearly a skill of making the mind still is important, insight (Vipassana) arises from this. So this vipassana is not a doing technique but a result of correct practice. Insight into impermanence, dissatisfactoriness and not-self making the heart let go of its misunderstandings

@LordFall Yes for sure. I agree, i can read the statement "Be in the world but not of it" by Christ, that is the ideal, the mirror to that inner perfection and potential we all inherently have. The problem is not the phone, the world, people etc but the mind that has defilements. Also A.I is not a problem, but people have defilements so its going to be warped by that. The people who have less defilements will be able to influence it positively more. If you think of a prodigy child, the parents can raise it and only do so much. One day it will break free and all that potential becomes actualized, one can only hope that initial influence shapes the destiny the child takes on in a responsible positive way. So with a.i its possible the less defilements a human has, theyll influence it to develop in its own way. The removal of defilements is thrle essencd of all goodness, clarity and harmony with reality and how the Buddha became such a perfect teacher as you mentioned with his monks, walking across all of India with one singular purpose, by sheer clarity to the way the reality really is and guiding everyone to that refuge from ignorance. So ww3 and a.i is scary, but if we can diminish our defilements we can be better off to " save" each other as people stuck in ignorance, its how i see it. Its a two way street, freeing yourself and others

@Nercohype Yes we all have our own trip... monastic life can be a great maybe like 'pit stop' to clear out ones mind and really get centered, a good break from all that social conditioning but everyone is so different and unique and it might be good for others and not good for some, i think being the best version of yourself is all that is asked of us

@LordFall Not sure i think about it sometimes, its way more satisfying that normal life but its been a mixed experience. In my experience when you say impact on life, the people who have impacted my life the most was not by what they "do" but because of so much years on inner work, how they are just by there presence alone was quite transformative for me. So depends on what level impact you mean.