CoolDreamThanks

Wow feel blisfull when eating junkfood and watchinf entertainment, but without guilt and managaing my mind, whilst felt so unhappy and just overall the body felt worse and tense when controlling my sexual and food desires. So its all mind

How could you ever leave Heaven? The laws of heaven still apply. You still control everything with your mind. What you think and believe about yourself and others is just pictured outwardly. The way stuff works in Heaven works here, because there is nowhere else. Simple. Why is this dream like this? That’s just how I think. I can change what I think and everything changes.

yeay, happiness is a choice. I decided to choose a gentle, peaceful, happy inner state and it continues to be so. There’s even a slight amount of bliss . Dreams reflected that quickly as well. Also, seems like I’m not calling witnesses to my guilty state of mind aka mosquitoes not biting me anymore: i’ve experienced this multiple times - when there’s guilt in my mind, when I’m unhappy — insects begin to bite me, sometimes alooot.

Okay, so with restriction of pleasures, you're always rejecting one part of yourself that is there because you feel separated from God. And when you limit your desires, the reason why you have a need for those desires didn't disappear. So you will continue needing them, but when you're restricting them, you will always continue to resist them, you will have to fight against them. And that sets up a lot of resistance inside. Just look at my previous posts here. You have to see desires as evil and detrimental to your spiritual growth, which creates a lot of resistance and guilt. So that doesn't work in the end. You don't make a big deal out of pleasures. You know that on one level it is an attack on God, but on another level, like practically it doesn't work to restrict them. You have to heal your mind with forgiveness, and in the end you won't need them. But as long as you need them, it's best to just go with them and not make a big deal out of them.

This not taking things seriously applies to things in the world and in the mind. I remember I took those voices I heard on weed so seriously and got so scared and suffered alot. However, if I just smiled at them and didnt make a big deal out of them then I would have continued to have a good time.

oh wow, making a big deal out of things is the main tool the ego uses that brings about guilt and suffering. When I look back on my life, the moments of deepest suffering were those I made serious, I made a big deal out of them, thus suffered a lot. Interesting, so it's not at all about form - not about pleasures or work or anything else, but about not making things a big deal, knowing that yes, this is a pleasure, I need it because I feel seperate from God, but coming back to God doesnt happen through restricting pleasures, but throughj the practice of gentle love, of peace, which, in time, heal my mind and render pleasures of the world unessesary because I feel the love of God and need nothing else. But that's a long journey and until then, don't make a big deal out of anything, just be peaceful and enjoy what you may. What a great path! The best! so gentle

Okay, so Ken clarifies that yes, pleasures of the world ARE an attack on God, they are a tool the devil uses to keep you in the illusion. However, making a big deal out of it and resisting pleasures, seeing them as the tool of the devil only reinforces the ego and guilt. SO WTF? Well, he says enjoy your pleasures without making a big deal out of them -- stay in a peaceful state of mind and slowly but surely you will begin to taste the joys of God and at some point you will no longer need the pleasures of the dream to satisfy you, because you will be full of Love. In another question he says that that is a loong way ahead, the complete letting go of all pleasures happens only at the verry end of the journey. Yes.. this feels right. this answer and perspective brings Peace. I felt a sharp pain in my heart thinking - I should follow yogic knowledge, which means Guidance of Spirit is saying - nono. I thought that okay perhaps I can mix yogic knowledge with ACIM, but they are so different that I can't. Most spiritual paths teach some form of asceticism, including Sri Sri Gurudev. Those short vows of celibacy and others are a form of asceticism. I think most spiritualities see that pleasures are an attack on God, a tool of the Devil, but the way out of them is different. Most paths thus say that you should restrict pleasures, whilst ACIM as interpreted by Ken Wapnick, says that you shouldn't make a big deal out of them, your only responsibility is your state of mind - are you Peaceful? If so, then pleasures are irrelevant.

So, listening to Ken Wapnicks advice, I should stop what I am doing now — attacking pleasures as the tool of the devil. It reinforces the guilt. That’s true. I do feel angry and disturbed instead of more peacefull. I felt more peace when I was enjoying pleasures, not seeing them as anything negative, and simply practicing Presence, like Ken and Keith would advise.

In A Course in Miracles, Jesus says that the Teacher of God feels no sense of sacrifice when letting go of the pleasures of the world. Because pleasures are a thing that keep you away from heaven. They keep you chained to this illusion of death, to this dream. My question to Ken Wapnick is, how do you let go of pleasures? Is it gradual? Do you just let go of all of them at once by realizing that they are the tool the ego uses to entrap us into the illusion, or do you just practice peace and non-judgment and wait for pleasures to drop away naturally? ——- Ken Wapnick GPT: This is a beautiful and deeply relevant question, and one that Kenneth Wapnick addressed with both clarity and compassion. Let’s walk through his perspective based on what he taught in relation to A Course in Miracles. 1. Do we let go of pleasures all at once or gradually? According to Ken Wapnick, the letting go of pleasures is almost always a gradual process—a gentle unfolding that happens through practice, honesty, and increasing awareness, not by force or denial. He cautioned students not to attack or judge their pleasure-seeking behaviors, as doing so would reinforce guilt and thus strengthen the ego rather than weaken it. As he says in response to this very question: “The ego thought system disappears in the presence of truth, and so if we truly bring our illusions to truth — which is what forgiveness is — the illusions of guilt and pleasure will simply fade. That is what will happen to the special relationship: it just fades as we no longer choose it, because we no longer need it” . So rather than forcibly dropping all pleasures, we are guided to look at them with Jesus or the Holy Spirit, recognizing the purpose they serve. Are they being used to reinforce separation or to cover guilt? Then we let go through understanding and awareness, not through repression. 2. Why are pleasures problematic according to ACIM? Pleasures are not inherently wrong, but they are problematic only when we use them to substitute for the peace of God or as defenses against love. Ken emphasizes this distinction again and again. From the ego’s standpoint, pleasure becomes a way to anchor ourselves in the body and the world, thereby denying the decision-making power of the mind. Quoting from the Manual for Teachers: “He will not interpret against his function. He has given up the belief that he can choose between order of difficulties in choosing what God would have him do.” (M-14.4:5) That means the teacher of God, increasingly identified with the Holy Spirit rather than the ego, will stop valuing things that hurt — and this includes pleasures that, while seeming to comfort, ultimately reinforce the illusion of separation and death. 3. Is peace and non-judgment the correct focus instead? Yes — beautifully so. Ken repeatedly pointed out that our task is not to attack the ego or pleasures, but to bring them to the light without judgment. As we practice forgiveness — seeing through the illusion of specialness — the desire for ego pleasures diminishes on its own. He puts it this way: “You don’t go against the ego. You gently smile at it and look at it with Jesus. And then it fades because you no longer need it. You will never give up the ego until you no longer need it” . 4. So what do we actually do? In practice, then, your question resolves into this: Let peace be your goal. Observe the places where you feel attached, not with guilt or force, but with loving curiosity. Ask the Holy Spirit, “What is this for?” That’s the key question ACIM always returns to. Not “How do I stop?” but “What is this pleasure really serving?” As ACIM tells us: “It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false in you.” (T-16.IV.6:1) Summary: Kenneth Wapnick’s Approach Letting go of pleasures is gradual. Don’t judge or attack them; look at them gently with the Holy Spirit. Peace is your compass; when a pleasure disturbs your peace, you’ll know it’s time to let it go. They fall away naturally as your need for them dissolves in the presence of truth. If you like, we can explore an exercise or meditation that reflects this shift from pleasure to peace. Would you like that?

hmm, my letting go of pleasures is fuiled by anger, resentment. I feel this anger going away and I’m pretty sure that without this anger I will not have enough will to resist pleasures. I feel like in Peace I will continue to pursue those most basic pleasures of food and sex. With fashion — no more, it’s just overall more attractive to wear simple, natural fibers. With tasty food and sex — that seems to come back. I’m in this cycle for many times now — getting angry at the world, attempting to let it go, and then, when I come back to Peace, I continue to live mostly like before, only peacefully.

Interesting, Sri Sri Gurudev is very helpful and seems to he right about many things, but doesnt understand that this life is a dream and it wasn’t created by God. So still very helpful, but not Jesus.

It's so hot. Like, in this world, there's barely any days where the temperature is just right. For the most part, it's so uncomfortable. Just the environment, the atmosphere, baseline atmosphere is so uncomfortable here. You're either burning like you're in hell, or it's too cold. It's either raining, or it's polluted. It's polluted with noise or with chemicals. This is the complete opposite to heaven, to a divine creation. There is no fucking way that God had anything to do with this world. This world was created by a demon. This is the domain of the devil. And pleasures are the way the devil tempts you to stay here. It's how the devil covers up, distracts you from what's truly happening here. Pleasures distract you from the fact that you are in hell, you are constantly suffering. They distract you from what's truly happening, from the nature of this universe.

The words Jesus uses in A Course in Miracles are in alignment with how I see this world. He calls this dream a slaughterhouse, that's intense. I call this dream a hellhole, a diabolical miscreation. So we both see this world with the same intense negativity. This is a slaughterhouse, a hellhole, a place where thirsty creatures come to die. Thus, this vision enables me to let go of pleasures, because now I see that pleasures are the tool of this diabolical creation, a tool that the devil uses to keep me in the slaughterhouse. This is liberating, this is what I was looking for, the extreme level of motivation, of clarity, of understanding, that enables me to drop pleasures.

Very excited to see if this realization holds. I mean, if it will be transformative. So far, it is. Whenever a desire comes into my mind, it's met with the realization that this pleasure that came is bad. It's a chain that binds me to hell. Why would I ever indulge in it when the cost of indulging in this pleasure is heaven? Literally, the kingdom of God, infinite love. So, so far, it's holding. I also thought that if I ever get into a relationship with an angelic person, and she wants to have sex, that will be the only exception. And even that, only for a while, maybe 10 years or 20 years, where we both decide, okay, this is the only exception to... But you see, even that didn't feel right. But, so yeah, this might change as well. I've been thinking that I would make an exception in this case, so it would be as an expression of divine love between the two of us. But yeah, I felt a little sting in my heart when I was saying this, so it's probably not right to do either. So for now, every pleasure is a tool that the devil uses to chain me to its kingdom. A tool he uses to keep me in this illusion of suffering, poor, empty, sick, tired.

Wow, wow, wow, wow. So pleasure is literally the tool the devil uses to keep me in hell. It seems like pleasures are something innocent you can enjoy, but that is not so. Pleasures are literally the chains that bind me to a slaughterhouse. Pleasures are what keep me here, stuck in hell. So the cost, the sacrifice of pleasure is literally infinite love, the kingdom of God. What an insanely large cost there is to enjoying pleasures of this world. Those fleeting, small breadcrumbs of joy that also make me sick. What an insane thing pleasures are. They keep me stuck in hell, they make me sick. Wow, that's insane. Pleasures are the main, the main tool the devil uses to keep me stuck here. If I just see this, if I just see what the devil is doing, I can stop enjoying pleasures from now. And that's it, I will awaken quickly. All I need to do is see that pleasures are killing me. They are keeping me chained to a slaughterhouse.

This is it!!!!: God’s teachers can have no regret on giving up the pleasures of the world. ²Is it a sacrifice to give up pain? ³Does an adult resent the giving up of children’s toys? ⁴Does one whose vision has already glimpsed the face of Christ look back with longing on a slaughter house? ⁵No one who has escaped the world and all its ills looks back on it with condemnation. ⁶Yet he must rejoice that he is free of all the sacrifice its values would demand of him. ⁷To them he sacrifices all his peace. ⁸To them he sacrifices all his freedom. ⁹And to possess them must he sacrifice his hope of Heaven and remembrance of his Father’s Love. ¹⁰Who in his sane mind chooses nothing as a substitute for everything? (ACIM, M-13.4:1-10) Pleasures require the sacrifice of peace and if you enjoy pleasures your sacrifice the hope for Haven!!! How fucking insanely bad pleasures are!! The biggest trap of the devil!

So, when I realize that this is hell, this is a diabolical creation by an insane ego, and enjoying pleasures is just also an insanity, knowing that each pleasure or enjoying pleasures keeps me stuck here. So, are they really pleasures, or are they pain, and death, and suffering, masked as pleasures? Yes, on the surface, I experience pleasure, but what is the cost of it? The cost, first of all, all pleasures have a negative side. If you eat tasty food, you will get sick, get cancer, and suffer a fucking lot. Cancer is insane, but you can get many other diseases, and it's the same with everything else. With sex, you can get STDs, and I have, and you suffer so fucking much, there's so much pain from these pleasures. Even from video games, they hurt your eyes, they zap your energy. Not only do they hurt you, they keep you stuck in hell. So, what a fucking joke. Pleasures are actually pain, the tool of the devil. No wise man can ever play with pleasures, seeing that they are the tools of the devil that make you sick, make you chained to this hell, and then cause you to die and come back here again.

Maaan fuck mosquitoes. What a diabolical creation. Biting me multiple nights in a row, waking up with bites on my fking eyes. This dream has to dissapear, it’s so fucked up, these fucking bugs and this whole life is just uhhhhh… it’s either fking hot or itching or I’m sick or I have to work or one of the other thousands of bad things in this life is happening. Fuck this universe, it’s the worst creation to have ever existed. I neeed to dissolve it. Just stop fking enjoying pleasures and that’s it, it will dissapear in a few years or a decade, but I can’t be here anymore in this trashcan of a miscreated universe. The creator of this universe is an insane diabolical motherfucker.

One thing that became clear is that specialness makes you separated. It's the opposite to dissolution into unity, into oneness. So I thought, no, it's okay, I can be this special enlightened character where I dress like a rap star, and so on and so forth. But now I see that no, you do have to become like air, just so, without any specialness, just very bland in a sense. And that actually is the most beautiful thing. And that's what leads to enlightenment. Specialness is the antithesis of enlightenment, just like physical pleasures are.

I see it clearly now. I am not ready for another relationship with someone perfect and angelic like my first partner. For the next iteration of this perfect relationship, I have to already be very close to enlightenment and very, very pure, purified of all the lower desires for sex, food, entertainment. And then, if relationship is gifted, it will be divine, it will be so beautiful. But I have to work on myself, purify myself, get close to the ultimate goal. And then a relationship will be something just so divine, so perfect. But now, now there is work I have to do on myself. So I see it clearly now. There is divine timing. Things are bestowed upon you when they are best for your growth. You don't get things when you are not ready for them.

What are night-time dreams made out of? Well, impressions, memories. What you looked at during the day, maybe a week before, ten years before. They just create this amalgamation of experience. And what is this life during the day? It's also a dream, a hallucination of past impressions. So I have impressions of sex, food, entertainment, fashion, girls. And that's what I'm experiencing in this dream also. So how do you break out of it? You have to delete, clean away the impressions. And it's a pretty difficult job. Those impressions are deep-rooted. So what I see now is that the best path is this time-bound vows. Where I restrict myself, and I will keep increasing the amount of time I restrict myself to clear away those impressions and awaken. This is the core of awakening, of enlightenment. Getting rid of impressions, getting rid of addictions, desires. This is the whole core of enlightenment. You can conceptualize, meditate, think about non-duality as much as you desire, and nothing will change. The only true change happens when you get rid of vasanas. That's the only time I experience heaven naturally, during long commitments. When vasanas begin to break away, and heaven can shine through to my mind. Without this, it's impossible to awaken, and this is the core of awakening.

One of the questions I had was how do you clear the deepest vasanas - sex, food, and entertainment? Sri Sri Gurudev says time-bound vows are the way. Okay, trying. One vow is to fast tomorrow. Another vow is abstinence until Sri Sri Gurudev event on Tuesday. Sattviv diet is another vow that I am upholding without a time constraint, it’s not that difficult, it’s tasty and makes me feel good.

Also true, negativity about self and the world creates misery, but thinking about yourself as the gratest one aleo creates misery, because then others are so small, so inadequete, that blame comes and you are again unhappy.

There is no enlightenment without discipline. Discipline is required to achieve freedom.

So, looking back on my Enlightenment experiences, what Jesus is teaching, what Sri Sri Gurdaeva is teaching, it's very, very clear to me right now that the core of Enlightenment is the, whatchamacallit, the letting go, the transcendence of desires. Desires are the thing that keep you here. Sexual, food, money, these desires are literally the chains that bind me here. That's the whole, or like the major, the primary goal of Enlightenment, to transcend them, to let them go. And it's so difficult. Those impressions are so deep in the mind. So I'm trying, I'm putting baby steps. It will be a long journey, but yeah, it's all about letting go of pleasures of the world, and then you're naturally meditative, and then you can awaken and come back To Heaven. Pleasures = chains that bind to this illusion of death and decay. Letting go of all pleasures = coming back home to infinite Love, God. Baby steps.