softlyblossoming

@Federico del pueblo That's healthy and sounds like good progress.

@Federico del pueblo Who's asking that question? Go look for yourself.

@Nate0068 Another way to frame what it is I am supposedly trying to communicate could be, when asking, "How do I let my ego go in a healthy way?" Responding to ourselves with, "apparently it's not, and..." Spirituality Advice Disclaimer: I am not remotely enlightened. Spirituality Advice Disclaimer Disclaimer: Apparently.

@Nate0068 That's just another story. Here's a technique I use called "that's just another story." When asking, "How do I let my ego go in a healthy way?" Tell yourself that it's just another thought, or story, that came up along the way," and then look for the answer. Likewise, when asking, "Why am I doing this?" We might say to ourselves, "that's just another story that came up along the way," and then maybe we look for the answer. Here are a few examples of other situations when we might want to use this technique: When asking, "Who am I?" We say, "that's just another story that came up along the way," and then we look for the answer. When asking, "Is this really just another story?" We say, "that's just another story that came up along the way," and then we look for the answer. When asking... "It's guess work. It doesn't tell you what to do, it just brutalizes you until you can do it and then you just do it as Nike would say. But that's just another story that came up along the way. No, seriously. Like seriously consider it. And we keep going. And we stay glued as best we can, meaning only that we literally try our very best to do the technique."...we say: "that's just another story that came up along the way," and then we look for the answer. When we, asking, say, "that's just another story that came up along the way," maybe we will look for a new question, but who knows? There is no hope of dying in a healthy way, but only because that's just another thought. But it also actually is a thought, so, yeah. Sorry about that, haha. And consider that maybe even when the teacher says, " ..?" We say, "that's just another thought that came up along the way," and then maybe we will look. "Hope" this helped.

@Federico del pueblo Eventually you will reach a stage where the self will do anything it can to answer those questions. The "problem" will then be trying to solve them with answers, because you won't find any. You can give a shit or you can be satisfied with not knowing. You better not stop asking! Fortunately, there's no stopping when you're at that stage because you just don't feel quite like yourself unless you're doing everything you can to know the answers. Peak Performance, for me, looks and feels like a sort of anti-addiction addiction. It may require incredible self esteem, and suffering and not suffering may lead up the same mountain, but those are just "parts of" another story.

@Federico del pueblo This reads as gold to me. Everything you will ever know is a hamster wheel, apparently haha.

@Federico del pueblo All good, my g. It's a long reply so take as much time as you need. Just sharing what worked for this particular pseudo-self, I suppose . Mu_'s society exercise is definitely worth taking out for a spin round your stickiest limiting beliefs.

@Matthew85 Thank you, man. That's really helpful. I don't have anything more to ask, but just as an update I am generally following what you've suggested, despite the intense hopelessness of swallowing so many bitter pills and, I guess, just of certain times on this path. As depressing and brutalizing as it is, I can't help but feel it is to some degree healthy for me, at this time, to accept painful things. What you've said really resonates with me and it seems intuitively like these are very accurate observations of how the mind, and really this whole thing, works. Yes. Get rid of any negative judgments about staying up late. Interesting how when society views a limiting belief as mental health promoting, I am less likely to question it. If this is the current belief you hold, it will continue to be your experience until a different belief becomes more dominant. Appreciate the lack of sugar-coating. I can only share my personal experience. Suppressing or resisting negative emotions didn't work for me. I could get temporary relief, but they would keep bubbling up. Feeling, releasing and letting go of judgment is what gave me lasting relief. Thank you for bringing this to light. I'm trying to let go of all of my judgements such as to become more self-similar with my idealized self-image of nothing and everything and neither. It depends. When you are denying, are having a negative judgment about it? Or are you allowing it to be what it is? Thank you for bringing this distinction to light. The goal is to get to place of neutrality. If you feel you need to have benevolent thoughts about something, you are still saying there is something wrong with it as it is. Hard truths. Do you like you? It depends on the moment. Sometimes I judge myself to be good, sometimes bad, but always based on limited access to information and some amount of emotional reactivity obscuring what rational analysis is going on. When I'm doing self inquiry (currently attempted 24/7), I try not to hold an opinion of myself because it's a distraction from the question, and any answer to the question ends up being a wild goose chase.

No clue, not enlightened, just throwing in my two cents. I guess "I am"ness is the illusion we're supposed to get rid of (by trying to know how it is I know that "I am", when doing self-inquiry). I assume there is no such thing as subject-object perception, the sensation is the perception of the sensation in an exact 1:1 relationship nondual unity; i.e., perception is 'built in' to the sensation and I've been told that experiencing sensations like this is good progress.

@Matthew85 Thank you, this helped me to get a lot more clarity about what limiting beliefs are and how to overcome them. 1. If I stop thinking thoughts like "I shouldn't be staying up late", does that count as fixing the problem? Yes, I feel this is all I'm capable of receiving because no where that pays more hired me during my job search. My only important goals are really just enlightenment, to be happy now, and for people to like me. 2. I tried this for several hours last week, but the negative emotions didn't get better, they just got worse over time. Fully feeling my emotions without trying to change them right now is a one way ticket to intense suffering, for me. 3. Isn't denying just the combination of letting go and replacing at the same time? 4. Isn't that just defaulting to my automatic judgements (as opposed to consciously selecting a judgement that would be more conducive to feeling benevolent emotions and thinking benevolent thoughts)? I know it's possible, so I will adjust the instructions to "do I feel this is easy for me?" to reveal the limiting beliefs. Thank you again for all your help, Matthew, I'm gonna do that exercise now .

Yes, this works. By not giving them energy they will naturally dissipate. You still need to adopt the new belief's and state though to experience them. @Matthew85 Incredibly clear answer. Amazingly straight-forward advice. Thank you so much for sharing. In the interest of translating my 'actions' into my 'beliefs', would you mind if I gave you a few examples of the actions often at the forefront of my attention, and you help me see what are the limiting beliefs sourcing them? I always stay up too late and never go to bed at a regular time. I don't pursue higher education and I work for barely above minimum wage. I spend almost all of my free time trying to expend the minimum effort possible to become enlightened as soon as possible, but without using psychedelics to do it (illegal) by listening to, taking notes of and conversing with enlightenment teachers. My current spiritual practice is to deny the automatic labelling/believing of any sensations as anything but the one quality I wish to see everywhere I look and to embody through-and-through — "happily befriending" — hence, I do not allow any sensations of suffering to arise by immediately denying their reality as anything but the adorable ever-deepening happy friendship between us; and then, when the Self does anything (aka happily befriend itself non-stop), to ask myself "who is observing happily befriending?" and happily befriend how it is that I know that "I am"; in other-words, to happily befriend the knowing of how it is that I know that I am observing happily befriending. I do this whenever I remember, ideally around the clock. I try to use the minimal effort I can so that I never stop practicing due to burn-out. The first draft I wrote of the first half of my spiritual practice was shared here, in the style of my self-talk when I am frustratedly depressed, if you'd like to take a look at it or give me any advice on how to make it more effective for my goal which is to feel good now, embody my highest value and one true lifelong dream of being friends with everyone, as well as 'achieve' spiritual enlightenment ASAP. @The0Self Did I understand good, your nobleship? @Inliytened1 W-what do you think of my p-practice? Am I gonna wake up? D-do I need to sleep gooder to g-g-get a-a-awoke?!

Enlightenment to me is the moment Infinity/God, after getting lost in its own mind, has the realization that it is in fact God. Small self drops. You have talked about it in some of your posts. @Inliytened1 I expect that I have already had this realization on an intellectual level. When I do self inquiry, should I just notice anything the small self 'does' and ask myself "who is observing this doing?"

@ChrisZoZo implying Nahm has any power left over his actions XP

@softlyblossoming You don't need to find them all. Just align your current thoughts, belief's and state with what you desire to experience. Keep doing that until it becomes dominant and you will see your reality begin to change to reflect it. @Matthew85 This is basically the foundation of my whole spiritual practice at the moment, funnily enough. The third question was serious too, I wasn't just playing devil's advocate, but I see why it might have come across that way. I think you answered it well enough with this reply though. I usually just try to ignore limiting beliefs by focusing on something else until they go away because I'm a lazy Buddhist hahaha. Thanks for your answer!

@Matthew85 What if I don't know what they are? How do I find out? And why not just chuck out the negative thoughts about the belief to feel good now?

@ChrisZoZo Look with your 3D lateral looking goggles.

@ChrisZoZo I'll let him answer as it's bad karma to put words in the mouth of such a master as Nahm. Intellectual understanding gets a bad rep, but it's not so bad. That said, reminders from a master as to where to look are also not so bad.

Are you asking? @Nahm funny non-duality answer pretty please

What appears as ‘definitions’. @Nahm the serious answer is the most hilarious funny guy

@Inliytened1 Thank you, this has all been very very very helpful to my practice and intellectual understanding. I've glimpsed non-duality, but probably it was very minor low level stuff.

Love this, and nice gif. Masculine/feminine is the most widely accepted, predominating axis of development. However, to reduce everything to that axis would be closed minded and offensive to people with genders that straight up just don't exist on that axis (umbrella terms you may have heard for members of these demographics include genderqueer, gender variant, gender non-conforming, and third gender). Masculine/feminine is therefore neither the starting nor ending point for all genders, but it probably is for most genders. I don't know what 'basic' is supposed to mean in this context. Hope everyone's enjoying their weekends

@Matthew85 Cool, sounds mental-health promoting

@Illusory Self Forget about it and focus on something wholesome instead. Here's an easy moron-proof method I just got faxed by The Lord Buddha. It works under all conditions, every single time, no matter how you feel or what’s on your mind. You don't have to use your brain, exert effort, think thoughts, take deep breaths, release tension in the shoulders/upper back or be mindful, and you probably don't even need to be a primate. You could teach this to a goldfish and he’d get it. In fact, it may be helpful to imagine yourself as a goldfish while you try this. Orient attention to happiness/inner-peace/befriending/equipoise/satisfyingness/love/acceptance/forgiveness (or a wholesome quality of your own choosing). No wrong answers are possible because attention already recognises what this quality feels like, and once directed, the mind will automatically imagine it. You may find it helpful to playfully prod the mind in some particular direction, like the ‘nature’ or ‘essence’ of your quality. Besides, you know for a fact that this is the only game in town, so just aim the mind towards what it (and like every other living organism) innately truly desires. Continually re-orient attention to your selected wholesome quality by literally just seeing every arising sensation as that quality. No concessions, if something’s in awareness, we don't give a flying f*** about the who what when where how, it’s dumbass life story, what it “”””actually”””” is or any of the details: it ? is ? seen ? as ? your ? quality ? period. You can’t fail because as soon as failure happens you’ve noticed it and replaced the label ‘failure’ with your quality. Doubt does ? not ? exist ? to you, because doubt is not your selected wholesome quality. Tip: do select ‘befriending’ or something in this vein to max out the wholesomeness levels. “But x/y/z…”: Brain dead brute force AKA “just do it.” Repeat steps one and two until serotonin.

@The0Self