RickyFitts

@Natasha Love it ?

@VeganAwake Ugh, no offence but you always come across to me as the worst kind of neo-advaitist fundamentalist. No different from any other sort of religious fundamentalist, you just seem to spew dogmatic rhetoric.

@Natasha Ahh, love that Matt Kahn quote - so, so true ?

If God is all-seeing and all-knowing, shouldn't you know what to do now?

@Preety_India Glad to hear it

@Preety_India Bless you, thanks - I'm doing well, hope you're well too

Love this ?

This is fantastic, Brandon, thanks for sharing (Your cat making an appearance was a nice bonus, too )

Ah, okay. Thank God indeed.

@Abc109 Your post might have been deleted when the forum crashed over the weekend, a lot of posts went missing as a result of that.

'Every time you turn away from or deny what is here in your heart, you add to the darkness of the world because you are divided within. Every time you deeply accept or open to what is here in your heart, you set the world alight because you are radiant with an inner oneness. You are the cause of war and peace in the world, because the world is inseparable from who you are as consciousness.' - Amoda Maa Jeevan

Just read the following article on the subject of accessing an intelligence that's far deeper than that of the thinking mind and thought it was very good, so figured I'd share it here for other like-minded people (it's by a spiritual teacher called Amoda Maa Jeevan, who still appears to be relatively obscure, but I think her teachings on spiritual transformation are excellent): A Deeper Intelligence A list of all her articles can be found here (I thought this one on emptying your vessel was also very good).

Hehe, you and me both! I love what you say here though, I think you've summed it up perfectly

'To rest in silence, to know yourself as silence, and to move from silence .. this is the path of the true warrior.' - Amoda Maa Jeevan

When your desire to be free is strong enough. Because it's the truth alone that sets you free, even if it's scary and painful.

@Natasha Interesting, I've heard Rupert Spira talking about that but never really thought of it as a definition of enlightenment - but that does make a lot of sense

@Gianna @Raptorsin7 I've struggled with those feelings too - big thing for me personally was becoming very aware in my body, becoming very intimate with those feelings of shame, guilt, fear (etc., etc.!), noticing exactly how they manifest in the body. I've found in my own experience that those sorts of feelings arise from a place of inner resistance, so you have to make that inner resistance conscious and then allow it to release in its own time. These patterns of resistance can be very stubborn and ingrained, though, and releasing them can unleash all sorts of strong emotions (eg upset, rage, despair, hopelessness), so it can take a lot of time and dedication. A formal meditation practice can be very useful if you don't already have one, as can physical practices like yoga and qi gong.

This thread brings to mind a quote by Amoda Maa Jeevan that I saw a little while back: I know that when I've examined my own addictive compulsions, I've found this to be the case. So the solution is simple, in theory at least: In the moments that you feel the yourself craving something, stop and face your discomfort. But like I say, it's only simple in theory - it tends to be rather more tricky in reality, because our instinct tends to be to shrink from discomfort, to seek relief (and it's this tendency, as I say, which is at the root of addiction). But it's like anything, it gets easier with practice.

Super-helpful information, thanks for posting @Gianna

@Loving Radiance Ah yeah, of course. I know I've had that issue before with videos being unavailable, I thought there was a slightly simpler way to find out what the video was but I don't think there is.

Or you could just click on where it says 'watch on youtube' in the bottom left-hand corner.