RickyFitts

Really? Didn't know he had all these health issues, poor guy.?

I was wondering if it was connected in some way to his cycling, I know that he was pushing himself so hard at one point that he ended up laid up in bed for six months on a couple of occasions, completely debilitated.

When I was suffering with severe, debilitating anxiety and depression, I was all too aware of what I could and couldn't handle, believe me. And anyone trying to cajole me into doing something I couldn't handle would have been given very short shrift.

@Yimpa If there's one thing I've learnt during my own very difficult process, it's the importance of having compassion for myself and honouring my needs, rather than forcing myself to do things that I can't currently handle. Best of luck overcoming your issues, brother.?

It's a question I've asked myself many times. In the end, though, I know that there's no going back, I can't un-see what I've seen. It can feel both incredibly frustrating, and also utterly terrifying when you start to get a sense of what full awakening entails, but deep down I just feel like it's unavoidable. The awakening process is incredibly challenging for lots of people, because it means waking up to everything that's out of alignment in your life, and it means you have to work through all the unresolved fear, grief, anger, etc., within yourself. People often try to figure out ways around it, but in the end you see that there isn't a way around it.

It's no great mystery, the Buddha wasn't proclaiming himself the saviour of humanity. The Jesus story is the egotist's wet dream.

Certainly can do, it sure did for me. Maybe more of an issue for men, we do tend to bottle things up more than women.

Maybe the hardest thing, I've found, is being honest with ourselves about how we really feel, because so many of us have become so conditioned to repress our emotions, and actually fear our emotions, that we really don't know how we feel, deep down, underneath any negativity we may be feeling. For me, this is the area where most people need to do the bulk of the inner work, so keeping an emotions journal could be beneficial for a lot of people, it could help them to become aware of and then release emotions that may have been trapped in their systems for a long time.

You can just manually delete the bits you don't want to quote, as though you were editing your own post.

@Judy2 I can relate to that to a painful extent, I completely understand that mindset.

I had this issue when I was suffering with chronic anxiety a few years back, I realised after a while of observing myself closely that it was my mind's unconscious attempt to deal with strong, unresolved emotions - it's a dysfunctional coping strategy that I probably developed from a very young age. I really had to develop sensitivity in my body in order to overcome this issue.

Think my brain just short-circuited.

I thought what he shared was very heartfelt, and I was deeply touched by his humility. I've felt for a while now that Leo's been on a slippery slope, and I quite honestly didn't believe that he was capable of writing a blog post like that, but it seems that his deep suffering has helped him to grow as a human being, and that speaks volumes about his character. It takes a big person to hold their hands up and admit to their shortcomings, and to do so in such a public way just makes it all the more admirable. @Leo Gura Wishing you all the best, I know just how lonely and painful life can feel so hopefully you're doing a little better now.

I know loss of motivation is an issue for a lot of people after their initial awakening and I thought this was a very helpful video, so I figured I'd share it here:

A couple of general tips: 1. If it's comfortable for you to do so, sit up on a cushion or folded-up blanket so that your hips are above the level of your knees, I've found that this helps me to breathe more freely and sit more comfortably. Being as physically comfortable as possible is important, there's no value in sitting in a stress position for an extended period of time (it may actually lead to injury). 2. See if you can notice a particular point of tension in your body (for example, for me at the moment it's in the solar plexus/chest region), and just rest your attention there and breathe from that area of your body, wherever it is. You might start to notice the arising of certain emotions and/or sensations as you do this, which is completely normal - just notice them and keep allowing your body to breathe.

Maybe 'assume' is the wrong word, it's more that there's a sense of there being a self that's perceiving the events in the dream. Which is carried over from the waking state. Mm... I've been trying to wrap my head around this sort of thing for years, tbh, I think maybe I just need to admit defeat already. Thanks for elaborating, though, I appreciate it.

Interesting question. I exist as the one who perceives the events in the dream. I don't actually think about my existence in the dream, I guess it's just assumed - events are being perceived, so there must be someone who's perceiving them.

I can definitely relate, unfortunately. There's often a lot of lingering anger and resentment between family members, and if there's one thing I've learnt from observing my own inner state, it's that that sort of negativity tends to harden the heart, which makes us feel numb and disconnected. It's something that's been a huge issue for me personally, I've worked a lot on re-establishing a connection with my body and emotions but I still find it really tough, and it affects my relationships with others in such a profound way.

You have to see your human condition in the right context, namely that we've evolved to be social creatures and belonging to a group has been critical to our survival - this need to belong is deeply ingrained in the human psyche, and so on some level we feel like our very existence is threatened if we're cut off from everyone else. This is visceral, biological, and the only way to truly move past it is to become intimate with that fear, to become conscious of the instinctive resistance in yourself and to allow that to release. But that resistance is so deeply rooted that it isn't just going to release overnight, and the underlying fear may recede and then re-emerge for some time, so you do need to be patient, and you do need to have a willingness to allow the arising of uncomfortable sensations and strong emotions like terror and grief.

Couldn't have said it better myself.?

I don't think it is, actually, I think it answers the question very well. It's just that it's very nuanced and, as it says, paradoxical, and therefore it isn't something that can really be explained in a sentence or two.

@Danioover9000 @LSD-Rumi Yeah, thinking about it, the poaching of members from this forum is a definite banning offence, given Leo's zero-tolerance stance on the issue.

Was Nahm ever actually banned? I know he lost his moderator status because Leo lost patience with his repetitive, cryptic schtick (Leo wasn't the only one, tbf), but I thought he just saw his arse over it and decided to leave the forum altogether, I didn't think he actually got banned.