RickyFitts

One spiritual teacher whose teachings I found tremendously useful when I was having a really hard time emotionally was Jon Bernie, his teachings tend to deal much more with our moment-to-moment felt experience: I've got both of his books, 'Ordinary Freedom' and 'The Unbelievable Happiness of What Is', and think both are excellent, and his podcasts have been archived here if his teachings interest you.

Oh wow, what an amazing pic

Speaking of instrumentals, you might like these two:

Ooh interesting, never heard of that but I'll have to give it a listen, thanks for the recommendation! The album that comes to mind for me is 'Kid A' by Radiohead, it was voted #1 stoner album of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, and y'know what, having listened to it whilst high I can completely understand why Love you too, darl

That's my sense of it too, I can't pretend to know where she's coming from exactly but she does strike me as being authentic. I think she's wonderful, actually, even if what she says doesn't really mean anything to me right now. She does appear at times to be slightly mental, but that's just me projecting I should think. Thing about it is, it seems to me that the only people who'd understand what she's talking about are people who've had the same realisations that she's had, whilst to everyone else it isn't going to mean anything - so what's the point in even talking about it? Reminds me of a quote, not sure if I've got the wording exactly right but it goes something like this: 'To those who know, no explanation is needed; to those who don't know, no explanation is possible'.

@greatoldtrees That was a heck of a first post, packed full of wisdom - thank you so much for sharing

When I've examined my own addictive tendencies, I've seen pretty quickly that they're an attempt to avoid something, all right - namely, myself. I wouldn't have realised this, though, if I hadn't examined my behaviour more closely.

Don't worry about how it will - or might - come across, just have the courage to follow what your inner guidance is telling you to do. Don't allow your choices to be guided by emotions like guilt or fear. And never lose sight of the fact, darling Vzdoh, that your needs matter, too.

Mate, why don't you just ask her?

@Marcel Cheers buddy, I'll have a look

It's also morally unjustifiable.

I'm a big fan of the spiritual teacher Amoda Maa Jeevan, if you've heard of her, and her latest podcast is on the subject of relationships in the context of awakening - figured you might find it useful, so I'll share it here:

I don't think this situation is workable at the moment, to be honest, I think you probably need to remove yourself from it altogether - maybe he needs that, maybe your absence will cause him to reconsider his priorities in life.

I guess you could call this sheer egotism on my part, given that my name happens to be Daniel

Don't forget yourself, be aware of anything that might be triggered in you - fear, frustration, despair, or whatever it may be - in response to her behaviour, and let those feelings go. Be her calm, steadfast rock.

@Marcel I for one would love to read what you wrote down

I think you're just a very heart-centred person, which is *looks in thesaurus* - no, fuck it, I'm just going to say it - beautiful

What an absolute sweetheart you are, I certainly shall if anything comes to mind!

Good stuff, I think that's a good idea Consistency of practice is obviously very important, you get out of it what you put in. It's the willingness to relax as much as anything, because when certain emotions and sensations do start to arise, your body's liable to instinctively go into resistance - that's just how the majority of us tend to be conditioned to behave, we're basically taught from a young age by the people around us to repress our emotions, and it becomes habitual and unconscious after a while. It's just a question of becoming conscious of that inner resistance, noticing when your body becomes tight and tense and allowing the resistance to release, and then allowing your body to breathe freely.

That's wonderful, glad it's been so beneficial for you

Love your honesty and self-awareness, Esilda, so beautiful (I keep calling everything beautiful just recently, I really must dig out my thesaurus). I love that you share it here, too, makes it easier for me to accept when I feel shame, self-hatred, etc. after I've posted something on this forum and find myself wishing I'd kept my big, dumb mouth closed.

In the immortal words of that great sage Tina Turner, what's love got to do, got to do with it?

@tsuki Agree on all counts - particularly this bit:

'Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you truly love.' - Rumi